Many mediators request funds to be deposited into their trust account prior to the mediation date.
If no funds are entered into Trust, then you would be able to have 1 matter and use the Multi-Party option when entering the client.
However, if Trust funds are received, you will need to have 2 matters in SILQ in order to be compliant with Trust Account rules.
To give you an example, you are mediating for Joe Blogs & Jane Smith.
First you create a matter for Joe Blogs, where Joe is the client. The description could be titled Mediation for Joe Blogs & Jane Smith (or something similar that can be used as the same description for Jane Smith's matter to link the 2 matters).
Next you create a matter for Jane Smith, where Jane is the client and enter the description as Mediation for Joe Blogs & Jane Smith.
Now that you have 2 separate matters, you can request each party to deposit funds separately into your Trust account and record appropriately.
When Invoicing, if you are on SILQ Solicitor Expert plan, you could you the split time entries feature where you can add the full amount of the mediation cost to Joe's matter for example, and then split that 50/50 with Jane's matter. SILQ will do the calculation for you and enter the second entry in Jane's matter.
If you are on SILQ Solicitor Expand, you can simply work out what each party will need to pay and enter that as a time entry or fixed fee in each matter.
E.g. if the total cost for mediation is $3,000, then you would go into Joe's matter and add a time entry of $1,500 and do the same for Jane.
When it comes time to invoice, you will be invoicing each party separately from their own matters.
Given each party has their own matter, SILQ can then apply any trust funds to the invoices. E.g. If Joe has $800 in Trust, his invoice will say:
$1500
Less $800 in Trust
$700 outstanding
If Jane has $1500 in Trust, her invoice will say that the outstanding balance is $0.