The trust tab, accessible under The Practice, encompasses all functionality for running and managing trust, investment and controlled money accounts in ContactsLaw. This includes banking, managing the distribution of funds between files and generating appropriate financial reports. Access to the tab should be limited (using permissions) to practicioners who are authorised to administer the account(s).
The functionality on the tab is broken down into the following views:
- Bank - Lists and summaries transactions on the trust account(s) and provides access to banking activities. New accounts can be created from here. This is typically for the purpose of processing and depositing rather than modifying transactions, which is governed by strict regulations.
- Trust journals - Shows the movement of funds between files within a given period, as well as providing the means to post new trust journals.
- As effective - Orders the journal entries by the date on which they take effect (the transaction date).
- As recorded - Orders the journal entries by the date on which they were recorded, showing the journal entry number for each record.
- Suspense - Lists and allows the management of suspense activity on the trust account(s). This is effectively a view of the trust suspense file.
- Trial balance - Lists all files with a trust balance as at a particular date, with filters to show targeted sets of files.
- Reconciliation - Lists the reconciliations that have been performed on trust accounts and provides the starting point for a new reconciliation.
- Transit cheques - Shows the transit cheques held on a specific date, or within a certain period. Shows when cheques were subsequently released.
- Controlled money - Akin to the general trial balance, this listing shows all controlled money accounts, their related files and balances as at a particular date.
- Audit tools - Provides a set of reports which are designed to mirror the record-keeping requirements set out by the regulations governing trust accounts:
- Audit log - Displays a log of the creation, modification and removal of information comprising the title of each file's trust account.
- Receipts - The trust account receipts cash book, showing receipts (ordered by date-of-issue), showing whether the received date differs from the issued date, receipt numbers and the particulars of each receipt.
- Deposits - The trust account receipts cash book, showing bank deposits (ordered by banking date), showing the particulars of each bank deposit.
- Cheques - The trust account payments cash book, showing cheques (ordered by the date paid), whether the contact who receives the benefit of the payment differs from the payee, and the particulars of each cheque.
- EFTs - The trust account payments cash book, showing EFTs (ordered by the date paid), whether the contact who receives the benefit of the payment differs from the payee, and the particulars of each funds transfer. You can optionally include bank cheque transactions in this report.
- Powers - The register of powers and estates, showing powers recorded on trust receipts, details of the donor and the power, as well as the amount subject to the power.
- Estates - The register of powers and estates, showing trust receipts recorded with respect to a deceased estate. The contact, date of death and particulars of the receipt are shown.
- Overdrawals - Shows any transactions which result in a negative balance on the trust account for a particular file. Also displayed is the balance after each transaction.
The day-to-day operations involving the trust account(s) are conducted using activities and tasks, rather than via the trust tab. The features here are used mainly at the end of a reconciliation or trust accounting period, or as a means to correct errors in transactions. |