In the Accounts ribbon click ‘New’ in the Reconciliation section and choose the trust account ledger from the drop-down
Type in the closing balance of the trust account at the bank
Click ‘Browse’ and navigate to the location of the downloaded file from the bank, select it and click ‘Open’
Click ‘Import’
Reconcile the trust transactions. Tick the transactions on the bank side (top) and the OneLaw (trust entries) side (bottom)
Tick transactions one by one or tick the top box to select all transactions. If the transactions balance between the top section and the bottom section, the Reconcile button in the middle of the screen will highlight, tick this to reconcile the selected transactions.
The transactions will be removed from this tab, view the Reconciled trust transactions in the Reconciled tab. The Commit button is greyed out until all transactions are reconciled.
NOTE: Match transactions either one at a time or in batches to reconcile. The Reconcile button will not highlight if the transactions don’t equal to the same total between the two sections.
NOTE: If more transactions from either the top (bank) or bottom (trust) are selected and the totals match (for example one payment out of bank to two payments posted in OneLaw) when reconcile is selected, a warning will appear. Select ‘Yes’ to reconcile or ‘No’ to check the transactions.
Receipts can be posted from within the Bank Reconciliation screen. To do this, select the transactions in the bank section (top half) and click ‘Create Matching Receipt.’ This will open a Trust Receipt window. The Date, Amount and Funds Type fields will auto-populate from the details for the credit. Complete the other details and post the receipt as usual.
The example below shows how to create a matching receipt from within the bank reconciliation.
If there is a bank entry with no matching trust entry, and there are no details to create a matching receipt, there is a provision to create an adjusting entry to complete the bank reconciliation for the day being reconciled. This will enable that bank entry to be carried forward to the next day’s bank reconciliation.
Any adjusted bank transactions will continue to show in the bank reconciliation for consecutive days until a trust receipt is completed.
Rules
- While a reconciliation is still “in progress” it can be deleted, and you can start again
- You can close a reconciliation at any time, and it will remain in progress until you click the commit button – at that point it is finalised and cannot be deleted
- Do not commit the bank reconciliation for the trust account until you have completed the IBD reconciliation and both are ready to commit
- Do not create a blank bank reconciliation without first checking at the bank to confirm that there are no items to import for that day. Even if you haven’t posted anything to that bank ledger, still check as an outside entity could have deposited funds without your knowledge