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Cheque Details

EFT Details

EFT and Bank Txn Ref

Overdraws

Reversing a Trust Payment

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enter
enter
Entering a Trust Payment

Step 1: Go to your Trust Accounting Register by clicking on the red courthouse icon, from the top menu bar. 

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Step 2: From the Trust Accounting register, select the Trust Payment button

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Step 3: Fill out the fields on the Trust Payment - See information on each field below.

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Fields
Fields
Fields:

TOP HALF OF TRUST PAYMENT

Account: Make sure the account selected is where the funds to be drawn are currently in. 

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chq
chq
Chq #: The cheque number should align with the law firm's physical cheque book and should be manually changed. However, if funds are being paid by methods other than cheque then it is recommended that there is a second numbering series for this. For example the physical trust cheques may follow a number series from 00001 - 99999 (corresponding to the cheque numbers in the cheque book) whilst payments by EFT follow the number series of EFT1 - EFT9999.  

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EFT
EFT
EFT Only Fields:     

  • EFT Payee Details: These details are the information you are using the make the EFT transfer from your bank account. Some jurisdictions require this to be mandatory and it is set up to be mandatory by default in the settings.

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Info

 If your jurisdiction does not require these details to be entered, please contact the Wise Owl Help desk to change your settings

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  • Ref #: This is the EFT Payment Reference number. It will pull the next number in your EFT Trust payment series. 

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  • Bank Txn #: This is the Bank Transaction Reference or ID. Once you have finalised your trust payment, you can enter in the Bank Transaction ID when you enter the transfer to your bank account.

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  • This allows you to match the bank transaction to your Trust EFT payment with the number provided by the bank. 

  • Date: The date the cheque is being written or EFT Payment is being made.

  • Amount (Top half of screen):  This is the total amount of the cheque or EFT payment.

Info

If your firm is permitted to use EFT payments, you will see a toggle to change to an EFT payment.

Please set this first before entering any details of the trust payment.

If you don’t see a button to toggle to EFT payments, please turn this feature on in system settings or contact us.

We recommend you choose the EFT radio button before entering any data.

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BOTTOM HALF OF TRUST PAYMENT

  • Matter:  Please search and select the matter that the payment is being made for. You can enter multiple lines for different matters as needed

  • For (description):  This will copy the 'For' down from the top half of the payment but can also be entered manually for additional information

  • Ext Ref #:  This is for any external reference numbers applicable to the payment e.g. if you are paying an invoice of a Barrister, you can put the Invoice number in the Ext Ref #.

  • Amount (bottom half of screen):  This is the amount of the payment that is relevant to the matter on that line. 

  • Matter Balance: This will automatically update once you have entered the amount and will show the matter balance after this payment is finalised.

Step 4: After entering all of the relevant fields above, check your data. Then you can click on the Finalise and Print payment on the bottom left of the page.

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Click on the Trust reference number to re-open and look at your trust payment.

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This message only appears for EFT Payments and is a reminder to enter in the bank transaction reference once you have compelted the transfer in your online banking.

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To enter in the bank reference number, click on the Trust payment reference number. This will open the EFT Payment.

Then click on the Bank Txn # field. This will open a pop up for you to update the number.

This is the only change allowed on a finalise trust payment

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If you do not wish to have this message continue to appear, it can be turned off in the Appliance Settings under the trust heading.

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overdraw
overdraw
Overdraws

Under legislation surrounding trust accounting in Australia - matters may not be overdrawn in their own right. Therefore if a trust payment will result in a matter having a negative trust balance, an error message will appear. 

If you have the authority to enter this transaction, you will be able to enter your name and password and finalise the payment.

Note

Please only do this if you understand the consequences and legislative impacts of Overdrawing a matter or account.

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Reversing a Trust Payment

A transaction is locked once entered. Any attempt to change the transaction MUST NOT change the original transaction. A request for a change must create a new transaction, that has the effect of reversing the original transaction. 

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