Trust accounts must be reconciled to the last day of the calendar month, every month, within 14 days of the last day of the month.
For larger firms, it may be practical to reconcile more frequently, for example weekly.
To reconcile select the trust icon, the red courthouse, from the top menu bar.
From the trust register, select the 'Bank Rec' button.
The 1st trust bank reconciliation screen will appear. From here:
- Select the correct account to be reconciled
- Verify the opening balance on Wise Owl Legal agrees with the opening balance on the bank statement
- Enter the closing date and closing bank balance from the bank statement
- Select Begin Reconciliation.
The bank reconciliation screen displays:
- all cheques and payments that have not previously been reconciled, on the left hand side
- all receipts and credits that have not previously been reconciled, on the right hand side
- a summary of the cleared transactions
From here the user works from a printed bank statements and reconciles what movements have occurred within the trust bank account and what has been recorded in Wise Owl Legal.
A transaction can be reconciled by clicking the transaction line or by using the space bar.
Transactions can be sorted by date, transaction, ref #, amount and cleared. Using a combination of 'sort by' filters can be most effective in the reconciliation process.
Whilst the default 'sort by' is date, sorting by date alone can be problematic as trust cheques are not usually written on the same day as they are presented to the bank. To overcome this it may be useful to 'sort by' Ref # or amount.
XX Explain the sigma
If applicable enter the transaction reference number, cheque or receipt number, to not only assist with matching up the adjustment next month, but also for the auditing process.
XXX What has to be entered as negatives?
At any point the bank reconciliation can be closed by selecting the 'Back to Trust Register' button. All transactions are saved at this point, allowing the bank reconciliation to be later resumed at its current state.
Be sure to thoroughly check the bank reconciliation report before rolling to the next period. Before finalising the reconciliation check for:
- Reversal transactions, ensuring they are checked off against the original entry
- Stale cheques, cancel and re-issue if necessary
- Outstanding adjustment for the previous month have been cleared
The 'Complete Reconciliation' button is only available when the bank statement balance is in agreement with the calculated closing balance on Wise Owl Legal.
