How do I prepare for a Trust Audit?

Owned by Karen McDonald
Last updated: Jun 02, 2023 by Gemma Heidemann
3 min read

Every year, every Trust Account will get audited progressively from 1 April through to 31 May. 
The Queensland Law Society can also decide to audit the Trust Account at other times of the year upon their discretion.

This page will assist you in getting ready for an audit including what reports to run and how to run them.
Please note that this is a guide only and it is up to the user to ensure they have all required documentation prepared for their audit. 

You can also find more generic information about auditing at Auditing and Digital Paper Trail

Reports Required & How to run them

Monthly

Throughout the year, you will have needed to keep a record of all your monthly trust reports including:

  • Bank Reconciliation Report

  • Trust Cash Receipts by Date

  • Trust Payments by Date

  • Trial Balance

  • Trust Matter Ledger

  • Trust Matter Transfers

These can be located within Wise Owl Legal by going to Reports > Trust Reports and selecting the relevant report from the list.
The dates for these will default to the last month's dates but can be overridden when required.

 Whole Year Reports

At the end of the Trust Year (after the the 31 March Bank Reconciliation is finalised), you will need to run the following reports for the whole trust year.
That is from 1 April previous year to 31 March this year.

  •  Trust Cash Receipts by Date

  • Trust Payments by Date

  • Trial Balance

  • Trust Matter Ledger

  • Trust Matter Overdrawn

  • Trust Stale Balance

Again, these reports can be located within Wise Owl Legal by going to Reports > Trust Reports and selecting the relevant report from the list.
Depending on the report you open will change the dates automatically selected. Simply change them to the desired date range you want to search for and search. 

Questions to Answer / Auditor Support

Here is a list of regular questions you may need to answer or other items you may need to provide at request from your auditor, or in the forms required for audit.

Question

Answer

Link

Question

Answer

Link

Where can I find my version number?

 

 

Is a record kept of all changes (by creation, amendment or deletion) to:
Client Name, Client Address, Matter Reference, Matter Description, Ledger Account Number

AND

Is the record retained by the law practice?

Yes - Please see the Matter Change Log report available under Reports > Trust > Audit > Matter Change log

<yourfirm>.wols.com.au/Reports/Matterchangelog?reportId=108
E.g. https://demo.wols.com.au/Reports/MatterChangeLog?reportId=78

Does the program accept an entry of a transaction resulting in a debit balance to any ledger account?

Yes

 

Is a report of any entries resulting in a debit balance to any ledger account produced?

Yes - Please see Trust Matter Overdrawn report available under Reports > Trust > Audit > Trust Matter Overdrawn

<yourfirm>.wols.com.au/Reports/TrustMatterOverdrawn?reportId=79

e.g. https://demo.wols.com.au/Reports/TrustMatterOverdrawn?reportId=79

Does the program allow the deletion of a trust account ledger if there:

  • is a balance on the ledger?

  • are unpresented cheques relating to the ledger?

No - This would cause significant issues if you could delete a matter with money in it. As such, Wise Owl does not allow the deletion of trust ledgers.

 

Are copies of deleted ledgers retained in permanent form?

Not applicable – All trust records are logged in the Audit Logging in the software.

Trust audit logs are extensive.

<yourfirm>.wols.com.au/Audit/Search

E.g. https://demo.wols.com.au/Audit/Search

Instructions for use on how to search the audit log are available at Audit - Search

Are the entries in records produced in permanent form in chronological sequence

Yes - Wise Owl produces records with chronologically numbering

 

Are pages of printed reports numbered sequentially?

Yes - Wise Owl produces reports numbered sequentially

 

Are entries already recorded capable of being amended otherwise than by a transaction separately recorded?

No - Any changes to a records alrady entered is required to reversed and redone.  The system creates a separate reversal entry.

 

Is a back-up copy of all records made at least once per month?

Yes - Wise Owl Legal does daily and monthly backup of the system.   We encourage users to print their trust cash books and ledgers to .pdf every month.

 

Is the most recent back-up copy kept in a separate location so that any incident that may adversely affect the records would not also affect the back-up copy?

Yes -  The system backups are separated by AWS Amazon.  The client’s .pdf backups are kept in their file storage, which we encourage them to back up separately

 

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