Trust Accounting - New Adjustment

As we don’t live in a perfect world, the bank reconciliation isn’t going to be perfect every time. Therefore it is necessary to create adjustments to ensure the bank’s records balance against the records in Wise Owl Legal.

We use the functionality of an adjustment in the Bank Reconciliation to deal with these scenarios. As with all trust transactions, once an adjustment has been finalised, you cannot change the adjustment. You can, however reverse it if necessary.

For specific situations, See: What adjustment do I enter for Trust receipts entered after the reconciliation date?

For general information about how to enter a new bank adjustment, keep reading.

To enter a new Bank Adjustment, select the black Enter Adjustment button on the bank reconciliation screen.

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Wise Owl Legal software has made adjustments easy, by having a pre-existing list of adjustments to choose from, spell out in layman’s terms.

The adjustments relate to the keywords. The list of adjustments, and additional information, is detailed below.

Most of the adjustments will put in a negative or positive as needed for the type you choose EXCEPT the None of the above option - if you use this option, you need to enter it as negative or positive in the amount field yourself.

1. There is money deposited into my account that I have not yet processed
   
   

   • This is the most common type of adjustment and usually occurs because of the trust accounting regulation that states that trust receipts cannot be backdated

   • The date is the date the money was physically received by the firm (in the case of direct deposits, this is the date the funds appear on the bank statement)

   • The description is what the funds are for. E.g. professional fees

   • The Txn Ref is the receipt number for the transaction, when it has been processed. 

   • The matter ref is the matter number the funds relate if
     
     

2. There is an error on my bank statement that the BANK will put BACK INTO my account
   
   

3. There is an error on my bank statement that the BANK will TAKE OUT of my account
   
   

4. There is money taken out of my account that the FIRM will PUT BACK
   
   

5.  A Trust Payment was presented for LESS than our records
   
   

6.  A Trust Payment was presented for MORE than our records
   
   

7. A Trust Payment has been entered in my Bank Account that I will fix next month
   
   

8.  Money deposited was MORE than the receipt we wrote – Firm will receipt
   
   

9.  Money deposited was for LESS than the receipt we wrote – Firm will deposit more
   
   

10.  Deposit for General was put into trust – bank will correct
    
    

11.  Deposit for General was put into trust – we will receipt and process correction
    
    

12. None of the above describes my problem

When in the adjustment screen, this list can be brought up by pressing the down arrow on your keyboard. 

After entering an adjustment, you can tick this off in place of the transaction on the bank statement.

Please ensure that you resolve any transactions that need to be entered asap as the adjustments are only intended to be temporary and will need to be ticked off against the 'proper' trust transaction in the next reconciliation.