Recording money received into trust, and the balance brought forward

Every amount of client money that lands in the trust account is recorded on that client's ledger. You can record deposits one at a time, as below, or import the trust bank statement and allocate many at once.

Two things before you can record anything

Until both exist the Move client money panel lists them: add the bank account client money is kept in, and open a ledger for the client whose money is being held (New client ledger, top right).

Recording one deposit

• •Open Money held for clients and go to Move client money.
• •Choose the Account (the trust bank account) and the Client fund (the client's ledger).
• •Set What happened to Money received for a client.
• •Enter the Date the money reached the bank (the date on the bank statement), the Amount and a Description such as "Deposit received".
• •If the ledger has an open deposit request, check Answers deposit request.
• •Press Record it.

When the client paid against a fee note by mistake

If you go to record a payment on a fee note and the money was really a deposit, answer It's a deposit into trust. You land on Money held for clients with the client, the amount and the date filled in, under "Recording a deposit into trust." Check the account and press Record it. The fee note is not marked paid.

Money you held before you started: the balance brought forward

A firm moving to Bala already holds money for clients. Bring each client's balance in once, as at the day you start:

• •Pick a start date — usually the last day of a month you have reconciled in your old system.
• •For each client with money held, open a ledger, then record Money received for a client dated that start date, for that client's balance, with the Description "Balance brought forward".
• •Check the top of the page: Owed to clients should equal the total of your old client ledgers, and Client money in bank should equal the trust bank balance on the start date.
• •Record everything after the start date as it happens, or import the statements from the day after.

A ledger opened today for money that arrived earlier is the ordinary case for a firm moving in: the ledger's opening date moves back to meet its first money, so the client's statement never says it opened after its first entry.

Common mistakes

• •Dating a deposit by the day you typed it instead of the day the bank received it. Use the statement date, or the reconciliation will not agree.
• •Bringing in one lump balance on one ledger for all clients. Each client's balance goes on that client's ledger.
• •Recording the same deposit twice — once by hand and again from the imported statement. The import marks lines already on the books; leave those out.