Follow these steps to reconcile your trust account(s) in ProTrust with your monthly bank statement. It is recommended that you reconcile all of your trust accounts monthly since it becomes more difficult to isolate problem transactions the farther back in time you must go to find them. Overview of Steps: Step 1. 1 Print a Missing Checks Report for the trust account you are reconciling. If any missing checks appear on this report, research the problem and make the necessary changes to the appropriate ledgers. Then re-print the Missing Checks Report to verify that the problems have been corrected. See more details below on how to address missing checks. Step 2: Enter any miscellaneous/bank transactions appearing on the statement such as bank corrections, service charges, interest, and other fees charged to the account into your Firm Ledger, using a transaction type of Miscellaneous. You will clear these transactions later, in the same manner as you clear checks and deposits. Step 3: Use the Reconciliation Function to select and clear all deposits, incoming wires, checks, out-going wires and miscellaneous transactions that have cleared the bank. Step 4: Print a Statement Proofing Register from the Print Reports function. You should use the Statement Proofing Register under the 3-Way Reconciliation section. The beginning and ending balances on the Proofing Register and the Bank Statement should match. The Proofing Register should reflect each receipt and disbursement that cleared the bank for the subject month. Also, the total of the receipts should equal the total deposits on the bank statement, and the total of the disbursements should equal the total checks and miscellaneous disbursements on the bank statement. Step 5: Compare the receipts and disbursements on your proofing register against the bank statement. If the total receipts and disbursements shown on the Proofing Register do not equal those shown on your bank statement, you must make corrections before proceeding. Use the Search function to recall any ledger in which a correction is necessary. Make corrections and re-print the Statement Proofing Register until the total receipts and deposits for the subject month are the same as the bank statement totals. Compare the beginning and ending balances on the Proofing Register and bank statement again to be sure they match. Step 6: Print a Receipts and Disbursements (Outstanding) Report This report will show the outstanding receipts and disbursements as of the bank statement date. This figure will match the outstanding receipts and disbursements on the Statement Proofing Register. Page 1 of 15
Step 7: Print remaining 3 Way Reconciliation Reports beginning with the Escrow Account Reconciliation Summary report to verify the balances shown on the Statement Proofing Register - Summary, Proofing Balance Sheet. You will then print the following reports to balance back to the Escrow Account Reconciliation Summary: Escrow Trial Balance Report (Balances Only)-The total on this report should equal the Bank Balance on the Summary Report. Run this report for all ledger types. Bank Adjustments Report -This report allows you to verify the Adjusted Balance (Non-Guaranty ledger balance) on the Proofing Balance Sheet. (Net adjustments) Book Balance Report Shows the adjusted and non-adjusted book balances and should match the summary report balance.open ProTrust application STEP 1-Print 1 a Missing Checks Report Print this report BEFORE clearing transactions. If the report reveals any missing checks, you will need to determine why the checks are missing and make any associated corrections to your ProTrust ledgers before proceeding with your reconciliation. If a range of check numbers is missing (ex. 101-110), it could be an indication that the closing file has not been exported. 1. Open ProTrust for Windows. 2. Choose Reports/Missing Checks Report. The Missing Checks Report dialog box appears. 3. Enter the code for the trust account you are reconciling in the Trust Account: field. 4. In the Beginning Check Number: field, enter the check number after which missing checks are to be found. (For instance, if the first check used was 101, enter 100). The beginning check number cannot be negative. 5. If desired, select Report Comment to enter any miscellaneous notes to appear on the report. The Report Comment dialog box will appear. Enter your notes in the Report Comment field and select OK to return to the Missing Checks Report dialog box. 6. Choose Print. After correcting any errors found, print another Missing Checks Report to insure that all problems have been resolved. Page 2 of 15
STEP 2-Enter 2 Miscellaneous Transactions 1. Choose Search/Enter Search Criteria. 2. Enter the Firm File ID for the FIRM LEDGER to which you will be adding bank fees and charges. 3. Choose Search/Go (Begin Search) or click the Go (green light) button on the toolbar. 4. Choose Ledger/Transaction/ Add New Transaction. 5. Select Miscellaneous from the Transaction Types list. 6. Choose OK. 7. Enter the transaction amount in the Amount: field. 8. Enter the bank statement date in the Date: field and enter information into the Medium: (ex: Bank Stmt) and Memo: fields if desired. 9. Enter the payee name or transaction description in the Payee Name: field. 10. Enter in the cleared date for the transaction (either the bank cleared date or the statement end date, whichever you prefer). 11. Select OK. Page 3 of 15
STEP 4-4 Use the Reconciliation function to select and clear transactions RECONCILATION REPORTS 1. Choose Tools/Reconciliation. 2. Enter the code of the trust account you are reconciling in the Trust Account Code: field. 3. Enter the cleared date (usually the bank statement date) in the Bank Statement (Cleared) Date: field. 4. Select the type of transaction you want to clear (Checks, Deposits, or Miscellaneous items). You can clear one type of transaction at a time. 5. If desired, select a range of transactions to find, using either Check/Reference Numbers or Transaction Dates. After selecting, enter the desired range using the From: and Through: fields. 6. If desired, select a clearing option. Choose Outstanding items only to search for only outstanding transactions, or All matching items to search for all transactions to clear. 7. Select Reconcile... NOTE: The ProTrust Auto Number feature is available when clearing deposits or miscellaneous items. The Auto Number feature assigns reference numbers to all outstanding deposits or miscellaneous transactions. To enable the Auto Number feature, select Auto Number after selecting either Deposits or Miscellaneous items to clear. Selecting Transactions to Clear: The Reconciliation list box containing all transactions that met your criteria will appear. Page 4 of 15
8. Select transaction(s) to clear. Mouse Selection options: To select a non-adjacent range of transactions, click on the first item, press and hold the key, click the next item, and the next and so on. To select an adjacent range of transactions, click the first item in the range, press and hold the key and click the last item in the range. (use scroll bars to see additional transactions). To select all transactions at once, choose Select All. (Individual items can be unselected if needed by pressing and holding the key and clicking on the desired item(s)) Keyboard Option: You can select and clear transactions by using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to select transactions and pressing the spacebar to clear them. 9. Once all transactions have been selected, choose Mark Cleared. The cleared date specified in the reconciliation criteria appears in the Cleared column for each selected transaction. To mark selected transactions with a different cleared date, choose Alt Clear Date, enter a date, and choose OK. 10. After clearing all applicable transactions, choose Save. 11. Repeat steps 4 through 10 above to clear deposit and miscellaneous transactions. Page 5 of 15
12. When all transactions have been cleared, choose Done on the Reconciliation Criteria screen. Hints: Transactions in the Reconciliation dialog box are sorted by check/reference number. To view information about a transaction, select it from the list and choose Information. To unclear a previously cleared transaction, select it and choose Un-clear. You can restore the most recently saved cleared date for an item by selecting it and choosing Restore. You can display a total of all selected transactions by choosing Total of Highlighted Items. Page 6 of 15
STEP 5-5 Print a Statement Proofing Register The Statement Proofing Register is made up of three major sections: Receipts, Disbursements, and Proofing Balance Sheet. The Proofing Balance Sheet section reports the amounts of the statement beginning balance, computer account balance, outstanding deposits, outstanding checks, and statement ending balance. NOTE: Print this report AFTER you have cleared Checks, Deposits and Miscellaneous transactions. Printing a Statement Proofing Register: 1. Choose Reports/Statement Proofing Register. The Statement Proofing Register dialog box appears. 2. Enter the code for the trust account you are reconciling in the Trust Account: field. 3. Make sure that Bank Statement Date option is selected and type the date of your bank statement in the Statement Date: field. 4. Select Full Proofing Register (Brief Format) from the Format Options section. 5. Choose Print. Page 7 of 15
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Statement Beginning Balance 100.00 14 DEPOSITS 1,307,621.92 94 CHECKS & DISBURSEMENTS 1,058,710.92 Statement Ending Balance 249,011.00 Page 9 of 15
STEP 6-6 Compare the receipts and disbursements on Statement Proofing Register against bank statement. If the total amounts of the receipts and disbursements shown on the Statement Proofing Register do not equal those shown on your bank statement, you must make corrections before proceeding. Use the Search function in ProTrust to recall any ledger in which a correction is necessary. Make all corrections and then re-print the Statement Proofing Register until the total receipts and deposits for the subject month are the same as the bank statement totals. Compare the beginning and ending balances on the Statement Proofing Register and bank statement again to be sure they match. STEP 7-7 Print a receipts and disbursements report (outstanding). Make sure that the figures shown on this report match the figures show on the statement proofing register. Run the Receipts and Disbursements report as of the Bank Statement Date. Page 10 of 15
STEP 8. Print Escrow Account Reconciliation ion Summary report to verify the balances shown on the Statement Proofing Register - Summary, Proofing Balance Sheet. You will enter the bank statement date range as the transaction date range. Page 11 of 15
You will then run each of the reports listed on the Escrow Account Reconciliation Summary Report to verify all figures match. Escrow Trial Balance (Balances Only) Page 12 of 15
You will need to run this for Guaranty ledgers only to match the figure shown on the Summary report. The Book Balance report will be run by entering the bank statement date range as the transaction date range. The resulting figure will match the summary report. Page 13 of 15
The bank balance section is the same thing as the statement proofing register discussed above. The Bank Adjustments report will show the information that is on any Non-Guaranty (not a closing) ledger. Run the report for the bank statement date range for the transaction date range. Page 14 of 15
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