Trust Accounting

In most provinces and states, trust accounting must conform to a very strict set of guidelines published by your Law Society. Most accounting programs do not have the controls necessary to meet trust account guidelines.

The Brief Accounting's Trust module is designed to:

• Eliminate errors
• Maintain accountability for all transactions
• Control or prevent fraud
• Maintain a trust history for each client
• Allow for simple, straightforward handling of trust funds

Brief Accounting's Trust module conforms with Provincial Law Society and ABA State Guidelines. Brief Accounting:

• Prevents over drafting a client's trust account (no matter what the total balance is in that bank account)
• Comprehensive Client Ledger Card showing history
• Prevents entering checks to wrong bank account
• Prevents writing checks prior to posting deposits
• Simple reporting with bank reconciliation and trust liability statements
• Complete audit trail of all trust transactions

In addition to complying with Law Society Guidelines, Brief Accounting adds several features to simplify the handling of funds in trust:

• Support for multiple banks and accounts
• Streamlined bank reconciliation procedures
• Provision to handle bank errors (i.e. interest applied)
• 3 part check and receipt printing
• One-button transfer of funds between matters
• Streamlined payment of invoices from funds in trust

Trust Transfer

Funds can be transferred between Trust accounts or to pay invoices using funds in Trust. In the Accounts Receivable module, the transfer button will allow the user to write and post a trust check using the client's Trust funds. When transferring funds to pay an invoice, the receipt is also automatically created ready for posting. In the Trust Accounting module, the transfer button will allow the user to transfer client's Trust funds from one matter to another, provided both matters have the same bank account number.