NEW REPORT IN THE MONTH-END PROCEDURE

In legal accounting the bookkeeper and auditor need to verify that the “Trust Creditors Control” account in the trial balance is equal to the total of individual trust creditors balances. At the same time they should verify that the “Debtors Control” account is equal to the total of the individual business debtor balances.

In the past we have been inundated with queries from bookkeepers and auditors regarding the differences between the “Trust Creditors Control” account on the trial balance and the total of the “Credit Age Analysis”, as well as the difference in the “Debtors Control” account on the trial balance and the total of the “Debit Age Analysis”. This is explained by telling them that the differences are equal to the Trust/Business transfer available at that time.

LegalSuite however has added a new report called “Matter Balances” to the Month End procedure to simplify this explanation.

The “Matter Balances” report prints out a list with two columns separating the Trust and Business balances per matter. The “Trust” total equals the “Trust Creditors” control account and the “Business” total equals the “Debtors Control” account. The bookkeepers and auditor can then identify per matter what the control accounts in the trial balance consist of.

This is not a compulsory report but we recommend that you print it during the period-end procedure and present it to the auditors.