Legal Notes general and trust accounting software

LATAM (Legal Accounting)
Bank reconciliation

Bank reconciliation

The Bank reconciliation is commenced by creating a "Bank Reconciliation" form in Latam for the relevant month and year.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Create a new reconciliation form for the relevant month. Type in the month and year.

2. Download transactions from Bank. The procedure is as follows for Westpac:
      Log on
      Overview\Exports and Reports\Transactions\Export csv
      select date range: first day to last day of the relevant month
      select general account......3064
      select csv (should already be selected)
      Date format should be DD/MM/CCYY (should already be selected)
      Click on the carrot (up arrow) to the right of the file that was downloaded. Select show in folder and identify the path and name of the file. Better to copy this information to assist in the next step.

3. When you enter the next field you will be presented with a dialog box. Select the csv file you downloaded and click OK.

4. Enter the opening balance of cash at bank if not computed.

5. Click the "import transactions" button. This will bring in the bank transactions for the month that you can view in Notes.

6. Check the closing balance at bank against your bank records to be sure that it is correct .

7. Click the "Reconcile" button. This procedure compares bank transactions with the general ledger. There are buttons on the form to take you to the bank transactions and the Generl Ledger transactions. If there are matches, they are coloured red in the view. The matching is not perfect where there are a number of entries with the same value.

8. The reconciliation process is aided by reference to the 00TT or trust transfer account in the Law Practice Trust account. There is a button to take you to this account. The trust transfer often credits cash at bank with one amount, and debits the individual matters with the smaller amounts making up the one credit to cash at bank. In the bank transactions you open the transaction and record the payments to which it relates. You then manually mark the one entry in the bank transactions, and the multiple entries in the GL as reconciled using the "Reconciled (toggle)" button. If the entry is not marked red, clicking this button will mark it in red. If the entry is not red, clicking the button will make it red. Explain any reconciliation that is not obvious in the document for the bank transaction. You cannot edit any document in the GL (general ledger) view.

Get balances from Westpac
      Overview\Exports and Reports\Accounts and Groups - Reports
      set date range from first to last day of month: eg 01/04/2019 to 30/04/2019
      account summary
      select account
      Preview on Screen
      Copy preview (with opening and closing balances for the month and copy to "Transactions" field
      in the reconciliation document for the month.

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