1Set up the trust account first

Click Trust Account in the sidebar. A firm with nothing set up yet sees Set up your trust account first. across the top of the page.

Click Add trust account. Type the Account name, the BSB and the Account number, then click Save.

Name the account the way the rules require: your practice name followed by the words law practice trust account, for example Your company Law Practice Trust Account.

2Open the Trust Account page

Click Trust Account in the sidebar.

If your firm has more than one trust account, click the account's name at the top to switch. The Protected, Available and Total figures and the ledger below are for that account only.

The ledger lists every receipt, payment and transfer with its number, matter, debit or credit, and the running balance.

To add another trust account, click the + beside the account names. Each account keeps its own ledger, trial balance and bank reconciliation, and money held in one is never available to a payment drawn on another.

To correct the account's name, BSB or number, click the pencil beside the +, change it and click Save. Only an admin sees the pencil.

3Deposit money

Click Deposit Funds.

Fill in Date received, Account, Type, Received from and Reason. Date received is the day the money came in, which can be earlier than the day you enter it.

For a Cheque or Bank Cheque, fill in Drawer, Bank and Branch or BSB from the cheque. They go on the deposit record when you bank it, and the receipt is refused without them.

Under Allocated matters, pick the matter and type the amount. Click Add matter to split one deposit across several matters.

Attach the bank's deposit slip under Deposit slip if you have it.

Click Process / Open Receipt. The receipt opens as a PDF.

4Bank cash and cheques

On the Transactions tab, click Bank Deposit. It lists this account's cash and cheque receipts that have not been banked. Money paid straight into the bank (a transfer, a card, a direct debit) is banked the day it arrives and is not listed.

Set Deposit date to the day you take them to the bank, and tick each receipt going in. A receipt split across several matters is one line, because it is one cheque or one sum of cash.

If a cheque's drawer, bank or branch was not recorded with its receipt, fill them in on its line.

Click Record deposit and print listing. The deposit takes the next number for this account (00001, 00002 and so on), and its Trust Bank Deposit Listing opens as a PDF with each cheque, the cash and the totals.

The receipts cash book shows the banking as its own line with the amount banked. Past listings are under Deposit Records on the Reports tab.

5Pay money out

Click Trust Payment.

Fill in Date processed, Matter, Account and Paid to. Type the Amount. Available after payment shows what the matter will have left.

Pick the Type. For a Bank Transfer or a Direct Debit, pick the Transfer type and fill in Account name, BSB and Account number. For BPAY fill in the Biller name, Biller code and Customer reference, and for PayID the Name on the PayID and the PayID. Type the bank's EFT reference if it gave you one.

For a Trust Cheque or a Bank Cheque, the Cheque number box shows the next number in the cheque book. For a Bank Cheque, Paid to is who the money is for and Cheque payable to (bank) is the bank the cheque is made out to.

To draw one cheque for several matters, click Split this cheque across another matter and give each extra matter its amount and reason. Cheque total shows the whole cheque.

Type the Reason. Click Process.

6Move money between matters

Click Transfer Funds.

Pick From matter and To matter. Type the Amount and the Date.

Pick the partner under Authorised by. Click Transfer.

7Hold money back

Click Protect Funds.

Pick the Matter, type the Amount and the Reason, and set the Date. Click Protect Funds.

The hold is not a ledger entry. It lowers Available at the top of the page by that amount and adds a row under the Protected Funds tab. The matter's balance does not change.

To change a hold's amount or reason, click the pencil on its row under Protected Funds, change it and click Save changes. Its matter and date stay as they were. Click Release to take the hold off.

8Pay by cheque

Click Print Cheques.

Pick the Matter, type Pay to, the Amount and the Memo. Click Generate cheque.

The cheque opens as a PDF titled Trust cheque, numbered with the next number in the cheque book, and the payment is entered on the ledger as a cheque withdrawal.

9Keep the cheque book

Click Cheque Book. Next cheque shows the number the next cheque will carry.

An admin types the number printed on the next blank cheque and clicks Save. Each trust account has its own book.

When the next cheque is damaged or written in error before it is issued, type the Date and Reason under Cancel a spoiled cheque and click the Cancel Cheque button, which names the cheque's number. The number is listed under Cancelled cheques and the next cheque moves past it.

10Pay the statutory deposit

On the Trust Account page, find Statutory deposit ledger beside the account's BSB and click Set. Only an admin sees Set.

Pick the matter the deposit is held in, or choose Add new matter to open one, such as Statutory Deposit. It is the practice's own ledger, not a client's. Click Save.

Pay the deposit from that matter with Print Cheques or Trust Payment, payable to the Law Society. The matter's balance goes below zero by the amount of the deposit.

The Trust Trial Balance report lists your clients' ledgers, then Less statutory deposit, then the Total, which should match the cash book.

11Read one matter's ledger

Open the matter. Click the Trust Account tab.

The badge at the top right shows Trust Account Balance for this matter. The table lists each entry with In, Out and Balance.

If your firm has more than one trust account, a Trust account row of buttons appears above the table. The table, the totals and the balance all show the account you pick. An account you have since closed still appears here, marked Closed, whenever this matter has entries in it.

Click Deposit Trust or Trust Payment to record an entry from here.

Click Print ledger to open the matter's ledger statement as a PDF. It lists entries in the order they were entered, with Transaction Date showing the day the money moved when that was earlier. A payment shows its cheque or EFT number as its Reference, with the account an EFT paid or the bank a cheque was payable to. A transfer names the other matter by its reference, client and description.

Click Keep a Copy to keep the ledger as it stands, with the month end records. A matter with trust entries can only be deleted once its balance is nil, every cheque drawn on it has been presented, and a copy made after its last entry is kept.

12Reverse a receipt or a payment

Click the void icon on the entry's row, on the matter's Trust Account tab or the Trust Account page.

Set Date of reversal to the day it happened, such as the day the bank dishonoured the cheque. It cannot be before the entry or after today.

Type the Reason for voiding (required), then click Void Transaction.

The original stays on the ledger, marked Voided. A receipt is reversed by a negative receipt under the same receipt number, and a cheque or transfer by a negative payment under the same number. Both appear in the same cash book as the entry they reverse.

A reversed receipt prints marked CANCELLED, and so does a reversed payment. A cancelled cheque cannot be printed again.

13Close a trust account

Square the account off first: every matter has to be at zero, and any protected funds released. The button will not proceed until it is.

On the Trust Account page, pick the account, then click the bin icon beside the account names. Only an admin sees it.

Click Every field, as CSV and Closing statement, as PDF, and file both wherever the practice keeps its trust records. The CSV holds every field of every entry on the account, including who entered each one; the PDF is the printable statement, ending with each matter's balance at closing.

Type the account name, then click Close account.

14Reconcile with the bank statement

Click Bank Reconciliation, then New Reconciliation.

Set Period start and Period end, and type the Bank statement balance from the statement.

Under Bank Items, tick each item that appears on the bank statement. A deposit record is one line, the way the bank shows it, and a cheque that paid several matters is one line. A receipt reversed before it was banked, and a cheque cancelled before it was presented, are left out because the bank never saw them.

Under Adjustments, click Add adjustment for anything on the statement the cash book does not have: a Credit (less) for money the bank credited that has not been receipted yet or interest credited in error, a Debit (add) for a charge debited in error. Each needs a date, a description and an amount.

The Summary works from the bank statement balance: less credit adjustments, add debit adjustments, add deposits the bank had not credited (deposit records you did not tick), add outstanding deposits (cash and cheques not yet banked), less unpresented cheques. When the Reconciled Cash Book Balance meets the Cash Book Balance it reads Balanced. Otherwise it says by how much they miss.

Tick the box in the header row to tick every item at once, then untick the few that are not on the statement. The line above the table counts how many are ticked.

The cash book counts each entry from the day it was entered. Money that reached the bank before its receipt was made out belongs in a credit adjustment for that month.

Check Prepared by and click Reconcile. The reconciliation is saved, the ticked entries are marked as reconciled, its statement is kept as it stands, and the PDF opens. Save Draft keeps it to finish later.

The statement prints the reconciliation, then the cash book for the period, then Transactions in the period: every entry the cash book counts, in the order they were entered, with a running balance that ends at the cash book balance, and a column saying where each one stood with the bank. On statement, Not yet credited, Unpresented, Not banked, Cancelled, not banked for an entry reversed before the bank saw it, and Journal transfer for money moved between ledgers, which never reaches the bank.

A reconciled reconciliation cannot be changed or removed, from this screen or from the Bank Reconciliations table. Print always shows the statement as it was kept, even if an entry is later dated back into the period. To correct one, reconcile the period again.

Print on a reconciliation you have only saved as a draft says DRAFT across every page, because its figures still move. The statement kept when you reconcile never does.

The trial balance for the same date takes its Reconciled Trust Cash Book Balance from this reconciliation. On a date no reconciliation ends on, it shows the cash books' own balance and says so.

15Work out the statutory deposit

Click Statutory Deposit. Each of the last four quarters shows the account's Lowest Balance in it and the day, by the date money moved rather than the day it was entered, and the Statutory Deposit: None required under $10,000, or the lowest balance rounded up to the next hundred dollars, with the day it is Due By, 20 banking days after the quarter ends.

Click Record Calculation. When a deposit is required you are asked whether the practice can deposit it. Yes, Record It keeps the calculation and tells you how much to transfer, within 5 banking days. No, It Cannot keeps it and tells you how to apply to the Law Society for a determination.

The amount to transfer is the statutory deposit less what the practice already holds on deposit, which is taken from the account's Statutory Deposit Ledger. When the practice already holds enough, nothing is to be transferred.

A quarter is only worked out from the days this account has records for. A practice that moved its books here part way through a year sees No records against every quarter before the day it moved, and Record Calculation is not available for them. A quarter the records start inside is worked out from that day, says so beside the balance, and warns you before you record it.

To work it out from a lowest balance taken elsewhere, such as the bank statement, click Calculate from a Balance, choose the Quarter, and enter the Lowest balance, the day (On) and Where the balance comes from. Enter On deposit now if the amount held differs from the statutory deposit ledger; leave it blank to use the ledger.

Every recorded calculation is listed under Recorded calculations, with the amount on deposit and the amount to transfer. Click the printer beside one, or Print All.

16Print the reports

On the Trust Account page, click the Reports tab.

Scroll to the report you need: receipts cash book, deposit records, payments cash book, journal transfers, trial balance, overdrawn ledgers, dormant balances, matters holding trust money, or the file maintenance journal.

The Receipts Cash Book lists receipts in the order they were made out, with the day the money arrived under Received when that differs. Banked shows the amount banked: on a direct receipt's own line, or on the Deposit line that banked cash and cheques. A dishonoured cheque that was already banked comes off the banked column.

The Payments Cash Book lists payments in the order they were entered, by Cheque/EFT No.: the account paid for an EFT, the bank as well as who it is for on a cheque payable to a bank, and Entered under the date when a payment was entered on a later day. A cheque that paid several matters shows each matter's share under Multi and the cheque's total on its last line. The book closes with the opening balance, receipts, payments and closing balance for the period.

Set the period on the report you want, then click Print. It opens as a PDF.

Trust Ledger Overdrawn lists every time a matter went into debit in the period, with the date, the receipt number that caused it and the balance it left. A period with none reads No trust ledger went into debit in this period.

Trust File Maintenance Journal lists every change made to a client's name or address, or a matter's reference or description, with the old and new value and who made it. You do not record anything here yourself: it fills in as those details are edited anywhere in the app.

17Keep the month end records

Reconcile the month first (see above), so its bank statement is kept with the rest.

At the top of the Reports tab, find Month end records. It works on the trust account chosen at the top of the page.

Pick the month and click Keep month end records. A month can be kept once it has ended.

The receipts and payments cash books, transfer journal, file maintenance journal, trial balance, overdrawn ledger report and reconciled bank statement are each kept as at the month's last day. Every page says which month it is, when it was kept and by whom.

Kept copies are listed under the month. Click Open to see one exactly as it was kept.

Download a copy gives you the same month as one PDF for your own backup.

18Build the auditor's pack

On the Reports tab, find Auditor's Pack. It works on the trust account chosen at the top of the page.

Set Start and End, or click This Trust Year or Last Trust Year for 1 April to 31 March.

Click Build PDF. The pack opens as one PDF: a contents page, then every bank reconciliation statement ending in the period, the trial balance at the end of each month, the receipts and payments cash books for each month, the controlled money listings, the overdrawn ledger report for the whole period and the statutory deposit calculations recorded in it.

Click Export to Excel for the same records as a workbook, one tab each.

19Prepare the statements as at 30 June

After 30 June, on the Reports tab, find Statements as at 30 June. It works on the trust account chosen at the top of the page.

Choose the year and click Prepare Statements. Each statement is the matter's ledger to 30 June, headed with the client, their address, the matter reference and description. They open as one PDF to print or send, and a copy of each is kept with the month end records.

A ledger gets a statement if it held money at 30 June, or had a transaction in the year to 30 June and has had no statement since. A ledger at nil with no transaction in that year is left out, and the screen says how many were.

20Give a statement when a matter is completed, or the client asks

Open the matter's Trust Account tab and click Give Statement.

Check Statement as at. It starts at today; choose the day the matter was completed if that was earlier. Click Give Statement.

The statement is the matter's ledger as at that day, headed with the client, their address, the matter reference and description, one for each trust account the matter used. It opens to print or send, and a copy is kept with the month end records.