Trust Accounting – Initial Setup

Overview

There are 3 simple steps to set up the MONESQ Trust accounting module. After your initial setup, your trust balance in MONESQ will be your trust balance on the date that you enter the data.

• Select the date you wish to start using MONESQ Trust accounting
• Enter existing Trust account balances for Contacts (Clients) & Matters with established Trust accounts
• Enter all uncleared transactions through the current date

The system then performs a reconciliation to verify that your current trust balance equals your adjusted bank balance.

Step 1: Specify the Starting date

Please enter or select a date from the drop-down calendar. If you are migrating from another Trust accounting system (software or manual), we recommend that you choose the bank statement end date of your last completed Trust Reconciliation as your start date for MONESQ Trust accounting.

If you are new to Trust accounting, we recommend selecting either the first day of a calendar month, or the date that corresponds to your most recent Trust bank account statement date as your starting date for MONESQ Trust accounting.

Step 2: Enter all Contact (Client) and Matter trust deposit balances

MONESQ supports the ability to designate trust deposits either at the Contact level or to specific Matters.

From the drop-down list, please select a contact or a matter with a current trust deposit balance. If you do not see the Contact or Matter in the drop-down list, click “Add Contact or “Add Matter” options at the bottom of the list to add those contacts or matters to the system.

If you have multiple contacts with trust account balances, you will have the ability to enter each contact or matter, one at a time.

For the selected contact or matter trust account, please enter:

• The current trust account balance 
• Any uncleared transactions (deposits or disbursements) through the current date.
  • If there are multiple uncleared transactions for the selected contact or matter, click the green   button to add additional uncleared transactions.

If there are additional contacts or matters with current trust deposit balances, click the green   button to Add another contact / matter

If you have a Client/Matter with a zero trust balance, but one or more uncleared transactions, then create a trust balance of zero for that Client/Matter, and then enter the uncleared transaction(s). Once you have entered all Contacts or Matters with Trust Deposit balances, and all uncleared transactions, click “Continue” to go to step 3

Step 3: Verify adjusted starting trust balance

Please enter the bank statement ending balance from your most recent bank statement. This balance should correspond with the start date you selected in step 1.

MONESQ will automatically total all the contact or matter balances you entered in step 2, adjust for all uncleared deposits and disbursements, and reconcile against the bank statement ending balance entered above.

If the sum of all contact/matter trust deposit balances, adjusted for all uncleared transactions, matches the ending bank statement balance, you are ready to complete setup. If the amounts do not match, you will need to go back to the previous step and resolve discrepancies before completing setup.

When the balances match, the ending bank statement balance will display in green. Click the “Finish setup” button to complete the Trust account initial setup.

You will now be able to use MONESQ trust accounting.