00:00: This tutorial demonstrates how to complete an account reconciliation and a three-way
00:05: reconciliation of a trust account.
00:07: These processes help ensure your financial records accurately reflect your bank
00:11: statements and trust accounts.
00:14: This video will cover how to complete an account reconciliation and three-way
00:18: reconciliation of a trust account.
00:21: To begin, head to the Accounting icon on the bottom left corner of your browser.
00:24: Once in Accounting, click over to the Reports tab to pull up the necessary reports
00:29: to complete these actions.
00:30: Under Accounting Reports, you'll find a report titled Account Reconciliation.
00:35: This will be your first step in that reconciliation and three-way reconciliation
00:40: process.
00:42: Click the Account Reconciliation report to start the reconciliation process within
00:46: CARET Legal Accounting.
00:49: Click the icon for the report title. Here
00:51: you'll see a list of the various accounts for which you can complete a
00:54: reconciliation and any reconciliations that have already occurred. To begin
00:58: a reconciliation,
00:59: click the plus sign on the green banner to create a new reconciliation.
01:04: From here, select the bank account for which you wish to reconcile. For this
01:08: demonstration,
01:09: we'll be using the trust account.
01:11: The number that's listed in green is what CARAT believes your bank balance will be.
01:15: Confirm this with your bank statement. Here
01:18: I'm going to select the ending balance.
01:21: You do want to enter the end date.
01:23: The system will default to include today's date as the ending date, and you may have
01:27: to adjust this based on when your bank cycle ends. Click begin to now go through the
01:32: reconciliation process.
01:34: Once in the reconciliation screen, you'll see in the header a breakdown of the
01:37: transaction details.
01:39: This should mirror that of the information found on your bank statement. As you
01:42: select transactions, this will update in real time.
01:45: Should you have misentered the ending balance from your bank statement, you'll see the
01:49: edit pencil next to that ending balance number or edit ending balance on the top
01:54: right corner to make modifications to this number for recalculation. On the lower
01:58: portion of the screen you'll see fields for from date and to date, the date for which
02:03: the transactions you need to reconcile with are available.
02:07: Status, type, from amount and to amount for searching, and keyword or phrase search.
02:14: Now I'll go through the individual transactions and pair them off to what's found
02:18: on the bank statement.
02:19: Select the transaction to match it with the bank statement.
02:23: Here, I will go ahead and complete my reconciliation.
02:26: Now, selecting all the transactions that are available,
02:30: Choose the date filter to narrow down transactions for reconciliation.
02:35: Apply the selected filter to update the transaction list accordingly.
02:39: Click Apply to confirm your filter selections and refresh the view.
02:43: Proceed with the next action as indicated in the reconciliation process.
02:48: Select the month to filter transactions or set the reconciliation period.
02:53: Proceed with the next action as indicated in the reconciliation process.
02:58: Select the abbreviated month to refine your date selection.
03:02: Select the day to
03:03: finalize the date range for reconciliation.
03:06: Apply the date
03:07: selection to update the reconciliation period.
03:10: Select the option to proceed with reconciliation filtering or selection.
03:15: Enter the option value as required for the reconciliation process.
03:19: You will observe the recalculation occurring in real time.
03:22: The objective is to achieve a difference of zero, indicating that the data in CARET
03:27: Legal aligns with the data on your bank statement. Once
03:29: you are confident that the data is accurate, please ensure you click "Save" in the
03:33: top right corner. This
03:34: action will update the status of each checked item from "Blank" to "Reconciled."
03:41: Now, for your record keeping purposes, head over to the print button where you'll
03:45: find three reporting options. Just the reconciled transactions, all reconciled
03:50: transactions, as well as non reconciled transactions, and
03:54: current view. Current view is a
03:56: great option if we're trying to drill down on unrealized transactions, meaning
04:01: an unrealized deposit or uncashed checks.
04:05: Click the Print button to access the reconciliation report options.
04:10: Now let's head back to our reporting. Using the back button provided,
04:13: I went back to the list of account reconciliations where I can now see the
04:17: reconciliation
04:18: I just completed.
04:21: Select the report dropdown to choose a different reconciliation report.
04:26: I'll use the drop down on the top right corner to switch from the
04:29: account reconciliation report to the three-way reconciliation
04:33: report found under the trust reports category. Similar to the
04:36: process we just completed for an individual bank account
04:39: reconciliation, we're going to complete the same type of reconciliation process with our
04:43: trust accounting.
04:45: On the top left, select the appropriate bank account. Below you'll see a list of all
04:49: previous reconciliations. To start the next three of reconciliation,
04:53: use the plus sign found in the green banner.
04:56: Proceed with the next action as indicated in the reconciliation process.
05:02: The bank account will be selected and confirmed.
05:04: You can confirm today's date or select another closing statement date.
05:07: Make sure that this closing date mirrors your bank cycle.
05:11: Then enter the ending balance. Finally, click create to start the reconciliation
05:15: process.
05:18: You'll see a confirmation banner on the bottom left corner, and you'll now see an
05:22: additional reconciliation available.
05:24: You can use the edit pencil to edit the basic information
05:27: you just provided, delete
05:29: if you would like to eliminate this reconciliation and try again, or print to see the
05:33: results of this three-way reconciliation.
05:37: Here you'll see three different numbers:
05:38: our bank statement balance, book balance, and client ledger balance. Your bank
05:43: statement balance is what you provided as part of this three-way reconciliation
05:46: process.
05:47: This is coming from your bank statement.
05:50: Your book ending date and balance
05:51: come from CARET Legal, and your client ledger
05:54: balances are the individual matters, with a trust ledger being tallied up.
05:58: What often happens is your book balance and your client ledger balance will be in
06:03: sync because both come from CARET,
06:05: but your bank statement balance may not be the same number. Often, that difference
06:09: comes from an unrealized deposit or uncashed checks. Those checks can be found in
06:14: the individual matters listed below.
06:22: This has been a demonstration of how to complete an account reconciliation and
06:26: three-way reconciliation within CARET Legal.
06:31: You have successfully completed an account reconciliation and a three-way
06:34: reconciliation within CARET Legal.
06:37: To verify success, ensure the reconciliation status updates to reconciled and review
06:42: the confirmation banners.
06:44: For further assistance, explore related trust accounting reports or consult the
06:48: CARET Legal support resources.