Trust Journal Input

Modified on Mon, 12 Feb at 6:40 PM

About Trust Journal Input

Use the trust journal input to make adjustments to trust balances held for matters.

You can use Matter Journals to:

Correct errors made while receipting to, or drawing from matters.
Transfer funds between matters (assuming client permission has been given to do so).
Move funds within a matter from one trust fund type to another trust fund type. For example, if you have funds allocated to specified fund type such as Barristers Fees, you would need to journal these to the fund type Firm funds if you were paying an invoice for costs and outlays.

In most cases, each journal has a debit and a credit transaction.

The trust journal input supports the Law Society Journal (ML) and the Matter Journal (MJ).

How to Enter a Trust Journal Transaction

In the transactions menu, select Trust Journal Input.

The journal input form displays with some fields automatically populated.

For help completing the fields, see Table 3: Trust Journal Input Field Explained.

You will need to complete a line for each side of the journal i.e:

Add a line for where the funds are being taken from (as a positive amount), then select 'Add Transaction'
Add a line for where the funds are being moved to (as a negative amount), then select 'Add Transaction'
The two lines should sum to zero

When you have added all the lines of the journal and they sum to zero, either:

Select 'OK' to process the journal and close the input screen.

Select 'Apply' to process the journal and leave the input screen open for another entry.

When you select 'OK' or 'Apply', LawMaster assigns a journal number to each journal input.

Notes:

If you make a mistake entering a line in the journal, before you select 'OK' or 'Apply', you can delete any line items in the transactions grid, by using the delete option in the Context Menu.
LawMaster highlights any invalid form entries with a red exclamation mark. Hover your mouse over the exclamation mark to see an explanation. Correct any invalid entries and retry.
If you select cancel to discard transactions that are not finalised (where you have not selected OK or apply). If you have any unfinalised items, LawMaster displays a warning advising you will lose the unfinalised entries. Select 'Yes' to continue and 'No' to keep the items

Field	Description
Bank Code	Select the ellipsis and choose the bank code number for the relevant trust bank e.g. 21 or 22.
Date	Enter the date of the transaction. This field is automatically populated with the current date. To change the date, click the arrow and select from the date picker or enter the date in dd/mm/yyyy format
Tran. Type	Click the arrow and select the transaction type: General (MJ): For standard Trust Journal, transferring funds from one matter to another. Law Institute Journal (ML): For special deposits or journaling balances from and to the special trust account (Law Society Deposit).
Matter	Type in the matter number or select the ellipsis and choose the matter number for the payment or the receipt is being entered. Note: For ease of reporting, we recommend that you also include the matter numbers used in the trust journal in the narrative field.
Invested Balance	Read-only field automatically populated.
In Trust Balance	Read-only field displaying the balance of funds held in trust for the selected matter.
Description	Read-only field automatically populated from the matter details
Fund	This is only used when transferring from one fund type to another. Select the ellipsis and choose the appropriate fund. Leave the field blank for general organisation costs or outlays
Fund Balance	Read-only field displaying the balance of any funds held for the selected fund.
Fund Status	Read-only field displaying the status of the funds held for the selected fund e.g. cleared or uncleared.
Reference	Enter your reference number, e.g. Voucher or receipt transaction number. Note: This field holds a maximum of 24 characters.
Amount	Enter a negative number for the matter that the funds are going to. Enter a positive number for the matter that the funds are being taken from.
Narrative	Enter a reason for the transaction. Eg. Transfer funds from 22003 to matter 22122 as per instructions from client to pay invoice. Note: Pressing F3 on your keyboard updates this field with the previous transaction's narrative.

For more Advanced Information about this topic: In LawMaster see Help > System Overview or Context Help.

You can also: Enter a Trust Journal Transaction from the Main Menu > Accounting > Trust Accounting > Trust > Input Trust Journals.

Instead of selecting the ellipses, you can also:

On your keyboard, tab to the field and press F5 to access the search form
Type the code or number directly into the field, if you know it
Press tab on your keyboard to move your cursor to the next field on the form
Instead of selecting OK or Save press F2 on your keyboard
Close forms without saving: on your keyboard, press esc OR on the form, select cancel