Correcting a mistake in trust: reversing a wrongly posted movement

The client money ledger is append-only: a mistake is corrected by Reverse beside it — a further entry with your reason, never an edit or a delete. That is what makes the ledger trustworthy to the client, the auditor and the law society — nothing on it can quietly change.

Reversing a movement

• •Open the client's Ledger from Money held for clients.
• •Under Client money ledger, find the wrong entry and press Reverse beside it.
• •Say why it is being reversed — the reason is required (for example "Posted twice — the statement line was already typed in"). It prints beside both lines on the ledger and on the client's statement.
• •Press Reverse it. An equal and opposite entry is posted on the same date; the original is marked Reversed and its pair Reversing entry, and together they net to nil.

Then record the movement correctly, if there was one — on the right ledger, with the right date or amount. A money move between two client funds is two lines; reversing it undoes both together.

A duplicate deposit on a ledger

The usual cause is a deposit typed by hand and then posted again from the imported statement. The client's ledger page flags it under Possible duplicates — the same amount, the same way, on the same day. Two equal movements can both be real; if one was recorded twice, press Reverse on the extra one with the reason "duplicate".

Prevention: recording a movement that matches one already on the books asks first — tick Post it again — it is a second, separate movement only if it really is. On an import, leave a line marked already recorded out.

Reversing a fee or a bank charge

Reversing a fee taken from trust puts the money back on the client's ledger and the fee note it settled shows as owing again — settle it again on the right ledger or date. Reversing a bank charge also reverses the bank charge in the business books.

When a reversal is refused

• •Reversing a deposit would leave the ledger short: the message names the payment that was made from this money. Reverse that payment first, or record the money that really covered it.
• •The ledger is closed: Reopen it from the list of client funds first.
• •The line is itself a reversal: a reversal can't be reversed. If the original was right after all, record it again as a new movement.

What not to do

• •Do not record a made-up payment out to cancel a wrong deposit — it puts a false payee and authority on the record.
• •Do not delete and retype. Nothing on the ledger can be deleted; that is what makes it evidence.