Importing your trust bank statement (PDF or CSV)

Typing a month of trust movements one by one is where mistakes come from. Import the trust bank statement instead: Ledgr reads the bank's PDF or a CSV, suggests whose money each line is, and lets you post what you are sure of now and the rest later.

Starting an import

• •On Money held for clients, scroll to Import the client money bank statement.
• •Choose Into account — the trust bank account the statement is from.
• •Under Statement (PDF or CSV), choose the file from your bank. Reading… shows while it is read.
• •Every line appears with Date, Description, Money in, Money out and What it was.

Choosing what each line was

For money in, What it was offers: Paid in for a client, or The firm's own money (not a client's). For money out: Paid to someone on the client's instruction, Our fee, moved to the business — settle it from a fee note, or Bank charge (the firm's cost). Every line also offers Decide later and Leave this line out.

• •Suggestions: where the statement wording clearly names a client, the line arrives with that ledger chosen and tagged Suggested from the statement wording. Check it — the tag comes off as soon as you change the line.
• •Decide later: the starting choice for any line nobody has decided. It stays on screen and is not posted.
• •Leave this line out (already recorded, or not client money): for lines that are already on the books or are not client money at all.
• •Paid to someone on the client's instruction needs Paid to (required) and On whose instruction? (required).
• •Paid in for a client can be linked to the client's open deposit request.

Posting in parts

Allocate what you can now — the rest can wait. When you post, every decided line goes in together, or not at all; lines left on Decide later stay on screen. A sixty-line statement is rarely done in one sitting: choose the same statement again and the page offers Continue where you left off (or Discard).

If anything is refused, nothing is posted and the page lists each refused line with its reason under "Nothing was posted. These lines were refused:" — fix those lines and post again.

Lines already on the books

A line whose date, amount and direction match a movement already recorded arrives as Leave this line out (already recorded). That is what stops a deposit you typed by hand from landing twice. If it really is a second, separate movement of the same amount on the same day, tick Post it anyway — it is a second, separate movement.

Fee lines

A line that is your fee leaving trust is not posted from the import. The line itself says what to do: on the client's ledger use Bill this client from trust, then Settle it from trust now — that records the money leaving trust and pays the fee note in one step.

Bank charges and the firm's own money

Bank charge (the firm's cost) goes on the firm's own ledger and, where the business books are kept here too, to bank charges in the business books. The firm's own money (not a client's) — money the firm paid in to cover charges — goes on the firm's own ledger only. Neither touches any client's balance.

Common mistakes

• •Importing the firm's business account statement here. This import is for the trust account only; the business account goes through Bank › Import statement.
• •Posting a fee line as a payment to someone. Fees leave trust only by settling a fee note.
• •Forcing a duplicate with Post it anyway when the line was simply recorded by hand earlier. Leave it out instead.