Trust Regulations - Australia - Australian Capital Territory

Actionstep has been built as a compliant trust accounting system in the Australian Capital Territory. The Law Society of Australian Capital Territory does not provide certification to software companies so whilst we are compliant there is no certification process. 

This article explains the main differences when using the Australia - Australian Capital Territory plug-in. 

Reporting by entry date

All reporting and calculations are driven by the date the entry was made by the user rather than the transaction date. So in a scenario where a firm receives funds to Trust on the 31st of March and has not physically processed the transaction until the 1st of April, the transaction is - to all reporting and calculations - a 1st of April transaction. By law users are only required to carry out a Trust bank reconciliation once per month and they have a 14 day window following end of month to complete it. 

If a firm reconciles daily this will result in a lot of balancing items on the bank reconciliation (for example, there could be multiple receipts of funds received that have not yet appeared into the bank account). This also means that you will not be able to backdate correcting entries.

Receipt Reporting

When we enter in a trust receipt we are asked for two dates - date banked and date received. 

Teh date banked is the date these funds appear in the trust account statement and the date recevied is the date the funds were received. We also have an automatically date that they system generates and that is the date that this receipt is being entered into the system. 

When we produce the Trust Account Receipts Cash Book Report - the three dates will appear. 

Payment Reporting

When we create a trust payment we are requested to enter the payment date. This is the date that the payment was made and the date the transaction appeared on the trust account bank statement.

When we produce the Trust Account Payments Case Book report. There are two dates displayed the Date REC'D and the Date RCT. 

EFT Account Number

When entering in payment information an EFT account number can be entered which is BSB + account number which is pulled through to the trust reports (note this field is optional). 

When you run the trust payments cash book you will see the BSB and account number entered. 

Trust Overdraw

In order for a system to accurately reflect the transactions in a Trust Account, there may be times when the account goes into Overdraw.

This could be the result of an error or a reversal. Actionstep will allow a Trust Overdraw (permission dictate who is able to process a reversal and who is not).