There is no formal Month End procedure as such on FD. All it involves is printing off your required reports and checking that your system is in balance.
You do have an option of “closing” the period to prevent further postings into this period if you wish. This can be activated at Nominal/Transaction periods by placing a tick in the box of the period you would like to close and clicking on Update Periods. The period will also close when running a Rebuild of all Nominal balances and ticking the box to Rebuild Transaction Periods. You can also reopen any periods by taking out the tick and clicking on Update Periods.
Prior to running the Reports, we recommend you first do the following checks:
Balance check the Control Nominals by selecting Tools and then Control Inspect Balances
Run the Unallocations Report and where possible allocate the receipts as these will have an impact on the Aged Debt Report (DPS Reports, Clients, Unallocations)
Run the Matter Balances Report and tick the box to show any Negative Office Balances (DPS Reports, Matters, Matter Balances)
Checking that the system is in balance
Once the reports have been produced you can then check that certain elements from one report compared to another match. This very important and should be done monthly by following the steps below:
On the TB, check that all of the client banks agree to the client control total
On the TB, check that all of the DDA banks agree to the DDA bank control
Then in turn check that the client balance on the Matters listing agrees to the sum of the client banks on the TB
Check that the DDA Balance on the matter listing agrees to the sum of the DDA Banks on the TB
Check that the Unpaid Bills on the matter listing agree to the Debtors Control on the TB
Check that the Unbilled Disbs net on the matter listing agree to the Disbursement Control on the TB. This procedure can differ from practice to practice where disbursements are concerned as the Unpaid Disbursement Nominal can also form part of the equation. This should have been explained to you at your training. If this is unclear please contact support who will be happy to help
On the Matter Balance report, Office Balance should = Outstanding Bills + Disbursements Gross – Billed Unpaid Disbursements
Check that your TB is actually in balance
Check that the bank reconciliation for client bank agrees with the client matter balance. Or if you have several client bank accounts that the sum of them agrees to the client balance on the Matters Listing
The Bank Reconciliation need NOT be performed at month end. You would though make sure when you did do bank reconciliations that they agreed to the Matter Balances at that time.
The Law Society Solicitors Accounts Rules state how often the Bank reconciliations should be done. If you are unsure of the Nominal Reference of any of your control accounts, they can be confirmed by going to Tools and then Default Nominals.
If you have any imbalances that you need help with, please raise a support ticket quoting this article, and a member of the Cashier support team will assist.