Getting to Know the Trust Accounting Admin—Additional Settings Page

Modified on Mon, 21 Apr at 5:07 PM

NOTE: In the UK, trust accounts are called client accounts. Throughout this article, any reference to a trust account also means a client account.

Trust accounting includes features to enhance compliance and efficiency. Specifically, you can set customizable hold periods for different payment types to ensure funds clear before use. You can also set up your system so you can have more than one deposit slip open at a time. Actionstep also allows you to specify default payment methods or reasons for payment as well as define your statement settings when generating your first batch of statements. You can also adjust your trust lock-out dates.

To access additional trust accounting settings:

In Actionstep, go to Admin > Trust accounting. The Trust Accounts page appears.
In the Additional settings section, click Additional system-wide preferences. The System-wide Trust Accounting Preferences window appears.
Review the options and make changes as needed:

A. Override Receipt Payment Holds

Options in this section give you the ability to set "hold days" for payments. While some jurisdictions do have a baseline for this hold, the ability for all firms to utilize this function has been included by default. For example, when a firm receives a personal check from a client, they may want to force a hold time to ensure they don't spend funds before they are cleared. Each payment type can have a different hold period.

For systems that have the payment method Client deposit via bank, the hold that you set for electronic funds transfer will be applied to those transactions as well.

B. Deposit Slip Settings

In this section, you can set up your system so it can have more than one deposit slip open at once.

CAUTION: Most trust regulatory bodies do not allow for more than one deposit slip to be open at a time. Please check with your regulatory body before using this. Generally speaking, this is recommended only for our users who have more than one office.

C. Default Payment Methods

In this section, you can choose a default method for processing trust transactions. The options you choose here will be suggested but users can override them on a case-by-case basis.

D. AML Validation Rules

This section allows you to set default AML permissions at the system level (if AML is used in your system).

E. Default Reason for Payment, Statement Settings, and System Settings

Pay firm invoice allows you to set the default behavior when paying the firm's own invoice from trust funds.
Ignore entries before allows you to exclude entries in your first batch run. This is useful since bulk statements will include transactions done in your system since the last batch you ran, which means this first batch you run might have a number of years' worth of transactions.
Trust Lockout Date gives you the ability to be able to lock out users from being able to enter in any trust transaction on or before the date entered.