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The trust receipt (transaction number prefix TR) is used to receipt funds into a trust bank account against one or more file(s).
 
Trust receipt
 
The following payment methods are supported (and require further detail to be entered):
  • Branch deposit
    • Branch contact
    • Branch reference number
  • Cash
  • Cheque / bank cheque
    • Drawer contact
    • Payee
    • BSB
    • Bank and branch contacts
    • Account number
  • Electronic funds transfer
    • Bank reference number
  • Credit card
    • Cardholder
    • Card type
    • Card number (obfuscated)
    • Expiry date
    • Surcharge (merchant fee) percentage
The activity supports a three-step receive/issue/process workflow, but in practical terms the first step is not required and, for some payment methods, the process step is omitted and performed instead by the trust receipt aggregation activity.
 
Once issued, a receipt number is allocated to the transaction. Once this occurs, the transaction cannot be deleted (except by the system administrator member) and its particulars (as required by legal profession regulations) cannot be changed. If the transaction is erroneous, it can be cancelled; this zeroes the ledger effect but retains the original receipt details.
 
Trust funds receipted by cheque, bank cheque, branch deposit or credit card may subject to clearance. When processed, the clearance period is entered and the drawable trust balance on the file does not increment until the clearance date has passed. This measure ensures that bounced cheques or false deposits never cause the trust account to become overdrawn.

Monies subject to a specific power

While performing the trust receipt activity, you can specify whether the funds received are subject to a specific power.

Under legal profession regulations, you must declare when:

  • The law practice (or one of its associates) is the executor/administrator of a deceased estate. In this case, you must specify the deceased contact.

  • The law practice (or one of its associates) is entitled to act in relation to trust money (by way of a power). In this case, you must specify the donor contact and the date of the power.

You may also provide a link to the relevant document representing the power, and you should describe the power concisely.

Credit card surcharges

Consulting the list of accepted credit cards, ContactsLaw automatically calculates the surcharge added to a trust receipt based on the card type. This can be overridden on a per-transaction basis if required.

Upon processing, ContactsLaw will post a disbursement to the file for the surcharge, and then render a disbursements-only bill (with an included trust transfer to the general bank account). This behaviour relies upon the above configuration.

See also