Those located in Asia-Pacific will use the term Trust Account, where customers located in Europe will use the term Client Account. For the purpose of this article, we will refer to it as a Trust Account. For more information on regional terminology, refer to this article or contact support.
The following steps are required when you need to set up a new Trust Account within Re-Leased. We would recommend you reach out to the support team before commencing this process to discuss your specific needs.
Create a company contact
Add a contact for your Property Management agency. The contact type needs to be set to Company and all contact information completed including payment method. The payment details specified is where fees will be disbursed to. If you are setting this trust account under the same company then you do not need to process this step.
Tax Types and Chart of Accounts
Set up all required tax types. See Tax Types for more information.
Set up all required Chart of Account codes, see the sample list in the image. This should include:
- Codes for all types of income that will be received into this account;
- Codes for all types of expenses that will be paid on behalf of property owners, this list should cover all expenses for Operating Expense budgets, as well as code/s for Property Management fees which will be raised;
- Liability code for Bonds;
- Equity codes for Owner Drawings and Owner Funds Introduced;
- A Suspense account; and
- A Bank Asset code for the Trust Bank Account.
Set up Fees
See Fees
Add Disbursement Profiles
If unsure, set up a Disbursement Profile called Ad-hoc All and tick all the options.
Steps to setting up the Trust Account Section. To begin ;
Click Settings on the green main menu, select the appropriate company, then Trust Accounts to add a trust account for that company
Click New Trust Account.
1. Select the Company
This should be preselected for you
2. Select Bank Account
There should be only one option available when selecting the account - this links back to the Chart of Accounts and pulls through the name and account details loaded when setting up the COA.
3. Enter the Trust Account Name
This should be the legal full name of the trust account. This name will appear on Financial Reports for audit purposes.
4. Enter the APCA Number
Add a six-digit APCA (Australian Payments Clearing Association) number. This is a requirement for Australian bank account transfer files, contact your bank if you do not have your APCA number.
5.Select Property Management Agent
Select the Company contact that you previously created.
6. Enter the ABN Number
Australian companies enter an ABN, New Zealand companies enter their GST number.
7. Enter the Officer in Effective Controls Name
Enter the name of the Officer in Effective Control or Licensee. This name will appear on the Bank reconciliation Reports
8. Enter the COA for the Suspense Transactions
Select the applicable chart of Account code for suspense transactions
9. Export Bank File Format
Select the preferred format for Exporting of the bank file:
Australian Companies choose from ABA / EFT Direct Entry and ABA / EFT Direct Entry (self-balancing), contact your bank if unsure which is required.
New Zealand Companies choose MT9 for Standard Bulk Payments.
10. Export BPAY File Format
Select the BPAY banking format applicable to your bank.
11. Set preferences for withholding funds for amounts owed for creditors.
12. Set preference for forcing rent to be receipted to the oldest unpaid period first.
13. Set preferred clearance times in days for different types of receipt transactions.
14. Enter the COA for the Bond Transactions
Select the applicable chart of Account for bond invoices
15. Close of Period options
Tick if the close of the period should occur on the last day of the month, and which month the first close of period is planned for. If the Close of Period does not need to occur on the last day of each month a specific date can be selected. This can be changed if needed later.
Select frequency for the close of period, every 1 month is the most common option.
Select all users to be notified, the message will show on their dashboard each time a close of period is due, until it has been completed.
Select the audit reports required for the Close of Period. If unsure, select all the options and discuss any to omit with your auditor
Click Save to finalize entering your new trust account.