Law Firm Books CleanupThe four names, and then the page stops.
A statement that was opened, with the client ledger still shut, has not finished the list.
Bring one monthNamed by the trust page.
For a monthly reconciliation, the four papers are the bank statement, the check register, a general trust ledger, and an individual ledger for each client. Excel is one program that can hold the work. That is the answer this page exists to give.
Picture the client ledger shut on the table while the other three papers are already open. We can all feel a stack that looks finished and is not. A reconciliation keeps a boundary like that. Drop the client ledger and the other three papers are just a pile.
What this page refuses to become.
Thursday afternoon, the partner has the bank statement open and the quiet matter's ledger is still in the box. The quiet matter's ledger comes out of the box before the partner treats the other three papers as a closed month.
Here is the shape of a month, with no client's name and no figure from a real file. The statement, the register, and the general trust ledger already match. One matter has no line. We write that line, including a zero when the matter was quiet, and only then do the four papers say one balance. A receipt folder can sit beside them. It does not replace the missing line.
The month we want is boring on purpose. Four balances, one number, and the quiet matter included.
The five year clock, the settlement check, and any object inside a software file live on other pages or on a different search. This page does not teach a menu, a bank feed rule, or a liability subaccount.
If the four names are already in hand and one of them is missing for a real month, that is the conversation. Bring the month. Name the paper. Leave the matter number out of the note.
A finished month has a boring shape. The statement balance, the register balance, and the general trust ledger agree. Then each client ledger adds up to that same general ledger, including the matters that had no activity. A zero month still gets a line. Skipping the quiet matter is how a later month inherits a hole.
We do not invent a fifth paper. The reconciliation uses four. If a firm also keeps a receipt book or a deposit slip folder, those support the four. They do not replace the client ledger. When the four agree, the operating books can be read beside them without treating trust money as a fee. The four names are the whole list. A fifth folder does not finish a month the client ledger never joined.
October is still early enough to invoice time that has not been billed, and the trust liability stays off the operating account while that invoice goes out. We read the four names beside the return in one conversation. A quiet matter still gets its own line even when the bank total already looks fine. If the fourth paper is the one you cannot find, that is the month to send. That missing fourth paper is the month worth handing over.
Sources. The four names are the monthly set a trust reconciliation uses. The attorney guide is Publication 5602. p5602.pdf.
Name the paper you cannot find.
Statement, register, general ledger, or a client ledger.