Understanding the accounting transaction created by payments to your trust account

When a client payment is made through Actionstep Payments to your trust account Actionstep will NOT automatically create the accounting transactions for that payment.

In this article, we explain the process for these trust transactions. 

 

NOTE

Actionstep Payments is currently in Beta testing. If you would like to be part of our Beta testing group, please reach out to Actionstep Support.

 

NOTE

This article is only in relation to Actionstep payments made into your trust account. To understand Actionstep payments made into your operating/business account please see here: 

 

Process for trust transactions

When a client pays through Actionstep Payments to your trust account, you will receive an email notification as soon as this payment has been made. 

After the payment, it can take two to three days to settle a credit card payment depending on your bank.

Settling means that the credit card holders bank has cleared the funds and they are ready to be deposited into your trust account.

Creating a trust receipt

When those funds have cleared and appear in your trust account you will need to manually create a trust receipt just as you would any deposit into your trust account. This will not be completed automatically. 

Paying an invoice from trust

If the funds were paid into the trust account to pay an invoice then you must pay this invoice manually once you have receipted the trust funds. The invoice will NOT be marked as paid automatically. 

The Bank Withdrawal for the Fees of All Settled Payments

Credit card transactions will incur fees and these are the responsibility of the firm to pay. 

Actionstep will automatically withdrawal the credit card fees for all payments that have settled from your operating bank account.

We create a separate accounting entry in Actionstep automatically whenever this is triggered. This accounting transaction will appear as a Firm Withdrawal in Actionstep.

The expense account that this withdrawal is set to and the sales tax (if any) applied will be applied to this withdrawal are set on the Add/Edit Payment Configuration.

FAQ's

Why can't the funds be held in a holding account like for the business/operating account so that these transactions can be created automatically? 

Due to the various regulations on how trust accounts operate, trust accounts are not allowed to have holding accounts attached to them therefore we cannot automatically create a deposit as the dates will not be the same in order for you to reconcile your trust account.