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Note: unless noted otherwise, all reports mentioned in these notes can be found in LawStream’s Accounting tab.
Trust Report
SECTION A: DESCRIPTION OF PRACTICE
Reporting period: LawStream will let you specify any reporting period you choose, when reports are generated
Practice name, address, etc.: these are all details that you would specify on your own
Part 6: the answer to this should be apparent from your own knowledge; LawStream assumes that trust reports will include at least one transaction
Part 7: the answer to this is also likely “yes”, and should also be apparent from your own knowledge
Part 8: this, too, should be apparent from your own knowledge, and is not the sort of information stored as a routine item in your office’s LawStream data base
Parts 9 and 10: this information is also the kind of information that you might have to track on your own, although LawStream could assist you in keeping track of trust transactions from another lawyer (e.g., by letting you establish a unique trust ledger G/L account for those transactions, or by letting you track transactions by a different set of “user initials” attached to that other lawyer’s files)
Parts 11, 12 and 13: LawStream’s personnel list (report) might assist you in organizing this information, particularly if you have a large firm, or a firm where there has been a lot of “lawyer movement” during the reporting period (with regard to question 13, if you have a firm with an active estate practice (or similar practice) in which lawyers act as noted: you could produce reports of files showing those lawyers as the “clients”)
Part 14: if you have established a separate “name category” to distinguish banks from other contacts in your data base, you could use that information to assist you in identifying banks used by the firm; for detailed information, though, you could look at the report of all banking transactions for the date range (which is automatically sorted by bank account), accessed from the Trust section -->> Trust Reports window
Part 15: LawStream does this for you, and provides many reports showing the files opened, and details relating to each of them; note that LawStream’s Client Dedication report (Other Reports area -->> Management Reports window -->> Client Dedication) not only shows time and billing activity for each file, but it also shows the number of files that were open during the period, and the number of new files opened during that period
Part 16: you may certainly answer YES to this question: feel free to let people know that you are using LawStream; you should be sure to back-up your data on a regular basis; remember that with LawStream, back-ups are easy (all you have to do, is be sure no one is signed onto your LawStream data base, and then copy the file(s) to a separate disk or other storage medium); note that LawStream is able to print “hard copies” of accounting records for any and all periods (monthly or otherwise); those hard copies can be printed from Other Reports and Processes -->> Periodic window, where you may select accounting transaction details, for any date range, with or without starting balances, and for one or all accounts); whether or not you retain an accountant to prepare a financial statement for your firm, you may (if you are taking advantage of all of LawStream’s accounting features) prepare financial statements directly from LawStream; note question 16’s reference to Filing Instructions Section “A” (internal controls): those internal controls include the importance of being able to restore data: frequent back-ups are advisable, and could be used in conjunction with regular (daily) printed reports of all transactions entered on each day (the report of transactions entered on a day can be found at -->> Other reports and processes -->> G/L balances/details
Part 17: off-site storage requirements (and other requirements noted in this question) will depend on your own practice of ensuring that information is properly secured
Part 18: records of these transactions should be maintained in your records of general/office accounts, but you will have to rely on other sources of information to identify these sorts of transactions
Part 19: this information is available in a special trust report, found at Trust -->> Trust reports window -->> Selected balances for files (with specification of your choice of date for dormant trust balances for files)
Part 20: dishonoured cheques from the firm should be noted as exceptions in your overall accounting records, as they are not identifiable from within LawStream (you should note any dishonoured cheques as reversals within LawStream, but (a) not all reversals are dishonoured cheques, and (b) not all dishonoured cheques are recorded as reversals)
Part 21: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream
Part 22: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream
Part 23: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream
SECTION B: FINANCIAL PROFILE
Part 1: Provided you have organized your files according to the areas of law specified by the Law Society, this information is available from Trust -->> Trust Reports -->> Trust Audit Analysis report (by area of law, for date range); if you only need the “yes/no” information, select the option to show “totals only”; if you want all the details sorted and totaled by areas of law, then LawStream can provide all those details
Parts 2, 3 and 4: with LawStream, there is no need to estimate this information: it is available from Trust -->> Trust Reports -->> Trust Audit Analysis Report -->> General for Date Range, which includes each trust transaction, the total number of transactions (receipts and payments), the amount of the maximum receipt and the file(s) with that receipt amount, the amount of the maximum payment and the file(s) with that payment amount, and the average month-end balance.
Parts 5 and 6: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream (for reasons similar to those relating to question 20 of section A, these situations should be recorded as exceptions in your own accounting records, as they are not easily identified in LawStream)
Part 7: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream; note, though, that the report of “Balances for Files, to given date, for an account” (usually prepared with the “suppress client name and file details” option selected, to ensure confidentiality) will usually be prepared to assist in complying with CDIC reporting requirements
Part 8: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream
Part 9: LawStream provides detailed and informative records to let you know the answer to this question: select Other Reports and Processes -->> Special Report -->> Client Dedication (by group), to see the exact percentage of billings and receipts related to each client and group of associated clients; although question 9 only requires a yes/no response, the information in this report not only provides that response, but also a good deal of other helpful data for managing your practice
Part 10: LawStream provides features (e.g., password protection) to augment any internal office procedures you might implement in efforts to satisfy these important requirements
Part 11: this question depends mainly on a firm’s internal procedures; note, though, that LawStream does record the transaction date and the entry date for each transaction, making it possible to review the data with regard to compliance with this requirement
Part 12: LawStream provides ample resources for financial statements and other management reports, to assist in compliance with this requirement
Part 13: this information should be noted and recorded from your own records, as it is not maintained within LawStream
SECTION C: SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTANT’S SPECIFIED PROCEDURES
Parts 1 and 2: these do not relate directly to LawStream’s features
Part 3: you may print this information for your auditor, or you may let your auditor review LawStream records in detail; your LawStream licence includes the right to let your auditor (or other external bookkeepers or accountants) use a copy of the software for purposes associated with your practice); if your accountant needs to scan paper-copies of all records, a useful (but likely long) report to print is the list of all transactions for a date range, found at Other Reports and Processes -->> Accounting Transaction Details (for all accounts); you will likely also want to show your accountant your paper-copies of all bills from the relevant period
Part 4: a useful report to assist your auditor in this regard, is the report of Balances for files to given date for one account, which can be found in the Trust area -->> Trust Reports; although it is a good practice to prepare that report after each monthly reconciliation, it can be produced at any time
Part 5: LawStream provides software procedures to assist with monthly bank reconciliations, in the Other Reports and Processes area
Part 6: in fulfilling this requirement, your auditor will expect to compare the information in the Report of Balances for Files to a Given Date (as noted in Part 4, above) with the information in the monthly bank reconciliations as noted in Part 5, above)
Part 7: your auditor will be able to confirm from the report mentioned above, and from your other records, that you have satisfied this requirement
Parts 8 and 9: LawStream’s reports as noted in Parts 4 through 7 (above) can also assist your auditor in connection with this detailed analysis
Part 10: this information is outside the scope of LawStream’s financial records
Part 11: along with your review of source documents, you or your auditor may also refer to the report of all transactions for a date range (Other Reports and Processes -->> G/L Balances/Details), with the option of limiting the report to records that were dated outside an acceptable range from the actual entry date; note that all of LawStream’s accounting reports include a reference to the “to date” of the transactions and/or balances shown in them
Part 12: LawStream’s records provide information (as noted above) to assist in this requirement; with regard to trust transactions and balances, note that LawStream will NOT permit any trust withdrawal that would create a negative trust balance for a file; to assist in general compliance, LawStream offers features such as the ability to generate a “quick letter” with bills, to be sure there is no delay between bills paid from trust and delivery of those bills to your clients
Part 13: LawStream provides clear and detailed records, which can be sorted in chronological order, to assist in compliance with this requirement; LawStream also provides software controls to ensure that trust and receivables accounts are limited to trust and receivables transactions, respectively; with regard to unclaimed trust balances, see the note above, referring to Part 19 of Section A; LawStream has controls in place, to prevent credit balances for accounts receivable, and to prevent debit balances for trust ledgers
Part 14: note that all cheques printed by LawStream are clearly marked as “Trust” cheques, whether or not that identification appears on the pre-printed trust cheques being used by the firm; with regard to these requirements in general, and with regard to the various other points noted as depending on internal procedures and records not maintained by LawStream, it could be helpful for each firm to maintain an administrative (non-client) file within LawStream, to record notes and any other events that would be relevant to these reports
Part 15: your auditor might base the firm’s audit on a selection of files chosen from those that have been active during specified date ranges; if that is the case, you may take advantage of LawStream’s report of Bank Transactions for a Date Range (from Trust -->> Trust Reports)
Part 16: information to assist in this part, can be produced by a Financial Statement with its end-date being the date of the end of the reporting period