Trust accounts
Client money held separately, with the controls that implies.
For landlordsA trust account carries a sub-ledger per beneficiary, so you always know whose money is in it.
- A disbursement larger than that beneficiary's own balance is refused outright. Spending one client's money on another is the classic violation, and it is not something that should be a warning you can click through.
- Three-way reconciliation compares bank to books to the sum of beneficiary balances.
- Every reconciliation is stored, including the ones that failed. A history with only successes in it tells you nothing.
- A negative beneficiary balance is flagged as a finding in its own right.