Sales Trust Terminology

Agentbox uses specific terminology throughout the Sales Trust system. This terminology may differ from other systems. Please familiarise yourself with the terminology below to ensure full understanding.

ABA Payments (Australian Bankers' Association File)

Agentbox allows you to quickly make payments directly from the trust by generating an automatic ABA (Australian Bankers’ Association) file. This file contains the data in an electronic file, which is then uploaded directly to your banking system online. Completing multiple settlements and supplier payments all in the same bulk payment has never been easier.
 

Available Balance

Your available balance shown for each ledger e.g. when making payments is what you are able to withdraw or transfer immediately. Your available balance excludes funds that are pending, for example, banked cheques waiting to be cleared (clearance days) or any transactions that haven't been processed, for example, cheques that haven't been banked.
 

Bank Adjustment

A Bank Adjustment is performed if an error has been made on behalf of the bank. For example, incorrect bank fees, incorrect credits. Bank Adjustments are used to balance the reconciliation when there is a bank error and no separate transaction should be logged in the trust accounting records.
 

Banking

All Cash and Cheque receipts logged must also be banked. A deposit slip must be printed and then the banking must be confirmed before the funds will be made available. Receipts received via Direct Deposit, Credit Card or EFTPOS are considered banked upon logging of the receipt.
 

Cashbook

The Cashbook lists all receipts and payments (total credits, debits and balance of all transactions in and out of the trust account). The cashbook does not include ledger transfers which are the virtual movement of funds between ledgers within the trust account. The cashbook relates to physical transactions in and out of the Trust account.
 

Closing Balance

A closing balance is the amount remaining in an account at the end of a reconciliation period. 
 

IBD (Interest Bearing Deposit Accounts)

If you open separate investment accounts on behalf of your vendor and purchaser these are referred to as IBD (Interest Bearing Deposit Accounts) in Agentbox. The system will allow you to record IBD receipts and payments and also record transfers between your trust and IBD accounts.
 

IBD Transfer

An IBD Transfer is the transfer of funds between the main Trust Account and an IBD Account. This equates to both a payment and a receipt, therefore allowing you to perform two transactions in one action rather than logging these transactions separately.
 

Ledger

A ledger is a virtual sub-accounts within your trust account. A separate ledger is created for each entity on whose behalf money is held.

In Agentbox Sales Trust, ledgers are grouped by property listing. Each listing may have one vendor/marketing ledger and multiple sales ledgers. Each sales ledger corresponds to an offer/contract logged against the listing. Vendor/marketing ledgers are used to record transactions relating to money held on behalf of the vendor, e.g. upfront vendor marketing contributions, etc. Sales ledgers are used to record transactions relating to sales deposits received from purchasers, etc.
 

Ledger Transfer

A ledger transfer is the virtual movement of funds between ledgers. In other words, funds are moved within the Trust account rather than physically removed from the Trust Account.

For example, A vendor may authorise the transfer of a sales deposit from the property they are selling to be contributed to the deposit on another property they are buying. A Ledger Transfer may also be referred to as a Journal in other systems.
 

Opening Balance

The opening balance is the amount of funds in the trust account at the beginning of a new reconciliation period.
 

Payment

A payment or disbursement is logged when funds are physically moved out of the Trust account either via direct deposit or cheque. This includes transferring money from the Trust Account into an IBD Account (visa versa). This does not include the transfer of funds from one ledger to another (referred to as a Ledger Transfer).
 

Presented

Transactions that appear on the bank statement are considered 'presented' and therefore known to be deposited into the bank account. All transactions marked 'presented' (or matched) will subsequently be flagged as reconciled upon reconciliation. All transactions not marked 'presented' will remain as 'unpresented' on each reconciliation until marked presented.
 

Receipt

A receipt is logged when funds are received into the Trust Account.
 

Unpresented

Transactions that are in transit and have not yet appeared on the bank statement are classified as 'unpresented' - e.g. a payment via cheque that has not yet appeared as a debit on the bank statement because the payee has not yet banked that cheque. All transactions not marked 'presented' will remain as 'unpresented' on each reconciliation until marked presented.
 

Trial Balance

The Trial Balance displays the total credits, debits and balance of all transactions including ledger transfers. The trial balance includes both physical and virtual movements of funds.
 

Trust Account

A Trust Account holds money that's received on/behalf of another person in relation to real estate, business, or settlement transaction.

Reconciliation

The process of comparing and matching figures from the accounting records against those shown on a bank statement. The result, any transactions in the accounting records not found on the bank statement or vice-versa are said to be unpresented.