Real Estate Bookkeeping Cleanup One deposit, two accounts

Imagine one contract's earnest money posted into commission income, and a trust account with no deposit in that week. The amount sits between the two accounts until someone assigns it back upward. No dollar is printed. No client's name is used. Operating expenses were not paid from the trust account in this picture, so a claim that the accounts were mixed is explained and not made. The picture stops before any entry that would move the deposit.

The week usually gets named at the kitchen table, after the office is dark, when the commission total went up and the trust total did not. The fear is that a deposit held for someone else was touched. We know that hour. Commission should keep its own line, and money held for someone else should keep another. One line for both is how a deposit goes missing.

The week in the picture has two lines that should have been one deposit and were not. Commission income went up. The trust account did not. Nothing in the picture pays an operating bill from the trust account, so a claim that the accounts were mixed stays an explanation and not a charge. The next entry, the one that would put the deposit back, is not drawn. That is on purpose. The call is where that entry gets decided, after the week is named. This is a picture, not a client file, and no dollar is printed.

A Tax CFO opens on which account the deposit used, then on whether the month was already called closed. The missing entry and the return have to be talked about together. The useful stop is the moment before any correcting entry. If the month was already called closed, say that first, rather than hiding a correction under a new close.

Bring the week, not a property address. The note on the form can name the account. It should not name the house.

Bring the trust total and the commission total as two figures, even if one of them is zero. A zero trust week is still a week. If several contracts closed, name the one that worries you and leave the others for the hour. The picture is one contract. Your week may be messier, and that is what the hour is for.

We do not need the client's name or a screenshot of a software screen. The account name and the week are enough to start. If the month was already called closed, say the month. Reopening it is a different conversation from writing the first entry.

If earned commission is still sitting with the trust money, say that too. The picture does not show that case. The home page does. The hour can cover both the mixed deposit and the earned amount that never left.