Onboarding Your Trust Account Using PracticePanther

Overview: This article will walk you through the steps of onboarding an existing trust account using PracticePanther. 

Note: You will need to synchronize TrustBooks with PracticePanther first. Here are the steps Sync to PracticePanther

1: On the Dashboard page select the Complete Trust Account Onboarding blue box. 

2: This opens the Onboard Existing Trust Accounts Page. 

Select Onboarding Step 1 Enter Bank Balance.  

3: Choose the existing Trust Account from the drop-down menu. Select a Start Date. Enter the Bank Balance from the statement and select Save. 

4: After you select Save it will take you back to the Onboarding Existing Trust Accounts Page. You will now move to Onboarding Step 2 Enter Clients. 

Onboarding Step 2. Enter Clients. This is where you will list all clients with a balance as of your start date. 

5: Import PracticePanther Clients How to import PracticePanther Matters

This will open the Enter Clients page. Enter all active clients as of your starting date. To add more clients, click ADD MORE.

6: Enter Client & Matter Balances manually to the imported PracticePanther Matters. You will notice every matter that you imported in to TrustBooks will now show up in Step 3 Enter Client & Matter Balances. 

 (Note: this step is not required but highly recommend. If you do not wish to do Step 2 in the Onboarding window move to Step 3.)

Note: In PracticePanther you can pull starting balances as of a certain date. Here are the steps:

How to get Client Balances as of a certain date in PracticePanther - TrustBooks Knowledge Base

Step 7: You will then enter in all their Balances as of the start date you chose. 

Step 8. Once you have entered in all your Clients & Matters and Starting Balances our program will automatically calculate that you have properly disbursed the amount of money to the matters. At the top you will see that the difference should be zero. 

9. Select Save at the bottom of the page. 

10. If you need to account for uncleared transactions you will need to select Save and then move to Onboarding Step 4.

Note: if a client who has an uncleared transaction has a zero balance you will need to enter that in Onboarding Step 2 Enter Client & Matter Balances. This will allow their name to appear in the drop-down list to assign it to the specific uncleared transaction in Onboarding Step 4 Enter Uncleared Transactions. 

11: Select Onboarding Step 4 Enter Uncleared Transactions to enter all uncleared transactions as of your onboarding date that you chose in Onboarding Step 1. 

12: Enter in all Uncleared Transactions and select Save. 

13: After selecting Save you will be taken back to the Onboard Existing Trust Accounts section and you can choose the final onboarding step, Step 5 Review and Finalize Onboarding. 

14: The final step is to review your balances. The goal is to have your Adjusted Bank Balance match the Total of your Matter Balances. If there are any differences, TrustBooks will record the difference to a general account called Onboarding for IOLTA Trust Account - Unspecified Matter. This will allow your individual Matter balances to reconcile to your bank balance as of your Start Date. After reviewing select Finalize Onboarding at the bottom right in Green. 

You will now be able to begin recording activity in to TrustBooks after the Start Date you selected.