Trust account handbook - Department of Commerce - wa.gov.au

everse the transaction. Agents should ensure they only access their banking details in a secure
environment and all devices have appropriate and up-to-date security software.
4.4 Transfer journals
All journals between trust ledger accounts should be verified.
4.5 Receipt books
Maintain strict control of all receipt books, particularly those that are not in use. This will make
it difficult for a person to issue a receipt improperly and subsequently misappropriate a client’s
money. Check deposits against receipts each month and establish receipt cancellation procedures.
4.6 Agency management
The employee who manages the accounts should not be responsible for banking the money. In
large agencies, duties should be rotated between employees so that their activities are monitored
by others in the agency. The person in bona fide control must ensure that duties are rotated
between employees on a periodical basis to avoid one person having sole responsibility of the
computer system. Where this is unavoidable, the work of the employee who has sole responsibility
for the computer system should be reviewed on a regular basis.
Where possible, the person receiving trust funds and issuing receipts should not be the same
person who is charged with the preparation and banking of trust funds. The person in bona fide
control should prohibit the use of IOUs by staff and establish procedures for recovering outstanding
money. The licensee should also pay close attention to the division of duties between staff handling
client queries and those involved in the cash transactions. As part of the policies of the agency,
the person in bona fide control should instruct new employees that misappropriated funds will
be reported to the police immediately and internal control systems, including obtaining copies of
cheques that have been presented to the bank, are in place.
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4.7 Cash payments or cheque payments
All payments from the trust account should be by cheque or authorised electronic transfer. All
drawn cheques should have a supporting invoice or documentation. The person in bona fide control
needs to ensure cheques are crossed ‘Account Payee only – Not Negotiable’ or that ‘bearer only’ is
replaced with ‘order’.
The person in bona fide control should be a compulsory signatory to the trust account, or a system
to review cheques issued on the trust account should be put in place. The person in bona fide
control should restrict access to the trust account chequebook. If the agent has any concerns
about the management of the trust account, ask for a printout of the cheques and ensure cheque
numbers are consecutive (sometimes theft occurs when an employee issues or takes cheques
from the bottom of the cheque book).
If the agency operates more than one trust account, and therefore has more than one cheque
book, each cheque book should be readily identifiable to its corresponding account. The person in
bona fide control should obtain copies of presented cheques from the bank to ensure no cheques
have been forged.
SETTLEMENT AGENTS’ TRUST ACCOUNT HANDBOOK