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Set up accounts so reports are ready to file

A report from Estate Bookkeeper should be ready to file as it comes out. You should not have to change numbers, add categories, or move figures around afterward. How you set up accounts and enter transactions decides how much detail the report shows, so choose a method before you start entering data.

Watch the walkthrough: Set up the chart of accounts for reporting, 17 minutes. The video predates some changes to the app. Where they differ, follow this page.

There is no single right method. The choice depends on what your court requires, what your firm prefers, and the size of the matter. A matter with thousands of transactions may call for a different method than a simple estate.

The example

The decedent's checking account held $100,000 on the date of death, May 1. It earned interest of $302 in May, $303 in June, and $305 in July, for a total of $910. The account was then closed and the money moved to the estate checking account.

The opening balance does not appear in the income and expense sections of a report. Every entry after it does. The question is how the $910 of interest should appear.

Method 1: one summary entry

Enter one deposit of $910 with the Schedule C interest account as the other account.

The description is the only thing the reader learns about this entry, so make it count. Name the source account and the period, for example Decedent's Checking, May to July. Leave out the word interest. The entry already sits under the interest account on the report.

  • On the report. Schedule C interest shows $910. Expand the account to show the one detail line.
  • Use it when the matter is simple and you already know the total.
  • Limits. The report has no detail on individual payments. You also have to total the amounts somewhere else first, which is where errors creep in.

Method 2: individual entries in the category account

Enter each interest payment on its own date, straight into the Schedule C interest account. Put the source account in each description.

  • On the report. Schedule C interest shows $910. Expand the account to list all three entries.
  • Use it when you enter transactions statement by statement and the reader needs every entry.
  • Limits. The report can get cluttered. Most readers do not care about each payment or its date. They want the total from each source.

Method 3: a subaccount for each source

This is the method to prefer in most cases.

  1. On the Accounts tab, add an income account named Decedent's Checking and set its Parent Account to Schedule C interest.
  2. Enter each interest payment with that subaccount, not the parent, as the other account.
  3. Keep descriptions short. The account names already say that this is interest and where it came from, so the month is enough.
  • On the report. Schedule C interest, then Decedent's Checking, then its total, without a line for every payment.
  • Use it when several entries come from one source and you want the report to show the total by source.

You can add the subaccount while you enter a transaction. Choose Add new account at the end of the Account dropdown.

Check the result

After you enter the transactions, run the Combined Account and look at how the entries read before you file anything. Accounts that have transactions but no subaccounts start collapsed to their totals. Click the arrow beside an account to show or hide its entries. The export matches what you see on screen.

An account's Report Description also appears under its name on every report. Use it when an account needs a line of explanation.

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