Quick answer
For money you can't yet place, receipt it as unidentified / unknown funds so your reconciliation isn't held up, then allocate it once you confirm the source. For a reconciliation that won't balance, compare the bank feed against your ledger line by line, check for wrong dates, wrong amounts, duplicates and unpresented payments, and confirm the closing balances match. Trust accounts are legally regulated — follow your state's rules and involve your bookkeeper if it still won't balance.
WHY IT HAPPENS
Small mismatches, big consequences.
Trust accounting is unforgiving: every dollar in and out has to be receipted to the right ledger and reconciled against the bank. Most day-to-day headaches come from a handful of things — a bank-feed line that didn't auto-match, a rent payment with a mystery reference, a receipt entered on the wrong date, or a payment that hasn't cleared the bank yet. Property Tree gives you tools to handle each of these, and the steps below walk through them in the order you'll usually meet them.
HOW TO WORK THROUGH IT
Receipting, matching, then reconciling.
Getting the bank feed and receipts in
- Check the bank feed / import came throughConfirm the day's transactions have actually loaded. If the feed is missing or partial, re-import or refresh it before you start — reconciling against incomplete data will send you in circles. If a feed consistently fails to arrive, that's one to raise with MRI support.
- Match what auto-matches, then handle the restProperty Tree will match many bank-feed lines to expected rent automatically. Work through the unmatched ones by tenant reference and amount, and receipt them to the correct property and tenant ledger.
- Receipt genuinely unidentified money to "unknown"When you can't tell who a payment belongs to, receipt it as unidentified / unknown funds. This captures the amount against your trust account so your reconciliation still balances, and lets you allocate it properly later. Chase the reference or contact the payer, then reallocate — don't let unknown funds sit indefinitely.
Reconciling the trust account
- Compare the feed to the ledger, line by lineTick off each bank transaction against the matching entry in Property Tree. A reconciliation that's out is almost always a single line: a wrong amount, a wrong date, a missing receipt or a duplicate. Finding that one line fixes most "won't balance" cases.
- Account for unpresented itemsPayments you've entered that haven't yet cleared the bank (unpresented) are a normal reason your ledger and bank balance differ on the day. Confirm these are timing differences, not errors, and that they clear as expected.
- Confirm the closing balances matchThe point of the reconciliation is that your trust ledger balance equals the reconciled bank balance. When those two agree and every difference is a known timing item, you're balanced. Complete your end-of-month reconciliation on schedule as your state's trust rules require.
Know where the IT problem ends and the accounting begins. If a bank feed keeps failing to arrive, Property Tree won't load, or the software is throwing errors, that's a technical issue worth chasing with MRI support and your IT provider. But how funds are receipted, held and reconciled in a trust account is regulated by law and varies by state — always follow your state's trust-accounting rules and lean on your bookkeeper or trust accountant for the accounting judgment calls. This article is general guidance, not accounting advice.
