Enhanced Trust Accounting (ETA) Features

Home

What does it add to The Collector System?

• ETA reports contain General Ledger entries
• Real time Accounts Receivable/Payable with Aging.
• Breakout of Billed and Unbilled Receivables.
• Ability to reconcile with your accounting GL AR/AP
• Daily tracking of operating and multiple trust accounts.
• Ability to catch perviously undetected posting and procedure errors.
• Unique invoice numbers on all statements.
• Automatic flagging of “Appear on Statement” when posting NSF’s.
• Improved security and audit trail.
• Link payment/NSF transactions.
• View transactions from prior months and post NSF’s against them.
• Import ETA reports into Excel.
• ETA reports can be automated in Dayend.
• New: Historical statement inquiry by client, invoice or debtor.
• In Beta: Track balance forwards by invoice instead of just ageing bucket (OIBF).

The ETA software package from Cubs Consulting, Inc. provides enhancements to the financial components of the Columbia Ultimate TCS (The Collector System). It is a very user friendly software package and produces excellent easy to read reports. The ETA reports also allow agencies to make entries directly to their GL (General Ledger), and easily interface with well-known commercial accounting software packages such as J.D. Edwards, Great Plains, Peachtree, QuickBooks, etc.

In today’s environment of daily remits and gross remit clients, AR within TCS is often not adequately reported and an agency is left estimating what their receivables balance is day to day. Often times, even at month end there is no way to know exactly what changes caused the AR to go up or down, and there is no report that shows what the current AR consists of. The ETA AR and AP modules provide exact numbers and are provable with their ability to display all elements that make up the entry for each client. This includes holdover transactions.

Installed ETA users report that transactions are “locked down” and no longer “lost” as sometimes happens without ETA. Without ETA, agencies must make month end adjustments to their general ledger accounts because there is no supporting detail available. With ETA the accounting department has a full day-by-day accounting of the entries that change cash, commission, AR, and AP GL accounts.

Introductory concepts: 

1. It is assumed that the ETA end user will be computer literate, have a working knowledge of TCS, and have a basic knowledge of accounting terms and concepts. 

2. New/Modified Menus and Options:

Posting Menu - Menu 4, option 1- Modifications have been made and new features or options have been added.

Enhanced Trust Accounting Menu - Menu 4, option 23 - This is the heart of the ETA software package.

Client Update Miscellaneous Screen - Menu 1, option 7 - During installation of the ETA software, new fields are added to which pertain to client standards & preferences.

Remit Code Matrix – An Additional remit code have been added to provide better tracking of payables and receivables.

Daily General Ledger – Sample GL Excel Spreadsheet

3. Multiple Trust Accounts: This is a powerful tool within TCS that is rarely used due to unresolved issues with it in TCS. However, with ETA installed, multiple trust accounts provide accurate reports including the daily required deposit and available operating monies for each trust account. 

4. Net Offset: An accounting term which allows an entity with both a receivable from a client and a payable to the client to “offset” or cancel the lower amount against the higher amount.  

5. Daily Balancing: Most agencies balance only at the end of the month. Utilizing ETA allows for daily balancing and it is recommended that agencies do so. This provides a real time accurate snap shot of the agency’s financials and also significantly reduces the month end reconciliation process. 

6.  Reversals: In TCS, transactions can be deleted any time during the month. This notion is not consistent with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) as it opens the door to inaccuracies and fraud, and it leaves no audit trail. Using ETA, transactions can only be deleted on the same day. Transactions that need to be corrected on a subsequent day are accomplished via the new reversal/reposting function.  

7.  Repost: After a reversal, for example a correction from a prior day, a posting is often made to the correct account. A “repost” allows the transaction, such as a TC 1, to be posted as non-cash, keeping it from appearing on the daily bank deposit. 

8. Statements and Invoices: ETA assigns a unique number to each statement or invoice for easy reference. Statement Summaries will be stored for the last 60 days for easy retrieval.

9. Getting Started: Prior to reading through this documentation, it is suggested that the following items be read first, each of which can be downloaded and saved for free: 

1.      The ETA White Paper PDF file. <hyperlink> http://www.cubsconsulting.com/pdf/ETA_White_Paper_May_16_2009-3.pdf

2.      The Introduction to ETA Word Document <hyperlink>(this the word document with sample rpts in it) http://www.cubsconsulting.com/pdf/ETA_Introduction_Guide.pdf

and the accompanying Introduction to ETA Excel spreadsheet. <hyperlink>??? Don’t know what this is

Ability to run reports in auto mode, usually by dayend. This is especially useful to make sure the Due Us/Due You report is run daily after all posting for the day is complete.