Trust Account Diagnostic
1
Daily
Recon
2
Segreg-
ation
3
Deposits
4
Distribu-
tions
5
Work
Orders
6
Period
Close
7
Records
Results
Section 1 of 7

Daily Reconciliation

The foundation. Without a daily three-way match, variances accumulate invisibly and compound with each cycle. This is the practice that separates clean books from accumulating risk.

0 of 6 answered in this section
01
Every trust bank account is reconciled every business day — not weekly, not at month-end.
02
Each day you confirm a three-way match: bank balance = PMS trust ledger = sum of all individual tenant ledger balances. All three tie out before the day closes.
03
Bank transaction files are downloaded manually, not left solely to an API sync.
(Sync failures silently block reconciliation and can disconnect every linked account at once.)
04
Every transaction the PMS does not auto-match — utilities, vendor bills, chargebacks, manual adjustments — is matched by hand the same day.
05
No unmatched item is carried forward. Each is resolved or moved to a documented suspense account before the day closes.
06
You know today's actual position on every account — not last month's closed balance.
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Section 2 of 7

Trust Account Segregation

The first principle. Commingled funds — even briefly — are among the most common bases for license action. Clean segregation is not a technicality; it is the structural foundation of trust accounting.

0 of 5 answered in this section
07
Trust funds and operating funds sit in separate bank accounts. Never commingled, not even briefly.
08
Company money never covers a trust shortfall, and trust funds never cover an operating expense.
09
Each owner's funds are identifiable within the ledger at any moment — you can produce a per-owner balance on demand.
10
Total owner balances plus all tenant deposits equals the trust bank balance. If it does not, there is a variance to find.
11
No owner or property ledger is negative. A negative balance means one owner's funds are covering another's expenses.
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Section 3 of 7

Security Deposit Compliance

One of the most frequently cited gaps. Per-tenant deposit tracking and return timeline compliance require a record-keeping discipline that most PMS systems support but few operators maintain consistently.

0 of 4 answered in this section
12
Deposits are tracked separately from rent, each tied to a specific tenant and lease.
13
You can produce the exact amount held for any tenant, on demand, matched to the bank.
14
Return timelines are tracked against your state's statutory deadline for every move-out.
(Missing the deadline can forfeit your right to retain any portion of the deposit.)
15
Deductions are documented with supporting records before any funds are released.
0 / 4
Section 4 of 7

Owner Funds & Distributions

Where errors compound fastest. Distributions and owner statements built on unreconciled books carry every variance forward, and the owner relationship is where discrepancies surface first.

0 of 4 answered in this section
16
Distributions are calculated from reconciled books — never from an unreconciled running balance.
17
No distribution takes an owner below zero or dips into another owner's funds or tenant deposits.
18
Each owner statement ties to the trust ledger and the bank — the statement matches the account.
19
Management fees are verified against the actual posted amount each period — confirmed correct, not assumed correct.
0 / 4
Section 5 of 7

Work Order & Chargeback Billing

The billing integrity layer. Work orders billed before verification, or to the wrong ledger, create discrepancies that are time-consuming to trace and difficult to reverse once distributed to owners.

0 of 3 answered in this section
20
Work order charges are billed only when work is verifiably complete, the vendor bill is attached, and the charge is approved — not before.
21
Tenant chargebacks are billed to the correct ledger and supported by documentation.
22
Capital improvements above a set threshold are flagged for the owner and their CPA, not buried as routine maintenance.
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Section 6 of 7

Period Close & Lock

The close discipline. An open or incorrectly closed period makes every subsequent report unreliable. A locked period is the only guarantee that historical records are final.

0 of 4 answered in this section
23
Each month is formally closed and locked once reconciled — no silent back-dated edits to a closed period.
24
Transactions landing on the last day of a period are reconciled into the correct period before close.
(A payment orphaned between two periods is among the hardest variances to fix and forces reopening closed books.)
25
A closed month produces a fixed bank reconciliation report, an income-and-expense statement per property, and owner statements — all tying to the same numbers.
26
Genuinely unresolved items sit in a documented suspense account with a clear record — never absorbed silently into a balance.
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Section 7 of 7 — Last section

Records & Documentation

What you can prove. Documentation is what turns a clean process into a defensible one. These are the records that determine whether your books can be explained — not just balanced.

0 of 5 answered in this section
27
On any given day you could produce a three-way reconciliation showing the trust account in balance.
28
Whoever keeps your books has full visibility into every transaction but zero authority to move money. Payment authority stays with you.
(This removes your bookkeeper from any payment-liability chain.)
29
Your reconciliation history is documented and retrievable — you can show not just today's balance but consistent reconciliation over time.
30
An unmatched-transaction log exists and is current — every item that did not match is recorded, with its resolution.
31
Your chart of accounts is built to a professional property-management standard, not improvised.
(Meridian Books builds to NARPM-standard charts of accounts.)
0 / 5
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Trust Account Diagnostic Results
Meridian Books · Self-Assessment · Confidential
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andres@meridianbooksllc.com · meridianbooksllc.com
Meridian Books Wyoming LLC · EIN 42-1971765 · Daily three-way reconciliation · $1M Errors & Omissions Insurance (Next Insurance) · Maximum 15 clients per operator · Built to NARPM professional standards
This assessment is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. Trust account requirements vary by state; consult your attorney or CPA.