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.
✓
0 / 6
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.
✓
0 / 5
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.
✓
0 / 3
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.
✓
0 / 4
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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A written assessment of your books, before you commit to anything. Currently complimentary for new property managers.
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.