Entering Payment/Cheque Items in Settlement Financials

Learn how to enter payments in the Payments tab (Cheques tab in QLD) to finalise your Settlement Financials in a Conveyancing matter.

Accessing Settlement Financials

To enter the Settlement Financials layout:

1. Open the matter in the Smokeball desktop app.
2. Double-click on Settlement Financials in the Matter Info section.
   

This article will focus on the Payments/Cheques tab at the top of the Settlement Financials window.

To enter Adjustments, refer to Entering Adjustments/Statement Items in Settlement Financials.

Entering Payments/Cheques in Settlement Financials

The Payments/Cheques Tab will differ based on the matter type you are in.

Sale Matter

In a Sale matter, only the Payment Direction is available.

When the Agent’s Fees are greater than the deposit held, a Payment Item will appear here for the agent.

Purchase Matter

In a Purchase matter, the Amount Required to Settle and Payment Direction tables are available.

Completing the Amount Required to Settle

The Amount Required to Settle table is a reconciliation of the amounts the Purchaser needs to pay in order to settle i.e. the amount due on the Adjustment Sheet/Settlement Statement, plus Transfer/Stamp Duty, plus the Firm’s Invoice.

• Firm’s Invoice: When billable fees and disbursements are added to Time & Disbursements, an Our Account item is automatically created for you.
  
• Add an Amount: Click on Add Amount to create any other additional amounts.
• Remove an Amount: Hover over the amount and click on the corresponding red cross to remove an amount.
  
  
  • Amount due on Settlement and Transfer/Stamp Duty (if applicable) amounts cannot be deleted. Stamp duty will only appear if the duty is unpaid and not exempt.

Completing the Payment Direction

The payments you entered while creating the Adjustment/Statement items in the Adjustment/Statement tab will automatically appear in the Payment Direction table.

These items are greyed out and can only be modified or deleted by returning to the corresponding item on the Adjustment/Statement tab.

For each Payment select:

• the source from the Paid From drop-down menu; and
  
• the Payment Type from the drop-down menu.
  

Click on Add Payment to add any additional Payments required on settlement.

To remove a Payment, hover over the payment and click on the corresponding red cross.

Just like in the Adjustment/Statement Item List, Payee names denoted in brackets, i.e. [Council], are automated in your document from your matter. For example:

• Council’s name will generate in your Settlement Financial precedents from the corresponding Council Contact Card on your matter; and
• The ELNO’s name will generate from your ELNO selection in Conveyancing Details.

Vendor Payments

Ensure you mark which Payments will be coming out of what is owed to the Vendor. To mark a Payment as a Vendor Payment, select the Vendor checkbox against the corresponding Payee.

The Total amount required to settle and the Total payments to be drawn should tally, for example:

Confirming Available Funds and Balances

You will see two sets of tables under the Payment Direction table:

Available Funds Balances

The left-hand table allows you to enter the available funds from the Bank, Trust and ELNO in the corresponding fields.

Based on what is selected in the Paid From column in the Payment Direction table, the system will calculate the total amount that is paid from Bank, Trust, ELNO and Client.

It will then display the total amount for the respective sources in the Less payment amounts row.

Vendor Balance and Balance Required to Settle

The right-hand table gives a snapshot of the total of the payments in the Payment Direction, allowing you to check that:

• All Payments due to and for the vendor have been accounted for in the Payment Direction, else it will show that there is a balance left to be directed; and that
• Other amounts required to settle have been accounted for in the Payment Direction (e.g. Firm’s Invoice, Revenue Office, ELNO, Land Titles Office), else it will show that there is a balance left to be directed.