Making trust payments

If there aren't enough funds in a PTA to pay a beneficiary, you need to invoice your customer (or principal developer) to top up the PTA. Then, when processing the payment on the Payments and Applications form (AR302000), select the PTA cash account in the Cash Account field.

To pay a beneficiary from a PTA, release a bill in your main company. This automatically releases a duplicate bill to your PTA company for that project.

When paying the bill on the Cheques and Payments form (AP3020PL), select the PTA cash account in the Cash Account field.

After releasing the paid bill, notify the beneficiary that you've paid them.

We recommend that you use a PTA cash account for all payments to trust beneficiaries. That way, the duplicate bill in your PTA company is automatically balanced by a debit adjustment.

If you pay with a different cash account, you need to manually balance the duplicate bill.

If you've retained part of a payment to a beneficiary, you need to transfer the unpaid amount from the PTA to your retention trust account (RTA).

You can only do this in MYOB Advanced if you've already transferred the retainage to your RTA with your financial institution.

1. Go to the Funds Transfers form (CA3010PL).
2. On the form toolbar, click the New Record icon ().
3. Select the Trust Accounts Transaction checkbox.
   
4. In the Trust Transaction Details section, complete the fields:
   • Project – Select the trust account project with the subcontractor you're retaining payment from.
   • Beneficiary – Select the subcontractor you're retaining payment from.
5. Optionally, edit the automatically completed Description field.
6. In the Trust Transaction Details section, click Load Bills. This adds bills with an open retention amount to the table.
7. In the table, select the checkboxes for the bills with retention amounts you want to transfer.
8. In the Source Account and Destination Account sections, complete the Document Ref field. This is the reference your financial institution gave you when you transferred the retainage.
9. Check the other fields in the Source Account and Destination Account sections to make sure they're correct.

10. On the form toolbar, click Release.

    

    If you want to complete the transfer later, click the Save icon () instead.

    After releasing the transfer, a debit adjustment for each bill is created in the PTA company. Also, a copy of the bill with the transferred retention amount is created in the RTA company. The bill will stay open until the retention is released in the original bill.

1. Go to the Bills and Adjustments form (AP3010PL).
2. From the list, open the bill with retainage that you want to pay.

3. On the form toolbar for the bill, click the ellipsis icon (...) and choose Release Retainage. The Release AP Retainage form (AP510000) opens.

   

   A visual issue causes the Pay button to be listed on the form toolbar, even though the bill is already paid. Ignore the button.

   

4. In the Percent to Release field, enter how much of the retainage you want to pay.

5. On the form toolbar, click Process. This adds a retainage bill to the Bills and Adjustments form.
6. Go to the Bills and Adjustments form.

7. From the list, open the automatically created retainage bill.

   

   To quickly find the bill, look for a selected checkbox in the Retainage Bill column.

   

8. On the form toolbar for the bill, click Pay. The Cheques And Payments form (AP3020PL) opens.
9. In the Cash Account field, select the RTA you want to pay from.
10. Complete the Payment Ref. field.

11. On the form toolbar, click Release.

    

    If you chose to release less than 100% of retainage in step 4, you need to complete extra steps to withhold the remaining retainage.

12. Notify the beneficiary that you've paid them.

If you've decided to withhold retainage from a subcontractor, you need to create a debit adjustment for the amount you're withholding.

1. Go to the Bills and Adjustments form (AP3010PL).
2. From the list, open the bill with retainage that you want to withhold.

3. On the form toolbar for the bill, click the ellipsis icon (...) and choose Release Retainage. The Release AP Retainage form (AP510000) opens.

   

   A visual issue causes the Pay button to be listed on the form toolbar, even though the bill is already paid. Ignore the button.

   

4. On the form toolbar, click Process. This adds a retainage bill to the Bills and Adjustments form.
5. Go to the Bills and Adjustments form.

6. From the list, open the automatically created retainage bill.

   

   To quickly find the bill, look for a selected checkbox in the Retainage Bill column.

   

7. On the form toolbar for the retainage bill, click the Clipboard icon () and choose Copy. This copies all the details of the retainage bill.

8. On the form toolbar, click the Add New Record icon ().
9. In the Type field for the new record, select Debit Adj..
   
10. On the form toolbar, click the Clipboard icon () and choose Paste.
11. In the Description, enter a description of why you're withholding the retainage.
12. On the form toolbar, click Release.
13. Once it's released, click Apply. The Cheques And Payments form (AP3020PL) opens.
14. On the Documents to Apply tab, click the Add Row icon ().
15. In the Reference Nbr. field for the new row, select the retention bill you want to withhold.
16. On the form toolbar, click Release.
17. Notify the beneficiary that you won't be paying them the retainage.

1. Go to the Cheques And Payment form (AP3020PL).
2. In the Reference Nbr. field, select the trust accounts project bill you paid.
3. On the form toolbar, click the ellipsis (...) icon and choose Send/Print Trust Account Notification. A payment notification window opens. For example, the following screenshot shows the window that opens when you pay from an RTA.
   
   
4. To send the notification by email, click Send on the window toolbar.

This procedure explains how to add two kinds of bank transaction:

• Interest received – You can add interest to an entitlement balance, as it forms part of a trustee's entitlement as a trustee.
• Bank changes – When you pay bank charges from a trust account, you must deduct the amount from the entitlement balance.

We recommend entering bank transactions on the Transactions form, as explained in the steps below. However, if you prefer, you can also enter them on the Cash Sales form.

1. Go to the Transactions form (CA3040PL).
2. On the form toolbar, click the New Record icon ().
3. In the Cash Account field, enter the bank account the transaction is related to.
4. In the Tran. Date field, enter the transaction date.
5. Complete the Entry Type field based on the type of transaction you're entering:
   • If entering interest received, use a Receipt type.
   • If entering a bank charge, use a Disbursement type.
6. In the Document Ref. field, enter the external document reference number.
7. Enter a Description.
8. On the Transaction Details tab, click the Add Row icon ().
9. In the Branch field for the new row, select either the project trust account (PTA) or retention trust account (RTA) ledger.
10. Complete the other relevant fields in the row, including Project and Project Task.
11. On the form toolbar, click the Save icon (). Here's an example screenshot of a completed interest-received transaction.
    

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) has rules on who you can pay from your company's trust accounts and who can transfer money into those accounts. There are different rules for retention trust accounts (RTAs) and project trust accounts (PTAs). For details, see the QBCC website.