This article will take you through processing a Trust on Class, taking a best practice approach to minimise the time spent.
We will run you through the following steps;
- Load all Cash Transactions
- Processing Buys & Sells
- Processing Corporate Actions
- Generate Income
- Automatch & Manual Matching
- Transaction Rules
- Processing Ad-hoc Transactions
- Review Exception Report
- Revalue Unlisted Investments
- Year-End Processing
- Close Financial Year
Load all Cash Transactions
Your starting point when processing, is to add the cash transactions for the relevant financial year. To add cash transactions, there are a few approaches:
- Cash Data Feeds It is best practice to have cash data feeds activated for all your cash accounts. This will allow cash transactions to automatically feed through from the Data Feeds provider;
- Uploading Transactions via CSV or Copy/Paste If your are yet to activate data feeds, or you require to back-fill transactions, the second-best approach will be to enter transactions in Class via a CSV upload or our Copy/Paste functionality;
- Manual File Loading - Class supports a range of files that can be manually uploaded to Class.
Back-filling Transactions - You might need to back-fill cash transactions for the income year if the feed provider does not support historical transactions. Refer to our Feeds Overview page for insights into our feed providers that support history.
Processing Buys & Sells
Second, is recording all buys and sells in Class, again there are a few approaches:
-
Activating Broker or Wrap Data Feeds - It is best practice to activate broker and wrap data feeds, where applicable. activating such feeds will automatically feed across buys and sells directly from the feeds provider;
When a data feed is not available
- Manual File Loading - Class supports a range of files that can be manually uploaded to Class;
- Excel Transaction Loader - Portfolio Tab You can use the Excel Transaction Loader to enter buys and sells. This is particularly useful if the entity has actively traded and you have the buys and sells already in Excel/CSV format, where they can easily be copied and pasted to the loader; and
-
Manually - You can manually enter buys and sells, using:
Investment - Buy
Investment - Sell
Processing Corporate Actions
Navigate to Fund Level > Investments > Browse Corporate Actions
After recording the buys and sells, processing Corporate Actions is the next essential step to ensure your holdings accounts are reconciled for the financial year before we look into Generating Income.
Generate Income
Navigate to Fund Level > Transactions > Generate Income
The Generate Income function will automatically populate your listed security income, creating dividends, distributions and foreign income based on your unit holdings.
You can Generate Income multiple times if any unit holdings have changed during the year. Examples of this occurring include; forgetting to process a buy/sell or there is a dividend re-investment.
Automatch & Manual Matching
Automatch
Navigate to Fund Level > Transactions > Match Transactions > Automatch
Use the Automatch function to automatically match-off cash transactions with the respective Business Event. Automatch will only match off transactions based on the total amount and date parameters. Automatch can also automatically match-off cash transfers from one cash account to another.
The Automatch function can only match transactions with a date period of 0 to 7 days. Always review the items being matched and unselect matches where you think it might be incorrect to avoid incorrect matching.
Manual Matching
Navigate to Fund Level > Transactions > Match Transactions
After using Automatch function, you might have cash transactions that require manual matching against the respective Business Event. This might occur when you have a cash settlement that takes more than 7 days to be paid/received.
Refer to the Manual Matching article for further guidance.
Transaction Rules
Navigate to Fund Level > Transactions > Match Transactions
or
Navigate to Fund Level > Transactions > View Transaction Rules
Set-up Transactions Rules to process re-occurring cash transactions. Transaction Rules are commonly created to process the following:
- Interest Received
- Bank Interest Paid
- Bank Fee
- Administration Fee
- Adviser Fee
- Beneficiary drawings/capital contributions
- Rental Statement
It should be noted, it is highly recommended to not set-up Transaction Rules to process listed security income, such as Dividends & Distributions for ASX listed securities and Managed Funds with an APIR code. The approach is highly inefficient and unreliable, and it is best practice to use Generate Income to process such business events.
Processing Ad-hoc Transactions
Navigate to Fund Level > Transactions > Match Transactions > menu button > Match To New
At this point of processing, you might have a couple of unmatched transactions, such as ASIC fees and other ad-hoc transactions. These can be processed manually in the Match Transaction screen.
Review Exception Report
Navigate to Fund Level > Reports > Exceptions Report
After matching off all the cash transactions for the financial year, view the Exceptions Report. The Exception Report essentially provides a validation of your processing.
The most common validation issue is a reminder to enter Annual Tax Statements for distribution income received. Refer to the following articles for guidance on Annual Tax Statement processing:
You can have unmatched Business Events relating to the financial year. Class will automatically accrue such income or expenses.
Revalue Unlisted Investments (Where carrying assets at Market Value)
Navigate to Fund Level > Investments > Browse Holding Accounts
Before you commence year-end processing, you can revalue unlisted investments such as property and unlisted securities held. Refer to the following articles for guidance on revaluing unlisted investments:
There is no need to manually revalue listed securities. Class revalues listed securities automatically.
Year-End Processing
Navigate to Fund Level > Periodic Processing > Period Update > select financial year
At this point you will run a Period Update, which posts any revaluation and tax adjustments.
- Click on "Distribute Retained Earnings" to allocate Retained earning to relevant Beneficiary for the year.
Close Financial Year
Navigate to Fund Level > Periodic Processing > Period Update > select financial year > Finalise Tax
- Click on Finalise Tax button
Navigate to Fund Level > Periodic Processing > Period Update > select financial year > Close Financial Year
Once the accounts have been finalised it is best practice to Close the Financial Year to prevent automatic or accidental processing in that year.