Before printing the page you might like to click on the VIEW menu and then TEXT SIZE and then SMALLEST in order to automatically reduce the number of printed pages that it takes to provide a hard copy of this page.

F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions

• Basic Operator Notes for Ausbroker
• How to Install Ausbroker on a new computer
• How to Move Ausbroker to a new computer
• Changing Stamp Duty & Other Calculations
• Changing Transfer Document Defaults
• Printing Your Own Transfer Forms
• Emailing Settlement Statements and/or letters
• How to Email Letters as PDF Files
• Your Letters Print Differently on each Computer
• You Get Errors When Printing Letters
• Using Standard Disbursements
• Using the Trust Account
• Getting the Trust Account Started
• Trust Account Month End Processing
• Balancing Your Trust Account
• How to Correct Balance Errors in Ausbroker
• Trial Balance Doesn't Agree with Transaction List
• Opening Balance on Trial Balance doesn't agree with last Closing Balance
• Using Client Searches Files
• Deleting/Changing Transactions
• Cancelling Cheques
• Printing Cheques from your Trust Account
• Printing Receipts from your Trust Account
• Paying your Fees and/or GST from the Trust Account
• How to Handle Revenue SA drawing from Your Trust Account
• Auto-Balancing Journal Entries
• Month End Procedures
• Recovering Data Lost Due to Database Corruption
• Double and Single Entry Journals
• What to do if you accidentally present the wrong cheque
• How to Purge Old Data from Ausbroker
• Finding and Correcting Balance Errors
• What To Do If You Appear To Be Missing Transactions From Any Of Your Monthly Reports
• When you go to Enter the Code for a New Client - Existing Client Details are Automatically Displayed
• Electronic Funds Transfer FAQ
• Importing your Bank Statements into Ausbroker
• Transferring to a New Trust Account
• How Secure is YOUR Password

• General Info about how to use our programs
• Backing Up Your Database
• Information about using EFT
• Creating/Changing Standard Letters
• Can't get out of EDIT CONTROL DETAILS screen
• Your program crashes often (possibly SQL errors)
• Sending us a Backup
• What to do if you can't access your database via your network
• Problems with Auto-Email functions in our software
• Windows Task Manager Processes Explanation
• Solutions to SOME problems encountered during Win-XP Setup
• Backing up Your Outlook Express Mail, Address Book, Mail Rules etc
• Computer viruses and how to combat them
• What is Spyware or Adware?
• How to Send/Receive Faxes using Windows-XP in-built Fax Service
• Printing Cheques and/or Receipts
• Balancing to Your Bank Account
• SQL Query Errors
• Illegal Function Call Errors
• General Procedure to Follow if You Are Having Problems with your Program
• Repairing Your Database using Microsoft Access V2
• Cloning Your Database using Microsoft Access V2
• What if no ABN is quoted?
• Identifying your program or database name or location or Windows folder
• Setting up our software on multiple computers
• Copying our software from an existing computer to new computer
• Valid Bank BSB (Bank/State/branch) Codes show up as Invalid or Missing Code
• How to Run SQL Commands on our databases
• Remote Access to Your Database
• How to Email Reports and/or Letters
• Creating Adobe Acrobat PDF files easily (and for free)
• To print or email a screen dump
• Some reports print in landscape instead of portrait mode
• Importing your Bank Statements into Rent Master or Ausbroker
• How to Change Protected Data
• What to do if you are told that you have an incorrect Registration Code for your Program
• Setting the Country and Language correctly for Australia (Win-XP)
• Setting the Country And Language Options correctly for Australia (Vista)
• You Get Errors When Printing Letters
• How to Email Letters as PDF Files
• You have Windows Vista on your computer instead of Windows XP
• Microsoft Update and the "This Not a Genuine Copy of Windows" Error Message
• Windows "Blue Screen" Error Messages

When we are told that these calculations have changed and what they are now supposed to be we will update the list shown on this web-site on the fees and charges screen. You can then change them yourselves using the simple instructions on that page.

If the stamp duty or registration fees etc have changed recently but you've already entered many clients using the old fees and charges rates - don't despair - you don't have to go and manually correct each one. There is a RECALC FEES option on the EDIT menu from the main screen in Ausbroker which will do this for you. All you need to do is to select which fee/charge has changed and the date that the new fees became effective and the system will automatically recalculate all affected clients for you.

• [Transfer]
• Title1=Whole Of The Land In C/Title
• Title2=Volume
• Title3=Folio
• Fee Simple=Fee Simple
• State=Yes/No

BRTRNSFR.Fmt	Old Transfer - printed onto blank A4 paper
BRTRNSFR.Txt	Old Transfer - printed onto transfer form
BRTRNSNW.Fmt	New Transfer - printed onto blank A4 paper
BRTRNSNW.Txt	New Transfer - printed onto transfer form

To use the pre-printed transfer forms just load the forms into the printer and print the form. It is possible to adjust the printing up or down the page to suit your particular printer if the details don't initially print in quite the right spot.

To print your own transfer forms requires a laser printer as ink jet printers can't (usually) print right to the top and/or bottom of the page. You need to print out a sample transfer form and send it to the LTO for approval (and pay their approval fee). Once it's been approved then we believe that you also have to pay an annual fee to keep printing your own form.

(While we understand the need for the approval fee we believe that you should lobby them to drop the annual fee as there is no reason for them to charge this fee - it's just yet another tax on property transfers and should be covered in the registration of transfer fee).

You can also move the printing up or down and left or right when you print the whole form by adjusting the OFFS x,y entry in the source document for the transfer form. The offsets are in millimetres from the top left hand corner of the page but the topmost and leftmost printing spot on the page will depend on your printer. OFFS 8,12 means that the printing is moved across 8mm and down 12mm from the top left of the page. If you have a duplexing unit in your printer you can print both sides of the transfer form without having to take the paper out and re-insert it into the printer as the duplexing unit does this for you.

• Generate the letter in Windows Write as you would if you were printing the letter.
• Select all of the text in the letter using your mouse.
• Click on the COPY option under the EDIT menu in Write.
• Start up your email program and create a new email
• Click on the PASTE option on the EDIT menu for your new email.
• Now all the text in the letter should have been pasted into your email. You may need to tidy it up a bit as the email program isn't able to display things in exactly the same format as Write (but it should be close).

• Generate the letter in Windows Write as you would if you were printing the letter.
• Save the letter (you'll have to give it a name - make sure you also know WHERE it is being saved).
• Start up your email program and create a new email
• Click on the INSERT FILE option on the INSERT menu for your new email.
• Now find the saved letter and double click on it or enter the letter name and location directly. Note that the letters will normally be saved into the C:\BROKER folder (or possibly the G:\Broker folder if your database is located on the G: network drive). So if you saved your letter as TEST then you should be able to find it at C:\BROKER\TEST.WRI
• You should see your letter displayed as an attachment in the email. To open it and look on it double click on the letter name in the attachment section.

• See How to Email Letters as PDF Files

To email a statement is more complex as the statements rely on using Write's decimal tab feature. If the person that you send it to doesn't have Write installed then their computer will open the statement in Windows Wordpad which DOESN'T have decimal tabs and so none of the columns will line up. To get around this problem we have created a new statement format which will generate the statements in a web page format using Internet Explorer. To use these statements you need to select the statement formate ending in .HTM and not the ones ending in .TXT. You should see (at least) the following letters ending in .HTM

• brpurcst.htm - Purchasers Settlement Statement
• brvendst.htm - Vendors Settlement Statement
• brbrknam.htm - inserts the other conveyancer's name & address where appropriate
• brpurnam.htm - inserts Purchasers name & address where appropriate
• brvndnam.htm - inserts Vendors name & address where appropriate
• letrhead.htm - generates a letterhead with your name & address

Now click on the SEND option under the FILE menu in Internet Explorer and then choose SEND PAGE BY EMAIL. Your email program should start up automatically with the statement attached to it. All you need to do is to address the email, enter the subject and send it.

It is possible, however, for ALL computers to access the SAME letters from the server computer. Have a look at the top of the main Ausbroker screen and you will see the location of your database. Assuming that your database is on drive G: (so it will say G:\Broker\Brok????.Mdb) then you need to set your letter path to be G:\Broker\Letters and you can do this in the bottom left hand corner of the letter printing form. Now ALL the computers will be accessing the SAME letters from the SAME place. However the updated letter may have been saved on one of the other computers and so now you won't have access to the latest copy of that letter even on the machine on which it was changed. However, if you do a network program update on each of the computers then the LATEST version of all of the letters, reports (and Ausbroker itself) will be copied to all of the machines in the network. The LATEST version will ALWAYS be used to overwrite ANY earlier versions no matter WHICH way the network copy has to go.

Another way to always be using the latest copy of the letters is that, each time you change a letter, do a network program update on all of the computers. Once you do this you can continue to access your letters using the letter path of C:\Broker\Letters on each computer as all of the computers will have the latest letter versions anyway.

You can do a network program update by selecting it from the DATABASE menu in Ausbroker. This function can also be used to update the Ausbroker program itself (and the reports) to all of your computers if you have installed a program update onto only one computer in your network.

To use the standard disbursements create a client code "STANDARD" and then go to the disbursements screen for the STANDARD client code. Add in all of the possible standard disbursements that you want to use as if you were entering them for that client. You can enter the cost associated with these disbursements or leave the cost blank.

Now that you've entered the standard disbursements, save that client and bring up any other client code. Go to the disbursements screen and drop down the standard disbursement box and you'll see all of the standard disbursements that you entered. To use one just click onto it and it will be added to the disbursement list for the current client. You can then change the amount and/or description if you need to.

It is quite easy to use the trust account. You just

1. Enter the details of all of the transactions going through your trust account
2. Present the cheques when they appear on your bank statement
3. Print a number of reports at the end of each month
4. Then close off the month.
5. Display, print and/or otherwise inquire on client balances and transactions as you need to

Note that when you use types C:Credit Journal and D:Debit Journal you must enter a total of credits which equals the total of debits - eg

             $500.00 CR  to  client 1234
             $250.00 CR  to  client 2345
             $600.00 DR from client 3456
             $150.00 DR from client 4567

             you debit account 1234 by $550.00 
             and credit this $550.00 to account 2345

Types A, B, Q and R are single sided entries - you don't need a matching entry and they either move funds into or out of your trust account and so your trust account bank balance WILL change.

Type X is a cancelled transaction which will always have a nil balance.
Unfortunately you have to cancel a transaction in two steps

1. First call up that transaction again to edit it (see the FILE menu in the TRANSACTION POSTING screen)
2. Change the balance to ZERO and save it.
3. Then you can cancel it via the option in the FILE menu
4. or you can even call it up again and click on the DELETE key to delete it (as long as the amount is zero)

• The transaction type determines how the trust account and client balances are affected and may change the data that you need to enter
• The Cheque and/or Journal Type is self explanatory - just choose the option from the list that best describes the purpose of the transaction
• The audit number is an internal number which you can't change
• The cheque, receipt or journal number is your reference for the transaction. (If you are printing cheques or receipts then the number is automatically allocated otherwise you can enter it manually.)
• The Date, amount and GST are self explanatory
• The details box is where you put any extra information that might be required by your auditors.
• The name (and address when it asks for it) are for the person to whom you sent the money or the person from whom you received the money.

If you have the AUTO-BALANCE JOURNALS function turned on the there will be an additional client code asked for (in the bottom right hand corner of the screen).

• So if you are entering a DEBIT journal for $500.00 then the system will automatically post a CREDIT journal for $500.0 to this other account
• If you are entering a CREDIT journal for $500.00 then the system will automatically post a DEBIT journal for $500.0 to this other account

If the system keeps popping up the wrong cheque number or receipt number then you can click on the CHANGE TRANS NUMBERS button and change the LAST CHEQUE NUMBER or LAST RECEIPT NUMBER so that the next time it pops up the correct number in sequence (one more than the last number you entered).

Trust Account Transaction Inquiry Screen

You can also do a TRANSACTION INQUIRY from the TRANSACTION POSTING screen.

The BALANCE VEND/PURCH button (in the inquiry screen) can automatically transfer balances from the vendor to the purchaser (or from the purchaser to the vendor). This only works if you are acting for both parties and the vendor and purchaser balances are for the same amount (except that one has a debit balance while the other has a credit balance).

The PURGE TRANSACTIONS button will ask you for a date and it will purge ALL transactions prior to this date PROVIDED that the account balance was also zero as at that date and that no transactions have been entered on that account since the date that you entered. This means that you can delete really old transactions provided that they have no effect on your current trust account balance.

Bank Reconciliation Screen

When you do a BANK RECONCILIATION you just need to CLICK on any cheques that have appeared on your bank statement and they will be marked as PRESENTED on today's date.
You can change the date that they are presented on by changing the DEFAULT DATE PRESENTED at the top of the screen.
Once a cheque has been presented it will disappear from the screen (the next time you view this screen). If, however, you presented the WRONG cheque then you can make it reappear by changing the INCLUDE CHEQUES PRESENTED AFTER date back to a date in the past.

You can (and should) put your opening balances into Ausbroker and so you do not need to run a manual system in tandem with Ausbroker when you first convert to using the Ausbroker Trust Account.

What you would need to do is to

• As at your last manual month end, determine which accounts had non-zero balances and what the balances were for each of these accounts.

• Now some of your other accounts may have had zero balances but still have unpresented cheques outstanding and these will need to be taken into account as well.

• You have a choice here. You MUST enter the details of all of the unpresented cheques into the system in order to be able to do a bank reconciliation. However as far as the receipts are concerned you could just post one receipt per file for the total amount of all receipts to that file. However, considering that the number of receipts per file is small, you are probably better off posting all of the receipts individually as well.

• So, once you have identified all of the files with balances or outstanding cheques you should post ALL of the transactions for each of these accounts into Ausbroker using the TRANSACTION ENTRY screen, You should enter the details with the correct date and amount etc. Then go into the Bank RECONCILIATION screen and mark all of the cheques which have already appeared on your bank statements as having been presented.

• At this time you should be able to print a trial balance from Ausbroker which should match your manual totals from your last month end and you should be able to produce a correct bank reconciliation report which balances with your bank statements (assuming that you correctly balanced your manual system before you started work on the Ausbroker trust account).

• Now close off the month in Ausbroker and you are ready to start entering transactions for the current month.

If you attempt to NOT enter the current outstanding information into Ausbroker and run your manual system and Ausbroker in tandem for a period of time then you will end up having more problems balancing and doing more work than if you do it the way that we have suggested - even if it SEEMS like less work now.

Essentially your month end processing involves just following down the month end menu.

Menu Option	Description
Import Bank Statements	This function enables you to import the presented cheque details directly from your internet banking trust account bank statements to save you having to present the cheques manually. It needs to be setup to cope with the particular format that your banking software exports and this varies from bank to bank.
Present Cheques	This function enables you to tell Ausbroker which cheques have already appeared on your bank statements so that we can identify which cheques HAVEN'T appeared yet. This enables Ausbroker to calculate your actual bank balance from it's own trust account balance so that you can reconcile your bank account as required each month. We actually suggest that you do this on a daily or weekly basis in order to reduce the time taken at month end.
Unpresented Cheque List	After you have indicated which cheques have been presented you need to print a list of un-presented cheques as part of your trust account balancing checks.
Auto Journal Fees	This option can automatically journal your conveyancing fees (as shown on the client's statement) from their trust account to your fees account for that financial year. Then you can draw one cheque from the fees account to cover multiple settlements instead of drawing one cheque for each settlement.
Auto Journal GST	This option can automatically journal the GST on your conveyancing fees (as shown on the client's statement) from their trust account to your GST account for that financial year. Then you can draw one cheque from the GST account to cover multiple settlements instead of drawing one cheque for each settlement.
Auto Balance Vendor/Purchaser	If you are acting for one party only then you would only enter transactions against that party and so this function won't do anything for those clients. However, where you act for both parties, then you are usually left with a credit balance for one party and a debit balance for the other party. These balances should add up to zero once you have finished all work on the settlement. You should journal the credit balance from one side in order to remove the debit balance from the other side as you are not supposed to overdraw a trust account (and overdrawing ONE client's account is overdrawing your trust account - the whole trust account balance doesn't need to be overdrawn). This function automatically journals the balances for you where they add up to zero.
Summary Trial Balance	The summary trial balance just lists one line for each vendor and one line for each purchaser where their balance is not zero and totals the list. The report then shows how much is in each account and what the total trust account balance should be.
Journal Reports	This option has a sub-menu with several reports.
Journal Details	This report lists details of all journals posted this month.
Journal Totals By Batch	This report lists totals of all journal batches posted this month to show whether they are balanced (ie the debits equal the credits) or not.
Unbalanced Journals	This provides a list of journal batches where the total of the credits doesn't equal the total of the debits and so (usually) this means that you have made a mistake. Direct Bank Debits or Credits may not have a corresponding contra entry though.
Month End Update	This option includes the monthly audit report followed by the month end update. As you enter each transaction the system flags it as a current month transaction (the date of the transaction is ignored for this purpose). The month end audit report lists all transactions that have been entered since the last month end close off was done. The month end close off only has to set the current month flags to be NO so that the transactions don't appear on next month's reports.
Purge Transactions	This function enables you to reduce the size of your database (and hence the number of disks required for backup) by allowing you to delete the transaction details of old files which have a zero balance. The system asks you for a purge date and will delete all transactions for any client with a zero balance where the date of the LAST transaction is prior to the purge date. We suggest that you keep at least 5 years history on file or that you NEVER purge as insufficient disk space is no longer an issue with modern technology.
Purge Clients	As above this function enables you to delete all of the client details of old files which have a zero balance. The system asks you for a purge date and will delete all clients with a zero balance where the date of the LAST transaction or other activity is prior to the purge date.
Purge Searches	As above this function enables you to delete all of the search details of old files. The system asks you for a purge date and will delete all searches with a zero balance where the date of the LAST activity is prior to the purge date.
Other Reports	The functions listed above are a MINIMUM requirement and you may also like to print some of the other reports from the TRANSACTIONS sub-menu on the REPORTS menu. We suggest printing ALL of them for the first month and then asking your auditor which ones you should always print.

If the balance error only occurred this month and last month was OK then the first thing that you need to do is print the following reports ...

1. MTD Transactions By TransNo to show all of the transactions entered during the current month grouped by transaction type (eg all cheques together sorted by cheque number, all receipts together sorted by receipt number etc).
2. UNPRESENTED CHEQUES LIST to show the current list of unpresented cheques.
3. PRESENTED CHEQUES LIST for the date range that you are trying to reconcile - probably best to do it for the whole month.

1. One or more cheques which aren't on the Cheques list but which are on the bank statement. These cheques are either for a previous month or they haven't been entered into Ausbroker. Check to see whether they are prior month transactions and whether the amount is correct and if so then you can tick them off on the bank statement as being OK. These cheques should appear on your unpresented cheque list from the end of last month - make sure that the amounts are the same and if they are then you can safely tick that entry off the bank statement.

2. One or more cheques appear on the report but they aren't on the bank statement. This means that they are either on the un-presented cheque list or they have been presented when they shouldn't have been. If you've presented a cheque in error (and updated the list) then you can add it back into the un-presented list again easily. (Don't just post it again using expenses posting) By changing the SHOW CHEQUES PRESENTED AFTER dd/mm/yyyy date on the RECONCILE BANK form to a date prior to when the cheque was presented you will automatically tell Ausbroker to not only display the unpresented cheques but all of the cheques presented after the date that you entered. You can then clear or change the date presented of those cheques presented in error.

3. The amounts on the report differ from the amounts on the bank statement. This is usually because you wrote the cheque out (or entered the details into Ausbroker) for the wrong amount or the wrong cheque number. You MUST correct the cheque amount to match what is on the bank statement even if the amount showing in Ausbroker is the amount that the cheque SHOULD have been written out for. To do this go into the POST TRANSACTIONS screen, bring up the relevant client details, click on the FILE menu and choose EDIT OLD TRANS and then double-click on the transaction that you want to change. (Note that you can't change the date presented this way).

4. The bank statement doesn't add up. Don't laugh - it's actually happened on a bank statement that we saw from Bank-SA when they first started their Internet Banking facility. Also, some times if you print the bank statements daily you may find one transaction which appears at the bottom of one day's bank statement and then again at the top of the next day's statement. It's best to print the bank statements out again for the whole date range that you are going to check rather than print them one day at a time in order to avoid these sorts of errors.

If you still haven't found your balancing error then it must be in the receipts. You should be printing and clearing the Bank Deposit Slip EVERY day so that you have a record of exactly what was banked and for whom. Check your copy of your bank deposit slips against the bank statement and make sure that there are no deposits showing on the bank statement for which you don't have a bank deposit slip. Make sure that the amounts are correct. If you haven't got the bank deposit slips then you'll have to use the same report that you did for the cheques to identify each of the deposits and check them against the bank statement. Note that you may have banked 3 cheques on the same day and on the bank statement it will show the total amount of the deposit rather than each individual cheque that you banked and this can make it harder for you to check.

If you have had a corrupted database and you have successfully repaired it then SOMETIMES it hasn't been totally repaired correctly. We have seen situations where the links in the database have been corrected and yet some information may have been deleted during the repair process. This is rare but it has happened. You will usually notice this by the client's statements not balancing and/or error messages appearing on the transaction and/or transaction summary reports. If this happens first print a summary trial balance, then an unpresented cheques list and then a MTD Transactions By AuditNo. Then run the FIX TRANSACTION TOTALS option from the FIX menu and reprint the reports. Note any changes between the two sets of reports and this will tell you where to look for any missing transactions.

Ausbroker does a number of cross checks whenever you some of the inquiries or reports. If Ausbroker finds any discrepancies then it will print the message BALANCE ERROR to indicate this If you see Ausbroker display a BALANCE ERROR message anywhere then follow the procedure below to track it down and correct it.

1. Click on the INQUIRY menu
2. Choose HTML QUERIES
3. Double click on TRIAL BALANCE ETC
4. Print the report when it is displayed and mark it BEFORE FIX
5. Click on the FIX menu (the screen layout will change)
6. Click on the FIX menu again
7. Choose FIX TRANSACTION TOTALS
8. When asked ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO FIX THE TRANSACTION TOTALS answer YES
9. When asked DISPLAY TRANSACTION TOTALS SUMMARY FIRST answer NO
10. The system will then recalculate all of the client balances.
11. When it has finished it will display a small summary screen - just click on the OK button
12. Close the FIX menu screen by clicking on the EXIT button at the top
13. Click on the INQUIRY menu
14. Choose HTML QUERIES
15. Double click on TRIAL BALANCE ETC
16. Print the report when it is displayed and mark it AFTER FIX

Any changes made by the FIX TRANSACTION TOTALS can be determined by comparing the BEFORE FIX and AFTER FIX reports. Where there is a difference then you need to determine what transactions SHOULD be there and make sure that they ARE there (you will need to re-enter any transactions which are missing).

We have occasionally seen a problem where the Ausbroker Trial Balance and the Transaction List (Audit Trail) don't agree with each other. Usually the Trial Balance is correct but the Transaction List is missing some of the transactions and this is why it they don't agree. This problem was caused by one of two problems.

The first was a bad version of the Crystal Reports Report Engine (CRPE.DLL). We downloaded an update of this file from Crystal Reports and put it into one of our program updates. We later found that there was a problem with it where, if a report was working on a large file, some reports missed whole loads of data records. In order to fix this we reverted back to an earlier version that worked correctly. You can download this earlier, correctly working, version (CRW_UFL Update) from the Download Page on our web site or from link HERE.

The second possibility was an error in one of the reports (don't remember which report). That report has been corrected and you can download the latest version of all of the Ausbroker reports and install them from the Ausbroker Program Update link on the Download Page on our web site.

Note: You will need to download and install these two updates onto EVERY computer that runs Ausbroker. When you download them choose the SAVE option rather than the RUN option and save them to the C:\Broker folder on your computer. Make sure that the box asking whether to "close the dialog box when the download is complete" is NOT ticked. When the file has been downloaded then you can click on RUN or OPEN to install the update. Make sure that you install the CRW_UFL update to the C:\Broker folder.

Sometimes you may notice that the opening balance on your current month trial balance (detailed and/or summary) may not be the same as the closing balance on your previous month end trial balance. There may be several reasons for this as if you have made a change to any transaction for a month that you have already closed off then this will affect the brought forward balance. For example

• You cancelled a prior month cheque after closing off the month
• You changed the amount of a transaction after closing off the month
• You changed the date of a transaction from a date in the current period to a date in a prior period (or vice versa)

To determine the client (or clients) for which this happened...

1. Print a current trial balance (preferably a detailed trial balance)
2. Compare the B/Fwd balance on this trial balance to the end of month trial balance for the previous month
3. If the two figures are different then check the B/Fwd balance on the new trial balance against the closing balance on the prior month trial balance for every client and see which client (or clients) have been changed
4. If you printed a detailed trial balance (not a summary trial balance) you can then check the transactions for that client (or clients) to identify what was changed (ie which transaction(s))
5. Once you do this you will need to write a short note to your auditor as to WHY the change was made.
6. In future, if you have to make changes to prior period transactions, make a note of the change when you actually do it so that when you do the next month end you will already KNOW why there is a difference.

Once you have entered the details for the searches you can record your costs and the amount billed to the client (on the VENDOR screen). You can also print a report showing the unbilled searches so that you don't forget to invoice the real estate agent for the searches if the sale doesn't proceed and/or you don't end up acting for the vendor.

Now what happens if you DO end up acting for the vendor - do you have to re-enter the details into the normal client screen? The answer is NO as you can copy them automatically. To do this go into your normal client screen and enter a new client code for this settlement. Then click on the COPY SEARCH button on the main screen. You will be asked to enter a keyword to search for in the searches file. You can enter the search client code if you know what it is otherwise you can enter the vendor name, the real estate agent's code or part of the property address etc. The system will then display a list of searches that match your entered criteria. Double click on the search file that you want to copy and the details will automatically be entered into your client screen. Then all that you have to do is enter the purchase price, settlement date etc and save the details.

To change an existing transaction you go into the POST TRANSACTIONS screen, bring up the client concerned and then click on the MORE button and then click on the EDIT OLD TRANSACTIONS option on the FILE menu. This will display all of the transactions for that client. Double click on the transaction that you want to change and it will be displayed on the POST TRANSACTIONS screen for you to edit. At this stage you can make changes to the data and then click on the SAVE button to save the transaction.

To delete an existing transaction first change it and set the amount and GST amount to zero and save it. Then repeat the process to bring up the transaction on the screen again and then click on the DELETE button to delete it.

To cancel a cheque see Below.

We have changed the way these functions work in late 2003 so if you have a program version dated prior to this please download a program update from this web site and install the update prior to attempting to change or delete a transaction.

Cancelling cheques is done in the same way as changing/deleting transactions so you need to read that section first.

To cancel a cheque you bring it up to change it using the method described above and then change the transaction type from Q:Cheque to X:Cancelled Cheque and then SAVE the changes.

At this stage we assume that if you want to print cheques that you'll want to print them onto a LASER printer. We don't support printing them to an inkjet printer (because of the large un-printable areas that inkjet printers normally require) and your bank probably won't like that either (because the ink runs if it gets wet). We do support printing cheques on dot matrix printers using continuous stationery however A4 cheques for laser printers have been cheaper than continuous cheques now for quite some time so it's better in the long run to use laser printed cheques.

To use cheque printing you first need to turn the cheque printing function on so ... From the main screen in Ausbroker

1. Click on the FILE menu
2. Click on SETUP PRINTERS
3. On the CHEQUE PRINTER line change the FORM STYLE and INDENTS column to read A4:Pre-printed A4 Cheque
4. Press the TAB key
5. Change the CHEQUE PRINTER entry to be the printer that you want to print the cheques onto
6. Click on the SAVE button
7. Click on the EXIT button

To test the cheque lineup load blank paper into your printer and then go into the cheque printing screen from the main screen in Ausbroker

1. Click on the 11th button from the left across the top of the screen (PRINT CHEQUES)
2. Select a client (any client)
3. Click on the FILE menu
4. Click on the TEST CHEQUE LINEUP option
5. When you have your pre-printed cheque forms then lay this printed copy over the top of one of your pre-printed cheques to see where it will print.

We're pretty sure that this will do what you want but you may also have to adjust the x and y offsets on the SETUP PRINTER page for the cheque printer to move the printing up/down or left/right as the exact printing position will vary with the brand of laser printer used. We don't recommend using an inkjet printer for cheques.

We have used Cheque Printers and Encoders and Star Printing previously for printing cheques and other forms and found both companies to be reliable.

Now to print the cheques go into the PRINT CHEQUES screen, select your client code and click on the MORE button. The system will show a list of cheques to be printed and you can then click on any one cheque to change the date and/or amount and then click on the TAB button a few times to save the details back to the list.

• Then you can choose to print ONE cheque by clicking on the cheque in the list and then the PRINT ONE CHEQUE button.
• You can select multiple cheques to be printed by double clicking in the Chq No box for that cheque and then when you have selected the required cheques click on the PRINT SELECTED CHEQUES button.
• You can click on the PRINT ALL CHEQUES button to print all of the cheque details displayed.
• You can also click on the ADD CHEQUE button to enable you to add more cheques to the list.

Ausbroker has always been able to print receipts. Originally you had to print receipts using a dot matrix printer (eg an Epson LX-300+) using continuous computer paper with 3 receipts to an 11 inch page length. You could either have preprinted receipt stationery or you could have used blank paper as long as it had three perforations down an 11 inch page size. Many of our customers still continue to print receipts in this way. Later it became difficult to purchase blank 11 inch paper with three perforations per page so we added the facility to print 2 receipts per 11 inch page and to use 11 inch paper with two perforations per page instead.

In May 2008 we added the facility to print receipts to an A4 laser or inkjet printer. The system now prints 3 receipts per page on a single A4 page. To use this facility you must have installed an Ausbroker Program Update dated the 6th of May 2008 or later.

To turn the receipt printing on

1. click on the FILE menu from the main Ausbroker screen
2. and then the SETUP PRINTERS option.
3. Set the FORM STYLE for the RECEIPTS to A4:A4 LASER RECEIPT
4. Select the printer that you want to print to from the PRINTER PORT ID box for the receipts.
5. Click on the SAVE button and exit this screen.

If you want to go back and re-print a receipt once you have entered the details (eg because there was a paper jam in your printer) you can do so by

1. Go into the POST TRANSACTIONS screen
2. Bring up the client for whom you wish to print a receipt
3. Click on the FILE menu
4. Select the option to REPRINT RECEIPT and you will see a list of receipts for that client
5. Double click on the receipt that you wish to reprint

If you want to go back and re-print MANY receipts at some later stage (eg if you didn't have receipt printing turned on when you started using Ausbroker but now you want to go back and print the receipts you have already entered) you can do so by

1. Go into the POST TRANSACTIONS screen
2. Click on the FILE menu
3. Select the option to REPRINT MANY RECEIPTS
4. You will be asked to enter a DATE RANGE for the receipts to print
5. You can also select a single client code to print the receipts for (a blank client code means ALL clients)
6. You can also select a single council code to print the receipts for (a blank client code means ALL councils)
7. You can also select a single land agent code to print the receipts for (a blank client code means ALL land agents)
8. You can also select a single other broker code to print the receipts for (a blank client code means ALL other brokers)
9. Once you click on the OK button you will see a list of receipts that match your criteria
10. Double click on ANY of these receipts and ALL of them will be printed for you.

The system automatically creates a number of standard client codes (STANDARD, QUOTE, FEE-2004, GST-2004 etc).

The STANDARD client code is used to set up standard Vendor/Purchaser Debits/Credits to be used in Edit Clients.

The QUOTE client code is used if you decide to print a letter after using the settlement quote function.

The FEE-2004 and GST-2004 (and FEE-2005, GST-2005 etc) clients are automatically created as required so that you can journal your fees and the GST from many clients trust accounts into the one account (FEE-2004 or GST-2004) and then you can write one cheque using the FEE-2004 or GST-2004 account to pay your fees or the GST out of the trust account. This saves having to write one fee cheque and one GST cheque for every client. You can then choose to write on fee cheque per week, per fortnight or per month depending on your needs.

All you need to do is do a debit journal from the client account for the amount of your fees and a credit journal for the same amount to the FEE-2004 (or whichever year it is) account. By using a separate fee account for each financial year it keeps all of the fees for one year together. If you have the AUTO BALANCE JOURNAL function turned on in EDIT CONTROL DETAILS then the system allows you to post both the debit and the credit in the one entry as you can select the client code for the credit from the box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

There are a number of different transaction types available in Ausbroker. They are listed below...

Note that Type C and D must be balanced. When you post Credit and Debit journals the total of credit journals posted MUST equal the total of debit journals posted. You can post 20 credit journals adding up to (say) $10,500 and offset these with only three debit journals as long as the three debit journals ALSO add up to $10,500. An alternative is to post matching pairs of debit and credit journals with the same value to different accounts.

However, if Revenue SA (or anyone else for that matter) automatically transfers funds out of your trust account then you must use a Direct Bank Debit A in order to process this transaction. Direct bank credits and debits are not required to be matched with an opposite balancing journal. When posting transactions like receipts, cheques and bank journals normally each transaction will affect only ONE client trust account and will result in the trust account balance ALSO being changed by the same amount. When you post debit and/or credit journals you are transferring funds from one client's trust account to another without affecting the total trust account balance and so they MUST match.

If a revenue SA direct bank debit (or you paying something via EFT instead of a cheque) affects more than one client trust account then you should set up clearing account in Ausbroker. Then you use a combination of debit and credit journals to transfer the required funds to/from the actual client accounts into the clearing account. Then you can post one bank debit or credit journal from the clearing account to reduce the clearing account balance to zero again. When you have finished all of your postings for any one transaction the clearing account should always have a zero balance. To prevent the clearing account from having too many transactions in it you should set up a new clearing account each year (eg call the accounts RVSA2003, RVSA2004, RVSA2005 etc for each year.

It is possible to get Ausbroker to automatically create balancing entries for every journal that you do. So if you enter a credit journal for $100.00 then Ausbroker will automatically create a debit journal for $100.00 to balance it out. How do you know if this facility is enabled?

1. Go to the EDIT menu
2. then OTHER MASTER FILES
3. then CONTROL DETAILS
4. then OTHER OPTIONS
5. Look for the AUTO BALANCE JOURNALS tick box

If it's NOT ticked then you have to enter both debit and credit journals when you post them and the total of all of the debit journals must equal the total of all of the credit journals so that the net effect is zero change to the total balance of the trust account.

If it IS ticked then when you process a DEBIT JOURNAL or CREDIT JOURNAL then the system will ALWAYS make a corresponding CREDIT or DEBIT journal to another account so that the journal entry is ALWAYS self balancing to zero. The account to which the other side of the entry is made can be selected down in the bottom right hand corner of the TRANSACTION POSTING screen.

Normally when you use the journals you do ONE debit to one account followed by ONE credit journal to another account in order to transfer balances directly from the first account to the second. To do this type of transfer you could need auto balancing turned ON. However, if you are taking your fees, then you may debit ten different accounts with your fees and then post ONE credit journal (for the total of all of your fees) to your fees account. To do this type of transfer you would need auto balancing turned OFF.

Note: The BANK DEBIT JOURNALS and BANK CREDIT JOURNALS are single-sided entries and don't require any balancing entry as these are used to process direct deposits into your trust account or direct debits taken out of your trust account and the total trust account balance will always go up or down when processing these transactions.

• Month End
  • Present Cheques Indicate which cheques have appeared on your bank statements
  • Unpresented Cheque List Print the Report which should have a zero balance error
  • Auto Journal Fees (If you use this function)
  • Auto Journal GST (If you use this function)
  • Auto Balance Vendor/Purchaser (If you use this function)
  • Summary Trial Balance You MUST print this report
  • Journal Reports The following reports are useful for checking
    • Journal Details
    • Journal Totals By Batch
    • Unbalanced Journals
  • Client Trust Changes Useful information
  • Client Statements
  • Backup Database Keep a separate backup for EVERY month
  • Save Database As Save a copy of your database on the hard disk
  • Month End Update Do last of all
  
  
• Reports Menu
  • Transactions
    • Bank Deposits
    • Daily Banking Summary
    • Detailed Trial Balance
    • All Transactions List by Client (Optional)
    • MTD Transactions by Client
    • All Transactions List by Number (Optional)
    • MTD Transactions List by Number
    • Cheque Reports
      • Unpresented Cheque List
      • Presented Cheques
      • Presented Cheques By Date
      • Uncleared Cheques
    • Zero Balance Clients (Optional)
    • Month End Report
    • Clients with Current Transactions
    • Schedule B
    • GST Report
  • Search Reports (if you use this part of the program)
    • Searches
    • Billed Searches
    • UnBilled Searches
    • Billed/Sold Searches
    • Billed Agent

From time to time (especially if you have lots of people accessing the data) Microsoft Access Databases become corrupted. Microsoft has provided a repair/compact option which we can call from within Ausbroker and this, in most circumstances, will restore the database integrity without loss of data. Unfortunately Microsoft don't provide any warning if any of the data is lost during this process. In most cases it is the database indexes (which tell the program where to find the data) rather than the actual data that is corrupted and the index data is also stored within the data itself and so corrupted indexes can always be restored with 100% accuracy which is why the repair process almost always works without data loss.

In the event that the repair/compact function from the database menu doesn't work you can also try to do the repair using a copy of Microsoft Access Version 2 (and only Version 2) and you can see further information on this on our site at Repairing Your Database using Microsoft Access V2

If you have lost a few client data records or some transaction records you can actually restore the missing data without losing your current data if you follow the process below. Note that it is ALWAYS better to restore the last known good backup rather than try to patch your database but if all else fails this should work. By the way, if you have a corrupted database and you recover by restoring a backup - make sure that AFTER restoring the backup you shut down your computer, restart it and do a Repair/Compact on your database to make sure that the data that you have restored is put into pristine condition before continuing to process.

To restore missing transactions do the following procedures.

• Shut down and restart your computer
• Do a repair/compact on your current database (from the DATABASE menu in Ausbroker)
• Backup your current database
• Make a note of what the name and location of your current database is (in the title bar at the top of the screen) eg it might say G:\Broker\BrokWork.Mdb
• If you need to do a restore to recover an old database which has the data intact then do so however you should be able to just open one of your month end backups directly by clicking on the FILE menu in Ausbroker and then SELECT NEW DATABASE and then clicking on one of the backup files. For Ausbroker the backup files should be named BROKyymm.Mdb where the yy and mm are replaced by the year and month when they were copied. (eg April 2005 backup would be saved as Brok0504.Mdb).
• Go to the Database menu in Ausbroker and choose IMPORT/EXPORT DATA
  • Choose EXPORT DATA
  • Select the TRANSACTIONS data file
  • Select Comma Separated Values Format (CSV)
  • Note down the text file name that it is going to export to
  • Click on the PROCEED button. This will export the transactions from this database into a text file.
• Either change back to your live database (using SELECT NEW DATABASE from the FILE menu in Ausbroker) or restore the backup of your database that you made earlier (if you had to restore an old backup because you didn't have backup file already on your hard disk drive). Remember that you noted down the name of your current database earlier in this process.
• Go to the Database menu in Ausbroker and choose IMPORT/EXPORT DATA
  • Choose IMPORT (Add New Records)
  • Select the TRANSACTIONS data file
  • Select Comma Separated Values Format (CSV)
  • Make sure that the text file name is the same as the file that you previously exported
  • Make sure that the check box marked ERASE EXISTING DATA BEFORE IMPORT is NOT ticked!
  • Click on the PROCEED button. This will add back any missing transactions to this database from the text file but will not change any data that is already in the database.
• Run the FIX TRANSACTION TOTALS option from the FIX menu to make sure that the client balances reflect the current state of the transaction file.

When you use the Ausbroker journals you can have them auto-balance themselves or you can choose to enter the balancing entries yourself. In either case the sum of the debit journals must equal the sum of the credit journals (ie the sum of all journals must be zero) as the purpose of the journals is to transfer funds from one account within Ausbroker to another account within Ausbroker without affecting the total trust account bank balance.

To use the auto balancing journals you have to turn this on in EDIT CONTROL DETAILS. To do this go into the EDIT MENU then OTHER MASTER FILES then CONTROL DETAILS then click on the OTHER OPTIONS button and put a tick into the AUTO BALANCE JOURNALS tick box. If there is no tick in this box then you must enter the other side of each journal manually.

If you are NOT using auto balancing journals then the totals of all journals entered must add up to zero. You can do this by always entering a debit journal of the same amount for every credit journal that you do and vice versa or you could enter many debit journals and then enter one credit journal where the credit amount is equal to the sum of all of the debit amounts etc.

If you choose to use the self balancing journals then when you enter a journal you need to also enter the client code for the other side of each journal and if you are doing a credit journal the system will automatically create a debit journal against this additional client code with the same details as your credit journal. the same thing happens when you enter a debit journal. The purpose of this feature is to save you time and to prevent you from accidentally entering non-balancing journals. The client code for the other side of the journal entry is entered down near the bottom right hand corner of the screen in a box which is only visible if you have this feature turned on.

When you mark a cheque as presented all the system actually does is store the presented date against the transaction in the transaction file. If you notice that you have done this before you exit the bank reconciliation screen then just double click on transaction which was incorrectly presented and it will be marked as unpresented again (ie the date will be cleared).

However, if you exit this screen and come back into the screen then the cheque may no longer be visible and so you can't un-present it. Or can you?

If you look up at the top of the screen you will see a date marked INCLUDE CHEQUES PRESENTED AFTER dd/mm/yyyy and all you need to do is change that date back to a date in the past and the cheques presented after that date will appear in your list of unpresented cheques. They will still show their presented date and so they will still be presented unless you decide that you want to un-present them in which case you can double click on them and, presto, they become un-presented again.

We've had a number of users ring up to ask this question. The answer in right there in front of you on the screen but we all tend to "not see the wood for the trees" but it's a good example of why you should read ALL of the screen and look at ALL of the menus because often the answer is right there in front of you - you just can't see it.

Normally there is no need to purge data from Ausbroker but if you feel that searching the client file is running too slowly then you could purge some of your older clients and this would speed it up. Note that you have to keep 5 years records but as long as you keep the paper records then you don't need to also keep that data on-line. HOWEVER it is easier to find data in an on-line database rather than search through paper records so be careful if you decide to purge data from Ausbroker.

Ausbroker will NOT allow any client files with balances (or unpresented cheques) to be purged so purging will NOT change any of your balances.

The client history file is a short form of the client details file and you CANNOT purge the client history file and so you should be able to do a search in the client history file in order to locate ANY client file even if the client details have been purged from the client file.

The purge functions are part of the month end menu and you have to actually click on each of the purge options in order to activate them. There used to be an automatic purge function which was ALWAYS invoked during the month end processing but since very large hard disk drives are now also very cheap there is no need to purge any data in order to conserve disk space - only to speed up the searches and/or reports.

You can purge

1. Client Data but not any clients with balances

2. Transactions but only those transactions which result in a nil balance for the client concerned

3. Search Data where you only performed a search for an agent or other client with no resulting sale

If you choose one of these options you will be asked to enter a date and all data prior to that date will be purged provided that the settlement date is prior to that date and the last transaction for that client was prior to that date and that the last un-presented cheque was presented prior to that entered date.

If you purge clients then the transactions for that client are also automatically purged along with the vendor/purchaser information etc but only if the client file has a zero balance in both the vendor and purchaser trust accounts.

If you have a system crash or other problem and your database becomes corrupted you can usually repair it (when given that option by Ausbroker) and the corruptions are automatically repaired. SOMETIMES Microsoft Access can't repair the database completely and some data may be missing from the database. This doesn't happen often and unfortunately Microsoft Access DOESN'T tell you that it couldn't fully repair the damage. There isn't anything that we can do about this as it is an internal function provided by Microsoft. The most usual results after a repair is either that the database IS repaired correctly or that Microsoft Access tells you that it can't repair it (so you need to restore a backup). It is only in very rare cases that it appears to repair it but information is missing. If you need to restore a backup do a REPAIR on the restored backup as the database may have already been partially corrupted before it finally crashed on you. (Some people do a backup and then a repair/compact on their database once a week - whether they have a problem or not).

If you have a copy of Microsoft Access Version 2 (NO other version will work) then you can repair the database using Access itself which appears to work better than the repair we have provided as part of Ausbroker. Click HERE to find out more.

Ausbroker automatically maintains balance checks on itself to enable it to detect any problems with the trust account balances. It stores an opening balance for the current month, a list of all of the transactions for the current month and a closing balance for the current month. It does this for each client and for the entire trust account. When you print many of the month end reports Ausbroker takes the Brought Forward Balance, adds on the current transactions and compares this to it's internal closing balance. If the two match then there is no problem - if they don't then it prints a balance error.

Ausbroker prints BALANCE ERROR messages on the TRIAL BALANCE if it detects any balance errors for the trust account. At this stage it doesn't identify which clients are affected.

As well as checking for current month balance errors Ausbroker ALSO checks for balance errors over the whole financial year and will print a YTD BALANCE ERROR message if it finds any such errors.

Other things that you should check each month end is that the Brought Forward Balance on the TRIAL BALANCE report is the same as the CLOSING BALANCE on last month's trial balance. You should also check that the YTD brought forward balance is the same as the closing balance for the previous 30th of June trial balance. If either of these balances have changed then you have a problem with your balances.

To correct these errors you need to follow the procedure below. Note that there is now a single report which includes the trial balance and outstanding cheques report etc in the one report. To access this from the INQUIRY menu go to HTML queries and choose the TRIAL BALANCE ETC report.

• Print a TRIAL BALANCE report and hand write BEFORE FIX onto the report
• Print an OUTSTANDING CHEQUES (Bank Reconciliation) report and hand write BEFORE FIX onto the report
• Go to the FIX menu and then FIX TRANSACTION TOTALS (answer NO to the question about displaying summary totals first)
• Print a TRIAL BALANCE report and hand write AFTER FIX onto the report
• Print an OUTSTANDING CHEQUES (Bank Reconciliation) report and hand write AFTER FIX onto the report
• Compare the before and after reports. You may notice that some of the balances may have changed. This tells you where the errors are.

• Print a TRIAL BALANCE etc report from the HTML INQUIRY MENU and hand write BEFORE FIX onto the report
• Go to the FIX menu and then FIX TRANSACTION TOTALS (answer NO to the question about displaying summary totals first)
• Print a TRIAL BALANCE etc report from the HTML INQUIRY MENU and hand write AFTER FIX onto the report
• Compare the before and after reports. You may notice that some of the balances may have changed. This tells you where the errors are.

Usually only the closing balances for the month are changed. Once you know which transactions are missing then you can then just re-enter them and all of the problems should be corrected.

We have had, in the past, a problem with one version of the Crystal Reports Report Engine DLL (crpe.dll) which we released in a program update. Most of the reports in Ausbroker are generated using the Crystal Reports Print Engine because it is an industry standard generic reporting tool which is reasonably easy and quick to use. If one or more of your monthly reports seems to be missing pages of information it may be because you have the faulty version of CRPE.DLL. To fix this ...

1. Please download the CRW-UFL (16-bit) update from the download page on our web site
2. Exit out of Ausbroker first
3. When you open it (or Run it) it should display a short message saying what it is
4. You just need to click OK to close that message
5. Then click on the UNZIP button
6. When it has finished unzipping change the entry that says C:\Windows\System to say C:\Windows\System32
7. Then click on the UNZIP button
8. When it has finished unzipping change the entry that says C:\Windows\System to say C:\Windows
9. Then click on the UNZIP button
10. When it has finished unzipping change the entry that says C:\Windows\System to say C:\Broker
11. Then click on the UNZIP button
12. Then close the update screen
13. Run Ausbroker
14. test the report that you are having problems with

The other thing that you can do is just do a REPAIR/COMPACT from the database menu in Ausbroker as it may also be caused by a corrupted database. Please also read Repairing Your Database using Microsoft Access V2

This problem occurs if you have client codes of varying length instead of them all being the same length. An example of this would be if you have codes like 1, 13, 143, 1837, 10398. In this case as soon as you enter 1 then the client with code 1 will be displayed and you won't be able to display codes 13, 143 etc without using the page-up or page-down keys. To correct this you need to make all of your codes the same length as per 00001, 00013, 00143, 01837, 10398.

The easiest way to correct this is to use the automatic function provided to add leading zeros onto all of your short codes. To do this

1. Click on the FIX menu
2. Click on the FIX menu again (the first click changes the screen display only)
3. Then choose CHANGE CODES
4. Then CLIENT CODE LENGTH
5. If your longest code is 5 digits long then enter 5 as the length of the code and all codes less than 5 digits long will have zeros added to the front of them

The method above won't correct codes 1, 01, 0001 and 00001 if they all exist since adding zeros the the front of all of them will end up generating the same code of 00001 so in this case you will need to change each of them to another code manually (any other code as long as it doesn't already exist).

1. Click on the FIX menu
2. Click on the FIX menu again (the first click changes the screen display only)
3. Then choose CHANGE CODES
4. Then CLIENT CODE
5. Enter the original short code and click on OK
6. Then enter a new 5 digit code and click on OK and that short code will then be changed to the new longer code that you have entered.