Escrow Accounts

Use Escrow Accounts for bank accounts that you manage but do not own.

USING ESCROW ACCOUNTS
Depositing Funds | Paying Bills | Escrow Transactions | Using Escrow Accounts

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When to Use Escrow Accounts

Use an Escrow account for money that you manage, but don't own. The money may be due to you in the future, or it may go to another party in the future.

Escrow accounts are neither assets nor liabilities-- they are not included on your balance sheet at all.

Use Escrow accounts for:

Rental deposits
Gift certificate and layaway funds
Client money which you are managing temporarily
Taxes that you have collected but not yet paid, that must be kept in an escrow account

Do not use Escrow accounts for money that others hold in escrow for you. If you don't get bank statements for the account, there is no need to enter it in Goldenseal.

HINT-- If escrow money is owed to you, you can get it on your balance sheet by entering a Sale transaction or a project Billing Record for the future income. That way it will be included as Accounts Receivable.

Creating Escrow Accounts

To create a new Escrow account, follow these steps:

Choose Escrows from the Accounts menu.
Choose New Record from the Edit menu, or click the New button.
Fill out information about the account.

Data Fields

Enter the following information for each Escrow account:

Account Name-- Enter a short name for the account. This is the text that will appear in the Chart of Accounts and in pop-up menus.
Bank Name-- Enter the bank or organization where the account is located.
Address-- Enter the address where escrow payments are sent.
Account Number-- If there is an account number for the account, enter it here.
Phone-- Enter the bank's phone number.
Comments-- Enter any comments you'd like to make about this account. You may want to enter key words to make it easier to locate or group particular accounts.
Starting Balance-- Enter the starting balance for the account-- the amount in the account when you first started using Goldenseal.
Minimum Balance-- Enter the minimum balance for the account. Goldenseal will bug you if you go below it.

Created-- When you create an account, today's date will be entered automatically.
Record Number-- An internal record number will automatically be assigned.
Account Type-- Choose the type of account for which this account is being held.
Held For-- Enter the customer or other account for whom this account is being held. If the account is used for more than one account, you can leave this field blank.
Checkbooks-- If you write checks from this account, enter the checkbooks that you use, and the next number for each.

Calculated Fields

Goldenseal shows the following calculated values for this account:

Current Balance-- The current balance is the most recent running total, after all bank transactions are included.
Last Changed-- Goldenseal shows the date of the most recent change in this account.

Status Field

Enter the current status of this account:

Active-- You currently do business with this customer.
Inactive-- You don't currently do business with this customer, but you may in the future.
Closed-- You definitely don't do business with this customer any more.

Escrow Transactions

To move money into or out of a Escrow account, use a Escrow Transaction.

To create a Escrow Transaction, follow these steps:

Choose Escrow Transactions from the Bank menu, and choose an account from the submenu.
Click the New Button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Click on the Type popup at top center, and select a Bank Check, Payment, Deposit, Transfer In or Transfer Out.
Enter other details for the bank transaction.

Using Escrow Accounts

Use Escrow accounts just like any other bank account.

When you make a payment or transfer to an Escrow account, it is handled exactly the same as if you paid for an expense. When you take a deposit or transfer from an escrow account, it is handled the same as income from an outside source.