Changing the branch of a matter

Updated Feb 22nd, 2023

Who is this guide for?

Any Users, Accounts Users and Accounts Supervisors

Occasionally you may discover that a matter has been set up on the wrong branch. This guide will assist you in resolving the issue.

Matters with no ledger balances

If the matter in question has zero balances in all columns of the ledger card, you can simply navigate to clients and matters, select the matter, click Edit and change the branch, then save your changes.

Matters with ledger balances

In order that the per branch accounts remain in balance – for example the Debtors on the Trial Balance to match the sum of Office + Disbursements from the Ledger Balance – if there are balances on the client ledger card it will be necessary to zero the balances on the ledger before you amend the matter. See example below.

This can be done by transferring the balances to the bank, we will transfer them back again once the branch number has been changed in the matter.

Use the posting types below depending on the ledger column you need to zero:

Ledger ColumnDebit BalanceCredit Balance
Office/Disbursements(black balance) Use o – Office Bank Receipt(red balance) Use o – Office Bank Payment
Client(red balance) Use c – Client Bank Receipt(black balance) Use c – Client Bank Payment
Deposit(red balance) Use d – Deposit Receipt(black balance) Use d – Deposit Withdrawal

Use the same posting date and reference for all of the required postings. Once you have cleared all the balances on the ledger card, edit the matter, change the branch and save your changes.

Now, return to the ledger card, and post the balances back on again using the opposite posting types used in the previous step. Use the same posting date and reference again for all the postings.

Once the ledger card has its original balances back again, you can navigate to banks and journals and search for the reference used in all the postings made (you will need to ensure that the Branch and Department are both set to ALL before doing this, since in effect you have transferred monies from one branch to the other) – if you have done this correctly the balance ticked for all of these postings should be zero.