# How to Check the Month-End Close With Copilot in Excel > A collection agency can't pay its clients until the trust account ties and every remittance is right. This sets up Copilot in Excel to trace each break while formulas decide and a person releases the money, then shows the agent we build to run the same check at every close. By Vlad Shvets, Partner @ Qvery 路 Published 2026-11-01 路 Updated 2026-11-01 路 18 min read Canonical: https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/ Before a collection agency sends its clients their money for the month, someone proves two things in Excel. The trust account **holds what the agency owes**, and **each client's remittance is right**: the month's collections less the agreed commission, after the payments that bounced and the ones debtors paid straight to the client. By hand, someone in accounting lays the bank statement beside the trust ledger beside the posting report and works line by line against a deadline. Idaho, for one, gives an agency 30 days after the month ends to remit. The errors are ordinary: a payment posted to the wrong client, a check keyed in twice, a bounced payment left in, an old commission rate. Each one overpays a client or shorts one, and a trust account holding less than the agency owes breaks the rule in Washington and Illinois. Copilot in Excel can do that reading now. It shouldn't be the one that decides: Microsoft's own Copilot FAQ says to avoid using it for decisions in finance. So in this setup **formulas decide** whether the month ties, Copilot traces and explains what they flag, and a person releases the money. We built an invented agency's October to show it: Tallis Creek Recovery, five clients, 512 payments, and six errors planted before the first formula ran. ![The Checks sheet for the invented October: a trust difference of -660.90 split into -48.50 and 612.40, nothing unexplained, one misposted payment, two repeated rows, four remittances that differ, and NOT YET on the last line.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/screenshot-checks.webp) *Every planted error shows up as a number, and the last line still says NOT YET.* - **6 of 6** planted errors the workbook's formulas flagged - **$660.90** trust account difference, traced to a $48.50 bank fee and a $612.40 payment entered twice - **$816.58** what the draft remittances would have overpaid in total, hiding $2,845.31 overpaid to three clients and $2,028.73 underpaid to two - **3** connections between the flags that no formula drew, which is the reading Copilot does here Source: Qvery: one invented month for an invented collection agency, built and computed in a spreadsheet, November 1, 2026 Those numbers are the workbook's, not Copilot's: the Copilot steps below follow Microsoft's documentation, and what Copilot writes about your month changes with the model and the run. The steps build that workbook on your own month, from the exports to the one prompt that traces every break and a skill for next month. After them comes how Qvery builds a custom agent that runs the same check at every close. **What you'll need** - **Copilot in Excel:** an account labelled M365 Copilot (Basic) or (Premium); a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence adds the model picker and search across your work files - **Excel:** for Windows, Mac or the web, where edit, plan and chat modes all run, with calculation set to Automatic - **Workbook location:** OneDrive or SharePoint, so version history can take you back - **Exports:** the trust bank statement, the trust ledger, the payment posting report, returned payments, the clients' direct-payment reports, the draft remittance schedule, placements, client rates and last month's totals - **Notes:** one line for anything the team knows that moved a number - **Reviewer:** whoever releases remittances, and not the person who prepared the schedule Time: an afternoon to set up the workbook the first time, by my estimate; after that, each month is new exports and one reading from the saved skill This covers the trust account and the client remittances for one month, not the operating account's close or the corrections posted in your collection system. ## Give Each Export Its Own Sheet, Formatted as a Table Make one workbook for the month and paste each export onto its own sheet, exactly as your systems produce it. Then select a cell in each, choose **Home > Format as Table**, confirm the range and that it has headers, and name the sheet after what it holds. **The names matter** more than the formatting. The rules and the prompt below refer to Payments, Trust ledger and Schedule by name, and Copilot can only follow an instruction about a sheet it can find. **The month's exports, one sheet each** | Sheet | What it holds | What it proves | |---|---|---| | Bank statement | the trust account's statement for the month | what the bank holds | | Trust ledger | your own record of the same account | what you think it holds | | Payments | the posting report, one row per payment | what was collected, and for whom | | Returns | payments that came back unpaid | what comes back out | | Direct payments | what clients report debtors paid them directly | commission you're still owed | | Schedule | the draft remittance schedule and its offset list | what you're about to send | | Placements | every account, and the client that placed it | whose money each payment is | | Clients | each client's contingency rate and when it changed | how much you keep | | Prior month | last month's collections by client | what counts as a big swing | | Notes | a line from whoever knows | why a number moved | Next to the posting report, add three columns. The first finds the client that placed the account, the second says whether the payment was posted to that client, and the third catches a row that repeats another's account, date, amount and reference (the check number or the ACH trace): **Payments sheet, columns I to K, row 2 (fill down)** ``` =XLOOKUP(C2,Placements!A:A,Placements!C:C,"NOT PLACED") =IF(D2=I2,"yes","NO") =IF(COUNTIFS(C:C,C2,B:B,B2,E:E,E2,G:G,G2)>1,"TWICE","") ``` A fourth sheet, Flagged payments, pulls those rows out with `=FILTER(Payments!A:K,(Payments!J:J="NO")+(Payments!K:K="TWICE"))`, so nobody scrolls 512 rows to find three. ![The Flagged payments sheet: a $2,400.00 payment on account BV-95534 posted to Quillfield Residential, marked NO, and the same $612.40 check 5924 on two rows, marked TWICE.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/screenshot-flagged-payments.webp) *Three rows out of 512: one posted to the wrong client, one check entered twice.* On our month, one row says NO and two say TWICE. **The NO is $2,400.00** paid on a Brightvale Auto Credit account and posted to Quillfield Residential. The TWICE pair is one $612.40 check from an Oxbow Valley Water debtor, check 5924, entered twice in Saturday's lockbox batch. TWICE is a suspect, not a verdict: two real payments can match on all four, so the lockbox image decides. Your exports' columns won't match ours; point every formula at your own. If every row says NOT PLACED, the account numbers don't match as text (one system pads them with zeros or adds a space): fix the export. ## Write the Checks as Formulas Before Copilot Sees the Month A formula [gives the same answer every month](https://qvery.ai/blog/excel-macros-vs-ai/) and shows its working in the cell. Copilot doesn't, and Microsoft says so. So everything that decides whether the month closes lives on three sheets of formulas: **Checks**, **Remittance check** and **Month over month**. > 馃摉 **What the trust account has to do** > - Washington: enough "at all times to pay all moneys due or owing to all customers", paid out only to customers, the agency's attorney on assigned claims, refunds of overpayments, and the agency's own earned money. > - Illinois: the same floor, and each deposit in within 5 business days of posting. > - Your state's days and its list may differ; read its rule before you set the checks. The trust check is a **three-way tie**. Start from the bank's closing balance, add your deposits the bank hasn't credited yet, and take off the checks it hasn't paid yet. That adjusted balance should equal your trust ledger. Whatever is left over has to be traced to one of two things: a line on the bank statement your ledger doesn't have, or a deposit the bank credited for a different amount than you recorded. When both are listed, **the unexplained difference is $0.00**, and every difference has been found. Finding a difference doesn't fix it. The month is ready only when the fee and the batch difference are corrected too, which is what the last line on Checks tests. The third side is what you owe. The adjusted bank balance has to cover the total due to clients, recomputed from the exports, and what is left over is your own commission still sitting in the account. On our month, $138,307.71 covers $94,854.95, so the account holds enough even before the corrections. ![Five steps: bank 148,923.49; timing items adjust it to 138,307.71; ledger 138,968.61; a 48.50 fee and a 612.40 duplicate explain the gap, in red; 94,854.95 owed to clients is covered.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/illustration-trust-tie.webp) *The timing items explain themselves next month; the two red items have to be fixed before the money goes out.* The remittance check **recomputes every client** from the exports. Collections by the client that placed the account, not the client as posted, less returns, less your commission at the contract rate, less your commission on the direct payments the client reported. Then it compares that with the draft schedule. Direct payments are the line people forget. When a debtor pays your client directly, your commission on it is still yours if your contract says so. Illinois writes it into law: the client pays the agency within 60 days of month end, and the agency may offset it against what it owes the client. Our sample takes the offset on the remittance. The month-over-month check **flags big swings** against a rule in two cells, $5,000 and 25% in our sample, written before you look at the month, so which clients get explained is decided by the rule and not by what surprised you. You don't have to type these. On a copy of the workbook, switch Copilot to plan mode, which lists the ranges, sheets and formulas it intends to change before it changes them. Describe the three sheets and the limits (formulas only, the swing rule in two cells, no existing cell changed), and approve the plan only when you can say what each formula does. It should arrive at these, the ones our sample runs on: **What the key checks compute (review Copilot's formulas against these)** ``` Trust ledger, column F (on the statement?): =IF(COUNTIF('Bank statement'!C:C,C3)>0,"yes","NO") Trust ledger, column H (book minus bank): =IF(F3="yes",ROUND(E3-SUMIFS('Bank statement'!D:D,'Bank statement'!C:C,C3),2),"") Checks B4, deposits in transit: =SUMIFS('Trust ledger'!E:E,'Trust ledger'!B:B,"Deposit",'Trust ledger'!F:F,"NO") Checks B5, outstanding checks: =-SUMIFS('Trust ledger'!E:E,'Trust ledger'!B:B,"Remittance",'Trust ledger'!F:F,"NO") Checks B6, adjusted bank balance: =B3+B4-B5 Checks B8, difference: =ROUND(B6-B7,2) Checks B11, unexplained difference: =ROUND(B8-B9+B10,2) Checks B14, trust covers what is owed?: =IF(B6>='Remittance check'!H7,"yes","NO") Checks B30, ready to release remittances: =IF(AND(B11=0,B9=0,B10=0,B16=0,B17=0,B19=0,B22=0),"yes","NOT YET") Remittance check F2, commission: =ROUND((C2-D2)*B2,2) Remittance check H2, net due: =ROUND(C2-D2-F2-G2,2) Month over month F2, flag: =IF(AND(ABS(D2)>=Checks!$B$27,ABS(E2)>=Checks!$B$28),"EXPLAIN","") ``` Row 3 is the first ledger row after the opening balance. On Checks, B3 and B7 hold the bank's and the ledger's balances, B9 and B10 the two kinds of traced difference, B16 and B17 the misposted and repeated payments, B19 the drafts that differ and B22 the unoffset direct payments. Then run the new sheets on last month first. You reconciled it and sent the money, so every line should tie, and a check that fails there is either wrong or has **found something** last month's review missed. ![The Remittance check: five clients with collected, returned, direct payments, commission, net due, the draft's net and the difference; four rows read DIFFERS and Oxbow Valley Water reads ties.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/screenshot-remittance-check.webp) *Four drafts differ from the recomputed remittance; the one that ties is still wrong.* ## Lock the Checks and Write Copilot's Rules Into the Workbook On Checks, Remittance check and Month over month, choose **Review > Protect Sheet**. It isn't security, as Microsoft says, but it stops a locked formula from being typed over. Then add a sheet titled **.Rules**, with the dot. Copilot reads it on every prompt in this workbook, as long as the rules sit in column A and the sheet stays visible; a hidden .Rules sheet is ignored. Rules can be formulas, so one of ours reads the trust result on Checks and changes what it tells Copilot: **The .Rules sheet, column A** ``` ## WHAT THIS WORKBOOK IS The month-end check of the client trust account and the client remittances. Every number on Checks, Remittance check and Month over month is a formula. ## NEVER Never edit Checks, Remittance check, Month over month or .Rules. Never edit Payments, Returns, Direct payments, Schedule, Schedule offsets, Trust ledger, Bank statement, Clients, Placements or Prior month. They are exports from our systems; corrections are made there, not here. Never say a check passes. The formulas on Checks decide that. ## WHEN I ASK ABOUT A BREAK Start from Checks. For every line that is not zero, "ties" or "yes", find the rows behind it and name the sheet, the row and the amount. Say which items are timing (a deposit in transit, an outstanding check) and which are errors. If you cannot point to the rows behind a difference, write "not traced" and stop. Do not offer a cause you cannot point to. =IF(Checks!B11=0,"The trust account difference is fully traced on Checks: explain the traced items, do not look for others.","The trust account has an unexplained difference of "&TEXT(Checks!B11,"#,##0.00")&": trace it before anything else.") ## WHEN I ASK FOR FIXES Write proposed corrections only on a new sheet named Proposed: one row per correction, with the sheet, the row, what changes, the amount and why. Releasing a remittance, moving money in or out of the trust account and changing a client's rate are decided by a person. Propose them; never present them as done. ``` ![The .Rules sheet as built: rules in column A under the headings WHAT THIS WORKBOOK IS, NEVER, WHEN I ASK ABOUT A BREAK and WHEN I ASK FOR FIXES.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/screenshot-rules.webp) *The rule above WHEN I ASK FOR FIXES is a formula; it reads the trust result on Checks.* Two settings finish the lock. In the Copilot pane, open the **Add** menu, choose **Change data sources**, and turn off **Web**, and **Work** if your licence has it. The answer should come from this workbook, and work search can pull in any file you're allowed to open. ![The Add menu in the Copilot pane with Change data sources highlighted, below Choose plugins and skills and above Create workbook rules.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/ms-copilot-data-sources.png) *Change data sources is where Web and Work go off for the close chat.* Then decide how you'll get back. Keep the workbook in OneDrive or SharePoint, where version history works, and turn autosave off while you try edits, as Microsoft's tips page suggests. If the workbook links to supporting files, open two of those links after any session in edit mode: Copilot edits have been reported to rewrite them, absolute paths included, though Microsoft hasn't confirmed it. People who live in Excel guard against a lost version and a broken link like this: **Tips** > Safer workflow = AutoSave OFF + frequent Ctrl+S + AutoRecover every 5 minutes + OneDrive versions + daily archiving. > ([r/excel 路 Sep 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/1ndxkja/warning_recent_windows_10officeonedrivecopilot/)) > Even for "moderately small" Excel sheets but are data sources I use in building reports, I make daily or weekly backups so I can always revert if needed. > ([r/excel 路 Dec 2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/1pu35k2/something_scrambled_my_data_copilot/)) > Try getting the server path and use that instead of the drive path. > ([r/excel 路 Jun 2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/1ubyzdv/copilot_breaking_my_hyperlink_paths/)) ## Ask Copilot in Chat Only Mode to Trace Every Break to Its Rows Open Copilot from the icon in the lower-right corner of Excel and switch the mode. **Edit is the default**; for this step choose **chat only**, which Microsoft describes as analyzing the workbook without making changes to it. ![Copilot in Excel's mode menu with three choices: Allow editing, Plan, and Chat only.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/ms-copilot-modes.png) *Allow editing is selected by default; choose Chat only before you ask Copilot to check.* **The prompt: trace every break (chat only mode)** ``` Read the Checks sheet. For every line that is not zero, "ties" or "yes", trace it to the rows behind it on the other sheets and give the sheet, the row and the amount. Say which items are timing (a deposit in transit, an outstanding check) and which are errors. Where one error shows up on more than one line, say so. If a difference does not trace to rows, write "not traced". Do not suggest fixes yet. ``` A right answer on our month has to contain all of this; hold yours to the same list from your own Checks sheet: - The trust difference of $660.90 split into the $48.50 bank fee (Bank statement, FEE-1031) and $612.40 on batch LB-1017, with the $612.40 tied to the two TWICE rows - The $1,225.00 deposit in transit and the $11,840.78 outstanding check called timing, not errors - Ferrous Lake Fiber's +$875.00 traced to a $1,250.00 payment returned unpaid on October 30 that the draft didn't take back out - Quillfield's +$1,560.00 and Brightvale's -$1,800.00 named as one payment - Brightvale's -$1,565.00 split into that -$1,800.00 and +$235.00 for a direct payment missing from the offset - Oxbow called wrong by $410.31 even though its row says "ties" - Sandmoor's -$463.73 traced to the rate: 30% on the draft, 28% in the contract from October 1 Three of those lines are **what formulas can't say**. The misposted payment shows up on two clients' rows as two different numbers, and Brightvale's row shows one number for two errors pulling in opposite directions. Oxbow ties because its remittance is recomputed from the same payment table that holds the duplicate, so only the trust check sees it. Finding those connections across sheets is the reading Copilot is for. Where its answer and the Checks sheet disagree, go to the rows: the sheet is right about its arithmetic, and Oxbow shows it can still be wrong about the data it was given. Each finding is something a person fixes, somewhere other than this workbook: 1. **A $48.50 bank fee taken from the trust account** A payment out of the trust account to someone Washington's list doesn't name. **Fix:** operating pays $48.50 back, and the bank charges operating from now on. **Held when:** November's statement shows no fee and the bank-only line reads zero. 2. **A $1,250.00 return the draft didn't net** Ferrous Lake Fiber would get $875.00 you never collected. **Fix:** take the return off the draft. **Held when:** Ferrous Lake Fiber ties. 3. **$2,400.00 posted to the wrong client** Quillfield is overpaid $1,560.00 and Brightvale underpaid $1,800.00. **Fix:** re-post it in the collection system, then export again. **Held when:** Payments shows no NO and both clients tie. 4. **$612.40 entered twice** The ledger claims money the bank never got, and Oxbow is overpaid $410.31. **Fix:** check the lockbox image, then reverse the duplicate in the collection system. **Held when:** LB-1017 matches the bank and no row says TWICE. 5. **A $940.00 direct payment missing from the offset** $235.00 of commission given away. **Fix:** add it to the offset list. **Held when:** no direct payment says NO. 6. **The old rate on Sandmoor's line** Sandmoor is underpaid $463.73. **Fix:** confirm 28% against the signed amendment, then fix the draft. **Held when:** Sandmoor ties. Net, the draft would have paid **$816.58 too much**, three clients over and two under, and the Remittance check's own total said only $406.27, because the duplicate hides inside it. ## Have Copilot Explain the Two Big Swings, After the Breaks The rule flagged two clients. Quillfield's collections as posted rose 92.0% on September, and Brightvale's fell 41.8%. Both are over $5,000 and over 25%. ![The Month over month sheet: Brightvale Auto Credit down 17,997.56 or 41.8%, Quillfield Residential up 21,741.49 or 92.0%, both marked EXPLAIN; the other three clients under the rule.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/screenshot-month-over-month.webp) *Two clients over the rule, one up and one down, and the same payment sits inside both.* Still in chat only mode, ask Copilot to explain each client marked EXPLAIN from the Notes, Placements and Prior month sheets and the errors it has already traced, and to say what is left. A right answer puts dollars on each part. Of Quillfield's $45,381.10 as posted, **$32,725.13** came from the 412 accounts it placed on September 15, $10,255.97 from its older accounts, and $2,400.00 is Brightvale's money. September's split by account isn't in the workbook, so the rest of the rise stays "not traced" until you export it. Brightvale's fall of $17,997.56 is September's one-time $14,500.00 settlement and the same $2,400.00 sitting under Quillfield; the $1,097.56 left is under the rule. Explain the swings **after the breaks**. "New accounts" is a true reason for Quillfield's rise, and asked first, it would have carried $2,400.00 of Brightvale's money with it. If the trust account is one of several close jobs eating your team's week, our finance playbook walks through where an agent pays off first. Industry Playbook: https://qvery.ai/industry-playbooks/ai-agents-for-finance/ ## Let Copilot Draft the Corrections on a Copy, and Keep the Release Corrections happen in your collection system and your bank, not in this workbook; Copilot writes them down so whoever makes them works from one list. The .Rules sheet already sends fixes to a sheet named Proposed and says which ones a person decides, so on a copy, in plan mode, ask for one correction per traced error, each with the check that should tie once it's made. > 鈿狅笍 **What Copilot drafts, and what a person does** A person releases each remittance, moves $48.50 back to trust from operating, reverses the duplicate and re-posts the misposted payment in the collection system, and confirms Sandmoor's rate against the signed amendment. Copilot only drafts; in Microsoft's words, it "doesn't replace your organization's internal controls, review, or approval processes." Then check that it stayed inside the Proposed sheet. Ask "What changes has Copilot made to this workbook?", or open **Review > Show Changes**, where Microsoft now attributes edits to Copilot beside the people who made theirs. Anything outside Proposed is a change you didn't ask for, and Copilot can reverse a single edit without disturbing the rest. Once the corrections are made in the collection system and the exports pulled again, every line should tie. In our sample, corrected by hand, the last line on Checks turned: ![The Checks sheet after the corrections: adjusted bank and book both 138,356.21, every difference 0.00, no flagged payments or remittances, and yes on the release line.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/screenshot-checks-after.webp) *After the six corrections, made by hand in the sample, the release line reads yes.* ## Save the Routine as a Skill for Next Month's Close A skill is a set of instructions Copilot follows for a task you repeat; Microsoft's own example of one is reconciling accounts. Yours lives in OneDrive. In the Copilot pane, open **Settings** (the **...** in the upper-right corner), then **Manage plugins & skills**, **Custom skills** and **Create OneDrive folder**. Open the folder, add a folder named `month-end-trust-check` with this file inside it, and select **Refresh**: **month-end-trust-check/SKILL.md** ``` --- name: month-end-trust-check description: Use at month end when I ask to check the client trust account or the client remittances in the close workbook. Reads the Checks sheet first, traces every break to its rows, and never edits the exports or the checks. --- # Month-end trust account and remittance check Run this on the close workbook that has Checks, Remittance check, Month over month and .Rules sheets. ## Steps 1. Confirm Calculation Options are set to Automatic, then read the .Rules sheet and follow it. 2. Read Checks. List every line that is not zero, "ties" or "yes". 3. Trace each one to the rows behind it (sheet, row, amount). Mark timing items (deposits in transit, outstanding checks) separately from errors. Name any error that shows up on more than one line. 4. Explain each client marked EXPLAIN on Month over month from Notes, Placements and Prior month, after the errors, and say what is left unexplained. 5. Only when I ask for fixes: write them on a sheet named Proposed, one row per correction, and mark the ones a person decides. ## Never - Edit Checks, Remittance check, Month over month, .Rules or any export sheet. - Say the month is ready. The "Ready to release remittances" line on Checks says that. ``` The folder name has to match the `name` line, lowercase with hyphens, or Copilot skips it. Next month, type `@month-end-trust-check` in the prompt and it runs the reading in the same order. ![The Custom skills dialog in Copilot in Excel, with Add in OneDrive, the Refresh button and one custom skill listed.](https://qvery.ai/blog/copilot-excel-month-end/ms-copilot-custom-skills.png) *After you add the folder in OneDrive, Refresh makes the skill appear here.* ## How Qvery Puts the Month-End Trust Check on Autopilot The skill waits for someone to type its name. The agent we build for a collection agency picks up each posting report the day it's exported, so a payment on the wrong client or a check keyed twice surfaces that week. At month end it ties the trust account, recomputes every remittance and drafts the Proposed sheet. Your team keeps its systems: the agent reads the collection system and the trust bank's exports and writes into the close workbook in OneDrive or SharePoint, on autopilot, alongside the accountant who prepares the schedule. Releasing money and re-posting payments stay with your people. Each agent is built for one agency's own close, so the first days go to watching how yours runs: the exports, the contract rates, the offsets. Within two weeks there's a first version working on your own month, and we train whoever runs it. From then on we keep a weekly tally: the **hours of tie-out** and schedule checking handed back to your accountant, and the **errors stopped before release**, each one a client overpaid or shorted. The build starts from a month your team has already closed and paid out. Have Us Set Up Your Month-End Trust and Remittance Checks: https://calendly.com/qvery-vlad/30min ## Your Next Two Closes Are the Business Case These are planted errors, so they say nothing about how often yours happen. Time the tie-out and the schedule by hand at your next close, then time the same checks the month after with this workbook and Copilot, setup aside. The hours between the two, against what one wrong remittance costs to unwind with a client, are your case. Plan the Next Step in Your Agency's AI Transformation: https://calendly.com/qvery-vlad/30min ## Frequently asked questions ### What does a collection agency's month-end close have to prove? Two things before any money goes out: that the trust account holds what the agency owes its clients, and that each client's remittance is right. A remittance is the month's collections less the agreed commission, after returned payments and the payments debtors made straight to the client. ### How do you reconcile a trust account at month end? Start from the bank's closing balance, add deposits the bank hasn't credited, take off checks it hasn't paid. That adjusted balance should equal your trust ledger and cover the total owed to clients; any difference has to trace to a bank line your ledger lacks or a deposit credited for a different amount. ### How long does a collection agency have to pay its clients? It depends on the state. Idaho, for one, gives an agency 30 days after the month ends to remit that month's collections, with a written statement to each client. Read your state's rule before you set the checks. ### What errors does a month-end remittance check catch? The ordinary ones: a payment posted to the wrong client, a check entered twice, a returned payment left in the draft, a direct payment missing from the offset, an old commission rate, and a bank fee taken from the trust account. In our invented month, the formulas flagged all six planted errors. ### Can a client's remittance tie and still be wrong? Yes. In our sample, one client's remittance tied while it was overpaid $410.31, because it was recomputed from the same payment table that held a check entered twice. Only the trust account check, which compares the ledger with the bank, saw the duplicate. ### What are direct payments, and why do they matter at month end? Payments a debtor makes straight to your client. If your contract says so, your commission on them is still yours; Illinois writes it into law and lets the agency offset it against what it owes the client. One missing from the offset is commission given away. ### Is Copilot accurate enough for reconciliations? Not as the thing that decides. Microsoft's own page says Copilot can make mistakes and to avoid using it for decisions in finance. Let formulas reconcile, and use Copilot to trace and explain what they flag. ### Can Copilot in Excel see my other close files and email? It can if you let it: Copilot can import data from other workbooks, and on a commercial Copilot licence its Work source searches your work files, asking you to confirm each one. Turn Web and Work off under Change data sources, and the answer comes from the workbook in front of you. ### Which Copilot mode should I use to check the close? Chat only mode, which analyzes the workbook without changing it. Edit is the default, so switch before you ask. Use plan mode on a copy when Copilot builds sheets or drafts corrections, since it lists its changes first. ### How do I stop Copilot from changing formulas or breaking links? Use chat only mode for checking, which reads the workbook without editing it, and do any editing on a copy in plan mode first. Lock the check sheets, write the limits into a .Rules sheet, and after an edit session, look at Show Changes and open a couple of the links to other files. ### What do I need to run Copilot in Excel on the close? An M365 Copilot (Basic) or (Premium) account, Excel for Windows, Mac or the web with calculation set to Automatic, and the workbook in OneDrive or SharePoint for version history. Then the month's exports, from the trust bank statement to last month's totals. ### How long does the setup take? About an afternoon to build the workbook the first time, by my estimate. After that, each month is new exports and one reading from the saved skill. ### Do I need Copilot's finance skills, or is Copilot in Excel enough? Copilot in Excel is enough for everything here. Microsoft's accounting skills, including reconciliation and close management, are in its Frontier early-access program; its finance skills are generally available. Any of them still answers to the formulas on your Checks sheet. ### What should I check before trusting Copilot's month-end answer? That every line on Checks that isn't zero, "ties" or "yes" is traced to named rows; that timing items are called timing; that an error showing up on two lines is named once; and that nothing outside the Proposed sheet changed. If the answer and the sheet disagree, the sheet is right. ### Who should release the remittances? A person, and not the one who prepared the schedule. Copilot traces and drafts, the formulas on the Checks sheet decide whether the month ties, and people make every correction in the collection system and the bank. ### What does Qvery build for the month-end trust check? A custom agent for your agency's close. It checks each posting report when it's exported, ties the trust account and recomputes every remittance at month end, and drafts corrections a person releases. A first version runs within two weeks, we train your team, and each week we count hours handed back and errors stopped.