By creating an Income and Expense report on the estate account, the final accounting becomes an easier task for the executor. In a common estate, the executor must reveal the following in the final accounting: 

• The executor must show the settled values of all the estate assets and the estate property. To do this, the executor enters the total value from the Inventory of Assets into the income schedule of the final accounting. 
• In the final accounting, the executor must show the income and expenses of the estate. To show the income and expenses of the estate, the executor must enter values from the estate account into the correct schedules of the final accounting.

According to the article Closing an Estate in a Formal Probate Process, finalizing the Inventory of Assets is a prerequisite to the final accounting. After finalizing the Inventory of Assets, the executor is ready to begin the final accounting.

Creating an Income and Expense Report on the Estate Account

To begin the final accounting, the executor will enter the total value from the Inventory of Assets into the income schedule. Next, the executor must find a way to organize the income and expenses accrued throughout the entire estate administration. The best way for an executor to show the income and expenses of the estate is by creating an Income and Expense report on the estate account. Assuming the executor created a bookkeeping system similar to the system described in the article Why an Accurate Bookkeeping is Crucial to an Estate, creating such a report is an easy point-and-click task. By using software such as Quicken Deluxe, the executor can create standard reports easily. The following is how an executor, using Quicken Deluxe, can create a standard report called Income and Expense by Category:

1. After updating the estate account with the final transactions, the executor must download the transactions to a Quicken Deluxe account.
2. When the download finishes, the executor goes into the Quicken account and accepts all the transactions. Then, clicks on the Reports tab and selects the following options:  Spending -> Income and Expense by Category. When the report appears, the executor enters a date range and enters Month for the interval.

The result is a report that will organize all the transactions in the estate account. After printing the report, entering the values from the estate account into the correct schedules is easy. Furthermore, if there are any discrepancies, they would be easy to find. To troubleshoot, all an executor would have to do is compare monthly totals on the Income and Expense report to the monthly reports produced throughout the entire estate administration. As a result, creating an Income and Expense report will make the final accounting less daunting.

Other Options

The above scenario assumes that the executor opted to use Quicken Deluxe software to track the estate account. However, any software is fine as long as the executor can download transactions from the estate account into the software.

Additionally, if the executor opted to track the estate account manually, that’s fine. In fact, throughout the administration, an executor can do well by manually entering each transaction into a journal. Then, after each month, compare the manual entries to the monthly bank statement. However, while working on the final accounting, the executor will have to rely on the monthly entries and bank statements. The executor may manually create an Income and Expense report by using the monthly entries, but that would take time. In the end, using software and creating an Income and Expense report will speed up the process while maintaining accuracy.

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