What the template is
An Excel workbook that follows the layout of the Judicial Council’s GC-400 standard account: the Summary of Account, GC-400(SUM), followed by the supporting schedules, with receipts and disbursements grouped into the form’s categories and subtotaled. The summary is linked to every schedule, so it updates as you enter amounts. Under rule 7.575 of the California Rules of Court the Summary of Account form itself is mandatory; the official forms are at courts.ca.gov.
Download the free Excel template
Standard or simplified?
The GC-400 standard account is the default. The simplified account, GC-405, is available only when the estate is worth less than $500,000 not counting the conservatee’s or ward’s residence, holds no income-generating real property and no interest in a trade or business, and the court has not ordered a standard account (rule 7.575). More on GC-400 accountings.
The work behind the template
A template supplies the format. The account itself requires each receipt and disbursement on each statement for the period to be assigned to its GC-400 category, check numbers and court order dates to be recorded, cash and non-cash assets to be stated separately at carry value, and the Summary of Account to balance exactly. For a conservatorship with several accounts, that is days, weeks or even months of manual work.
Generate the account with Balanced
Balanced performs that work in a fraction of the time and cost. From the estate’s PDF bank and brokerage statements, Balanced generates the GC-400 account: receipts and disbursements assigned to the form’s categories with check numbers, cash and non-cash assets stated separately, each account reconciled to its own statements, the Summary of Account balanced to the penny, and each entry cited to the statement and page from which it was drawn, delivered as one fully editable Excel workbook. $699 per accounting.