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Financial Statements: What they’re actually telling you
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Billing Within Law Firms
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Managing Cash Flow
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An Introduction to Legal VAT
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Social Support Team
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Residual Balances
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Bank Reconciliation
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An Introduction to Legal Cashiering & Accounting
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Financial Statements: What they’re actually telling you
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An Introduction to the SRA Accounts Rules
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Free – £120.00
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#1. Your firm acted for a client in the sale of commercial premises. The transaction has been completed and the firm are in the process of accounting to the client for the net proceeds of sale. Independently of this retainer, the client’s son has instructed another solicitor in your firm to act for him in buying a flat.
The father has asked your firm to retain enough money to cover his son’s legal fees and to send the balance to him. Your firm is concerned that by transferring the money to the son you may be in breach of rule 3.3.
Is this providing banking facilities?
#2. As soon as there is no longer a proper reason to hold client money, it must be returned to the client or third party for whom the money is held:
#3. Money received from the Legal Aid Agency on account of disbursements that are not yet incurred or paid is?
#4. Is it permissible to issue the client with a bill of costs for an unpaid, not yet incurred, court fee?
#5. You have instructed an interpreter in order for your client to be able to communicate with you or to enable your client to understand Court proceedings. The cost of the interpreter is being passed on to the client. When billed, the cost is:
#6. The cost of any time taken in trying to return a residual balance to the client can be deducted from the balance held?
#7. Your firm prepare a lot of wills and fixed fee interviews as one-off transactions for clients. However, instead of opening an individual client ledger for each client, you have a general ledger on which you record the details of each client and the costs received.
Is this a breach of the SRA Accounts Rules?
#8. You have paid a disbursement from the business account and now have sufficient money held in the client account towards it.
Are you required to send the client a bill or other written notification of costs prior to transferring the money from the client account to the business account?
#9. If client money is legitimately retained for a specified reason, are you required to regularly update the client?
#10. A bill of costs must be signed by a partner/director or member?
SRA Accounts Rules for Lawyers and Solicitors
Length: 2 Hours
Published September 24, 2022
Last Updated on May 4, 2023
Who is this training for?
This online workshop is for Solicitors, Lawyers, Accountants, Compliance Officers, COFA’s, Legal Accounts Professionals and anyone that has any involvement in working in legal finance and compliance.
Purpose of this training?
The current SRA Accounts rules allow more flexibility in how law firms operate and manage risk but also require firms to make their own professional judgements and decisions in how they protect client money and assets entrusted to them.
This workshop will introduce you to the Accounts Rules with an explanation of the regulatory requirements and the ethical behaviours that underpin them.
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority
- SRA Principles and SRA Codes of Conduct
- SRA Accounts Rules – an overview, key requirements, common misunderstandings
- Banking Facilities
- Residual Balances
- Joint Accounts/Clients Own Accounts
- Third Party Managed Accounts
- Disbursements and Recharges
- Consequences of Acting Unethically
Practice notes and training sessions represent the Association of Legal Compliance & Accounts’ view of good practice in a particular area. They are not intended to be the only standard of good practice that firms can follow.
Practice notes and training sessions are not legal advice, and do not necessarily provide a defence to complaints of misconduct or poor service. While we have taken care to ensure that they are accurate, up to date and useful, we will not accept any legal liability in relation to them.
Frequently Asked Questions
All ALCA online training is delivered live, interactive and is recorded. We bridge the gap between ‘face-to-face’ and online training by applying a blended approach. Questions can be posed to trainers throughout the workshops with quizzes/polls being used to engage with attendees.
Workshops can be continuously replayed for 60 days after broadcast.
Benefits?
- Reduced cost
- Can be taken anywhere on any device – no travel time or cost
- Shorter and more efficient than face-to-face
- Live and interactive
- Recorded and can be replayed at your leisure
Depending on your subscription and the length of the workshop, the pricing is as follows:
Our online workshops are delivered via Zoom. You can access the session via your computer, tablet or mobile device.
Details on how to join the online session will be provided the day before the training goes live.
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If your firm prevents you from using Zoom, please <a href=”mailto:hello@alca.org.uk”>contact us</a>.
There is no requirement to attend live but we advise that you do where you can as this will be the best experience for you. Don’t forget, you can pose questions live to the trainer and join in with the interaction when you attend live. Also, be mindful that you have access to the recording for 30 days, after which, it will no longer be available.
Not at all. We prefer it if candidates do as it makes the training more engaging but it is not mandatory to turn your camera or microphone on during the training session.
If you don’t have a microphone, you can still pose questions using the chat facility.