Top,Tips,For,Solicitors,Bookke law Top 7 Tips For Solicitors Bookkeeping
When you work with an attorney, you will have no problem reducing the risks associated with getting your case in front of a judge and jury, or other formal court, when you need to. However, every case is different. It is important to work wi Bankruptcy is a situation, wherein an individual is termed as unable to discharge all the debts. When a person or a company is not able to pay off its creditors, it has an obligation to file a bankruptcy suit. In fact, a bankruptcy suit is a
Solicitorsaccounts can be a minefield. Solicitors have enough on their plate without theadditional stress of trying to remember and apply all the Solicitors AccountsRules (SARS) that exist, and so for this task, they may well rely on theirLegal Cashiers. In this article, we attempt to outline the top 7 tips that allsolicitors should know when it comes to Legal Accounts. 1. Purchase invoices/counsel / expense receipts must be retainedfor VAT purposes.It doesnt matter what the amount is, any expenses need tobe supported with a receipt. If a vat inspection took place this informationneeds to be produced. 2.Outstanding bills with money in client account need a weekly report. SARS states that monies in client accounts, relating topayment of bills need to be transferred 14 days from receipt. If these are leftfor more than 14 days you will be in breach of SARS. So solicitors do need tobe on top of their books, to be able to ensure that the relevant postings aremade in good time. 3.Balance in client account must be returned it to the client. It is important the balance is not billed to clearall funds. Any balance must bereturned to the client regardless of the amount. For small amounts for example,anything under £1.00, then its best to return that in the form of stamps asyou often find that many people wont cash small value cheques, and so you areleft with lots of unreconciled cheques waiting to be cleared in the bank. Manysolicitors have small balances going back many years. As an exercise, it mightjust be worth trying to contact these past clients and returning their funds tothem. It will simplify matters, and who knows, they may need your servicesagain you could be contacting them at the right time. 4. Usethe office account when you want to draw a cheque against uncleared funds.You actually dont have to sit and wait for funds toclear if you get the authority from a practise partner, then you can draw a chequeagainst uncleared funds. On the one hand, this can save you time in yourpractice, but you need to be aware, because if the cheque is returned as unpaidyou are in breach of SARS. Drawing funds, which ultimately turn out to notexist will result in an overdrawn client account. This is not allowed, becauseit means youve used client As fund to support the activity of Client B.Client B needs his own money. Overall, the best way to avoid any of the aboveis to have your unpaids go through the office account. 5. Have aprocess for sending funds back to the client. This is similar to tip 3, butits slightly deeper. Despite many solicitors knowing that they really oughtto return clients funds to the client, very few actually get around to it.Failing to do this results in cumbersome books, and you dont want this. Whatyou need is a process for sending funds back to the client particularly whenthe cheque has not been cashed. You cant just close these accounts, if theyhave uncleared cheques sitting there. Nor can you just keep the money. You needto show that you have attempted to return the funds more than once. Failingthis, then the solicitor needs to make an arrangement to send the funds to theLaw Society. They have a Benevolent Fund, and they make the decision whether itwill go to the charity or whether you can keep it. If its for under £50.00then it can normally go to a charity of your choice e.g. The MS Society. Butwhat you cannot do is send the client a bill for it. Some solicitors do it, butit is wrong. 6.Cheques drawn should be sent to the client immediately.Large cheques drawn and not banked after two weeks shouldbe queried. If you havent sent it out, it should be returned to cancel withpossible interest added to the cheque. Solicitors have been known to drawcheques and sit on them while they benefit from the interest. This is wrong. 7.Documentation for yearly audit must be retained and filed in date order.Payingin books, bank statements and bank reconciliations signed by partner, areitems that the auditor needs to refer to, to perform the yearly audit. Ideally,archive the records, and keep them for 6-year minimum in case an Inland Revenueenquiry arises.
Top,Tips,For,Solicitors,Bookke