The SRA Accountants Report Spotchecks and Residual Balances

Description

At the SRA Compliance Officer Conference in November 2018 the SRA revealed that the number of accountants reports which were being submitted to them had dropped. Whilst this may mean good news in that more law firms are compliant with the SRA Accounts Rules, it may also mean that there is some cause for concern.

With the SRA consultation on the holding of client money being underway the SRA have decided to undertake a number of spot-checks on firms to ensure that they have received a recent accountants report. Firms taking part were contacted in December and the window to return the questionnaire opened in January.

Whilst the first 5 questions were general questions e,g, have you obtained a report, was the report qualified, question 6 – 13 were all around residual balances in the client account.

Rule 2.5 of the SRA Accounts Rules – You ensure that client money is returned promptly to the client, or the third party for whom the money is held, as soon as there is no longer any proper reason to hold those funds. What does promptly look like in your firm? How many residual balances do you have? What does that look like in money?

What you will learn

In this one hour session we will look at the following:

• Why we have the accountants report
• What the accountants report covers?
• Why the SRA are undertaking these spot-checks
• What do residual balances have to do with the SRA client money consultation
• SRA Accounts Rules – 2.5 – the meaning of ‘promptly’
• What do residual balances have to do with interest on client monies
• Good housekeeping – how to deal with residual balances

The Presenter

Joanna Morris has over thirty years’ experience of working in solicitors’ practices from being a legal cashier, practice manager and training manager. Joanna is a freelance trainer and consultant, having previously been the Risk and Regulatory Compliance Training Manager at a top 40 law firm.

Jo currently delivers training in many compliance subjects, both to the public and in-house clients, on AML, GDPR, SRA Accounts Rules and courses designed specifically for the MLRO, DPO, COLP and COFA. She is a qualified NVQ assessor and holds a Certificate In Education for Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector.

She was highly commended in June 2011 by the Legal Education and Training Group (LETG) in the category Best Programme for Lawyers for Solicitors Accounts Rules training. She was shortlisted in the Compliance Trainer of the Year category in the C5 Women in Compliance Awards in 2014.