Every firm needs to get paid, and most fees start life sitting in client account or arrive as a payment for work done. Moving that money to the firm's own business account is one of the most routine things a solicitor does — and one of the easiest places to slip into a breach. The rules are strict about when you can transfer, how much, and exactly how it is recorded. Getting this right protects client money and keeps the firm compliant.
This lesson takes you step by step through billing and costs transfers:
- Transferring Costs: The Bill and Its Limits — when a bill must be delivered before any transfer, and the strict limits on how much you can move.
- Classifying Money Received for Costs — how the timing of a bill decides whether money is client money or business money, and which account it belongs in.
- Profit Costs, VAT and Accounting Entries — how profit costs and VAT are treated, and the exact double-entry bookkeeping for raising bills and transferring costs.
- Acting for Borrower and Lender — running ledgers, billing separate charges, and why the mortgage advance can never be used for the borrower's fees.
By the end you will be able to bill, classify and transfer costs cleanly and correctly.