An Introduction to Bank Reconciliations for Law Firms - How to Demonstrate Compliance & Minimise Risk

Introduction

The bank reconciliation is a process which identifies the difference between the bank balance shown in a firm’s bank statements and the corresponding amount shown in the firm’s own accounting records at a specific point in time. The document used to record this process is referred to as a bank reconciliation statement/report or the ‘three-way bank reconciliation statement’ when reconciling client bank accounts and money.

The SRA Accounts Rules require firms to complete a client bank reconciliation for all client bank accounts operated by that firm at least every five weeks.

This webinar will explain the key issues to look out for in order to demonstrate compliance.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The purpose
• Office/business account reconciliation
• Client account reconciliation
• Designated accounts
• Clients own accounts
• Multi-currency
• Unreconciled items
• Things to look out for
• Format and layout
• Supporting documentation
• Manual reconciliations
• Computerised reconciliations - manual and auto

This webinar was recorded on 7th August 2023