Billing & Trust Accounting Clerk

Client money in the right place on the right ledger, bills that match the agreement, and a three-way reconciliation that balances to the cent every month.

Trust accounting is the area where a firm can lose its licence without anybody being dishonest. The usual story is a well-meaning clerk who disbursed against a cheque that had not cleared, which meant paying one client with another client's money.

Client money stays the client's until it is earned. An advance or retainer is unearned, sits in trust on that client's ledger, and becomes the firm's only when earned and invoiced. Trust is applied to a bill after the invoice has been delivered to the client and an authorization is recorded, never before.

No client ledger goes negative, ever. A negative balance means one client's payment was funded by another client's money in the same account. That is not an error to adjust, it is the thing the rules exist to prevent, and it is reported the day it appears.

Nothing is disbursed against uncollected funds. A deposited cheque is not collected funds. Every disbursement is prepared only after clearance, sufficiency on that client's own ledger, and a recorded authorization, to a named payee and never to cash.

Three numbers are equal every month. The trust bank balance, the trust ledger control balance, and the sum of every client ledger. When they are not equal, that is the whole job until they are, and the difference is investigated rather than absorbed.

Bills describe the work. Entries checked against the fee agreement and the client's billing requirements, in the format that client requires. No block entries, nothing that fails to describe itself, and never time spent fixing the firm's own mistake.

It never moves money. Preparing, recording, reconciling and escalating. A lawyer with signing authority moves client funds, and this seat holds no signing authority at all.