SRA accounts rules software means software that keeps client money separate from office money, maintains proper client ledgers, controls withdrawals and produces the three-way reconciliation the rules require at least every five weeks. Writford does that work on the same records as the matters: client ledgers, ring-fenced client balances, separate designated client accounts, a bank register and cash books, and the three-way reconciliation itself. This guide explains what the rules actually require, what any package must do to satisfy them, and what to check before you commit to one.
This is market commentary and a compliance overview, not legal advice. The rules themselves are short and readable; every COFA should work from the SRA Accounts Rules directly, not from a vendor's summary of them.
What do the SRA Accounts Rules actually require?
Five rules do most of the work, and your software stack must map onto all of them.
Rule 2.3 - pay client money in promptly. You must ensure client money is paid promptly into a client account, subject to narrow exceptions such as Legal Aid Agency payments or an alternative written arrangement with the client. Delays between receipt and posting are where money goes missing on paper before it goes missing in fact.
Rule 4.1 - keep client money separate. The rule is one sentence: you keep client money separate from money belonging to the authorised body. That single sentence rules out running the firm through one bank account and one ledger. Client money and office money are different things, held in different accounts, recorded in different ledgers.
Rule 5 - control withdrawals. Client money may only be withdrawn for the purpose for which it is held, on the client's or third party's instructions, or with the SRA's prior written authorisation (Rule 5.1). Rule 5.3 adds the check that catches most real-world breaches: you only withdraw client money if sufficient funds are held on behalf of that specific client or third party. Taking one client's money to cover another client's payment is a breach even if the client account as a whole is in funds.
Rule 8.1 - keep proper records. Firms must keep accurate, contemporaneous and chronological records: client ledgers identifying each client with all receipts and payments on both the client and business side, a list of ledger balances with running totals, and a cash book with running totals of client account transactions.
Rule 8.3 - the three-way reconciliation. At least every five weeks, for all client accounts held or operated, you must reconcile the bank or building society statement balance with the cash book balance and the client ledger total, and the record must be signed off by the COFA or a manager of the firm. Bank, cash book, client ledger: three figures that must agree, with every difference investigated and documented. Reconciling only bank to cash book misses ledger posting errors and orphan balances entirely, which is precisely the gap the rule exists to close.
Dedicated cashiering software vs Writford: who does what
The table below is the honest division of labour. Some firms keep a dedicated legal cashiering package and want their practice management system to feed it clean data. Others want the client account and the matters on one set of records, so the figures cannot drift apart. Writford supports either; the table below is what it does against what the rules require.
| Capability | Dedicated cashiering software | Writford's role |
|---|---|---|
| Separate client and office ledgers (Rule 4.1) | Core job: double-entry posting to distinct client and office ledgers per matter | Provided: double-entry client and office ledgers per matter, with ring-fenced balances and separate designated client accounts |
| Three-way reconciliation (Rule 8.3) | Generates the bank vs cash book vs client ledger reconciliation for COFA sign-off, flags differences | Provided: bank statement, cash book and client ledger totals compared in one report, differences shown rather than absorbed, and a signed-off period that locks |
| Withdrawal controls (Rule 5) | Blocks or warns on withdrawals exceeding a client's held funds; prevents improper inter-client transfers | Provided: a client ledger cannot be overdrawn. The decrement is atomic and refuses unless that matter already holds the money |
| Breach register and COFA reporting | Records breaches, supports investigation notes and reporting decisions | Provided: breach and data-breach registers, a risk register and a complaints log, kept on the file as the work happens |
| Matter-level financials, WIP and aged debtors | Varies; often weak or absent | Core: billing with UK 20% VAT, disbursements, WIP and aged debtors surfaced per matter |
| Time recording and billing | Often basic or bolted on | Core: time captured at the point of work, bills drafted inside the matter via Writford billing |
| Document analysis, legal research, client management | Not offered | Core: AI document analysis and live retrieval from legislation.gov.uk, BAILII and SRA guidance on every plan |
If you are choosing the cashiering side of that table, our legal cashiering software comparison weighs Quill, Xero-plus-add-on stacks and Clio through a COFA's eyes.
What to demand from the cashiering package
Whichever legal accounts engine you shortlist, test it against the rules rather than the brochure. Four capabilities are non-negotiable.
First, true matter-level client ledgers. Every receipt and payment posts to a named client and matter, double-entry, with running totals, so the Rule 8.1 records exist as a by-product of daily work rather than a month-end reconstruction.
Second, a genuine three-way reconciliation. The output must show the bank statement balance, the cash book balance and the client ledger total side by side, list the differences, and produce a record the COFA can read and sign. A bank-to-book match dressed up as compliance is the most common gap in generic tools.
Third, preventative withdrawal controls. The system should stop, or at minimum loudly warn on, a withdrawal that exceeds the funds held for that specific client, and on transfers between client and office account that lack a bill or a documented purpose. Rule 5 breaches are far cheaper to prevent than to report.
Fourth, an audit trail and breach register. When something does go wrong, the COFA needs to see who posted what and when, record the breach, and evidence the remedy. If the package cannot show its history, it cannot support the COFA's duties.
Where Writford fits
Writford runs the matter, the time, the billing and the client account on one set of records. A client ledger for every matter, ring-fenced client balances, separate designated client accounts, transfers from client to office, refunds of client money, a bank register and cash books, and a three-way reconciliation comparing the bank statement, the cash book and the total of the client ledgers. Time is recorded at the point of work, bills are raised inside the matter with VAT and disbursements handled correctly, and aged debtors are visible before they become write-offs. A reconciliation takes an exclusive lock so two people cannot work on the same account at once, and a signed-off period locks, with a written reason required to reopen it. The firm still owns the reconciliation and the signature; Writford produces the figures and keeps the record. Client material is never used for AI training. Processing is described in the Privacy Policy and published DPA.
Getting that right matters in practice, because most reconciliation pain starts upstream. Late time capture, bills raised days after the work, disbursements recorded on a spreadsheet nobody reconciles: by the time that data reaches the cashier it is already wrong. Fixing the work-capture layer is the cheapest reconciliation improvement most firms can make, and it is exactly the layer a practice management system should own.
A COFA's software checklist
Run this against your current stack before the next reconciliation cycle. Every item maps to a rule.
- Client account inventory. Every client account the firm holds or operates is listed, and each one is inside the reconciliation cycle. Rule 8.3 applies to all of them, not just the general client account.
- Five-week cycle diarised. Reconciliation dates are scheduled at intervals of five weeks or less, with a named owner and a named signatory. "At least every five weeks" is a ceiling, not a target; many firms reconcile monthly.
- Three figures, not two. The reconciliation compares bank statement balance, cash book balance and client ledger total. If your report only shows two of the three, it does not satisfy Rule 8.3.
- Differences investigated in writing. Every unreconciled difference has a documented explanation and a correction date, not a rolling "known difference" that survives quarter after quarter.
- COFA or manager signature. The signed record exists for every cycle and is retrievable. An unsigned reconciliation is an incomplete one.
- Withdrawal controls tested. Attempt a withdrawal that exceeds a client's held funds in a test environment; the system should block or flag it (Rule 5.3).
- Prompt-payment monitoring. Receipts of client money reach the client account and the ledger promptly (Rule 2.3), and the lag is measurable.
- Upstream data quality. Bills, disbursements and time flow from the matter system into the accounts package without rekeying. Rekeying is where posting errors are born.
Building the two-layer stack
The pattern that works for most small and mid-size UK firms is simple: one dedicated legal accounts engine that owns client money and the Rule 8.3 reconciliation, and one workspace that owns matters, time, documents and billing. Writford is built to be the second layer, from £828 per seat per year, with Premium at £1,188 and Pro at £2,388 (all per seat, per year on the annual term), AI included on every plan, a 14-day free trial and a choice of annual, 3-year or 5-year terms.
Before you go live on any cashiering engine, run one real five-week cycle end to end, hand the reconciliation to your COFA, and confirm they can read it, trust it and sign it. Then fix the upstream layer so the data arriving at that reconciliation is right first time.
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