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 is not that software, and says so plainly: Writford is the matter management and billing layer that sits alongside a dedicated cashiering system, feeding it clean, timely data. This guide explains what the rules actually require, what a cashiering package must do to satisfy them, and how the two layers divide the work.
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 Client money may only be withdrawn for the purpose for which it is held, on the client's or third party's instructions, or with the SRA's prior written authorisation (Rule 5.1).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. A dedicated legal cashiering or legal accounts package owns the client-money side; Writford owns the matter, time and billing side. No general workspace, Writford included, should be your Rule 8.3 engine.
| 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 | Not provided - Writford is not a client-account ledger |
| Three-way reconciliation (Rule 8.3) | Generates the bank vs cash book vs client ledger reconciliation for COFA sign-off, flags differences | Not provided |
| Withdrawal controls (Rule 5) | Blocks or warns on withdrawals exceeding a client's held funds; prevents improper inter-client transfers | Not provided |
| Breach register and COFA reporting | Records breaches, supports investigation notes and reporting decisions | Not provided |
| 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 is the matter, time and billing layer that feeds your cashiering system clean data: time recorded at the point of work, bills raised inside the matter with VAT and disbursements handled correctly, and aged debtors visible before they become write-offs. It surfaces matter-level financials - it is not a client-account ledger, and it does not produce the Rule 8.3 reconciliation. Run it alongside a dedicated cashiering package, not instead of one. Data stays in the UK and EEA, with no training on customer data and a published DPA.
That division matters in practice because most reconciliation pain is 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 £59 per seat per month billed annually (£69 monthly), with Premium at £91 (£99 monthly) and Pro at £174 (£199 monthly), AI included on every plan, a 14-day free trial and no minimum contract.
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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