Solicitors & Law Firms

Law firms answer to a regulator that cares about accounting in a way few others do: client money held under the SRA Accounts Rules, breaches reportable, accountant's reports required from qualified reporting accountants, and a compliance culture where the COFA carries personal accountability. Around that core sits ordinary complexity done at law-firm scale: LLP accounts, partnership tax with basis period reform still washing through, partner capital, VAT on disbursements — a subject of permanent confusion — and profitability the lockup quietly erodes.

Acumon serves solicitors' practices end to end: the accountant's reports (we are ICAEW and FRC registered and audit multiple law firms), the accounts and tax for the firm and its partners, and management information that shows where the profit actually comes from.

SRA Accounts Rules and the Accountant's Report

Firms holding client money need an accountant's report within six months of period end — qualified only for serious breaches, but with every breach pattern worth understanding before the reporting accountant finds it. We deliver the reports as registered reporting accountants with SRA-experienced audit staff, and we go beyond the annual visit: client account procedures reviewed, breach logs and COFA arrangements sanity-checked, residual client balances dealt with properly, and the systems — legal cashiering software included — configured so the rules are kept by design rather than heroics.

LLP and Partnership Accounts

Law firm accounts have their own furniture: members' capital and current accounts tracked properly through admissions and retirements, profit allocations that match the deed and the drawings, annuities and former-partner arrangements, and — for LLPs — the members' report and disclosure regime. We prepare accounts partners can actually reconcile to their own position, and where size requires audit, our regulated audit practice handles it with the SRA overlay already understood.

Partner and Firm Taxation

Partnership tax hits law firms with full force: basis period reform's transition profits still being spread, payments on account that ambush new partners, the salaried-member rules for LLPs deciding who is genuinely a partner for tax, and the annual arithmetic of profit allocation against personal positions. We run the partnership return, every partner's personal return and the reserve calculations as one exercise — so tax reserves held by the firm actually match the liabilities partners will face.

VAT, Disbursements and Profitability

Legal VAT concentrates in known trouble spots: the disbursement rules — search fees, counsel's fees, medical records — where firms routinely treat recharges wrongly in both directions; place-of-supply on international client work; and partial exemption where financial-services work appears. We fix the treatments and defend them. On the management side, we build reporting law firms actually use: profitability by department and fee earner, lockup and WIP discipline, and the cash conversion that determines whether a profitable firm can pay its partners.

What You Get With Acumon

• SRA accountant's reports from ICAEW and FRC registered reporting accountants
• Client account procedures, breach logs and COFA support reviewed practically
• LLP and partnership accounts with clean member capital tracking
• Partnership and every partner's personal tax run as one exercise
• Salaried-member rules assessed for LLP structures
• VAT disbursement treatments fixed and defended
• Profitability by department and fee earner, lockup and WIP reporting
• Statutory audit in-house where firm size requires it

Why Acumon for Solicitors & Law Firms?

• ICAEW and FRC registered — qualified to sign accountant's reports
• Experience auditing multiple law firms for SRA Accounts Rules compliance
• 20 experienced auditors, 50% from top-4 and top-5 firms
• Integrated tax advice on partner remuneration and practice structures

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.