Can I do this work?

Gill Gittings

My husbands friend is a solicitor who has just started on his own last year. He has received an accountants report form and has asked me to do the work.

Is it ok for me to do the work? There is a checklist with the form so it doesn't look too difficult. I am MAAT if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Steve Collings

Hi Gill,

Definitely not!! I would also advise you to stay well away from Solicitors Accounts Rules if you are not well-versed with them. I lecture on the Solicitors Accounts Rules to Solicitors themselves and sometimes they don't even know the fine details of them due to their complexity!

The Solicitors Accountants Report and Reporting Checklist is issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and requires a Statutory Auditor to perform this work on the client bank account. The work is very, very high risk and the rules are extremely complicated - so complicated in fact that a lot of CCAB accountancy firms will not go near them due to the high levels of risk.

The Reporting Accountant owes a duty of care to the Solicitors Regulation Authority even after they have submitted their report and the SRA does have the power to prohibit a Reporting Accountant from signing reports if they discover the accountant has been careless/negligent, which some CCAB qualified accountants find out to their detriment!

burg

I echo Steve's advice. Although I have no experience of Solicitors the firm I worked for operated in three niche markets, Doctors practices, agriculture and solicitors. this meant they had a high number of clients as most other firms don't want these clients. The Solicitors rules particularly for client accounts are very complex.

I would politely decline.

Gill Gittings

Thanks for your advice Steve and burg. I'll decline the work.