Few professions are free of the need to understand accounting, least of all the legal profession. Legal finance is a category all on its own, because attorneys are expected to keep trust accounts for most of their clients, deal with conveyancing and understand the issues around shared accounts, whether at corporate or domestic level.

Legal Accounting deals with the fundamentals of accounting, such as debits and credits and how income statements and balance sheets are created. The book also takes you through the transfer journal, bank reconciliations, VAT, correspondent accounts, accounting in conveyancing matters, legislation applying to attorneys’ accounting and partners’ capital accounts. Easy-to-understand examples clearly explain the principles involved.

• Double entry bookkeeping
• Recording accounting transactions
• The transfer journal
• Accounting controls
• Value-added tax
• Protecting the trust account
• Correspondents
• Conveyancing transactions
• Types of legal practice
• Glossary