The terms, in plain English

The legal services agreement a firm must have in place before it can act for a client. It is also referred to as a costs agreement in legislation.

The information about likely fees a firm has to give a client before it starts work, or as soon as practicable after.

The record of trust money held for one client on one matter. Money in, money out, current balance.

The single account that should equal the sum of every client ledger. One of the three things in a three-way reconciliation.

The firm’s own operating account. Not trust money, and never mixed with it.

The record created when client money comes into the trust account.

Moving trust money, most often from trust to the office account once an invoice is properly payable.

Money paid in advance and held in trust, drawn down as invoices are raised.

The annual independent examination of a firm’s trust records, required in every Australian state and territory. What most people mean when they say trust audit.

The automatic connection between a bank account and the accounting system, so transactions appear without anyone typing them.

The shape a firm uses for a category of work: which fields, which stages, which documents. In Logic Firm these are built for the firm rather than shipped with the product.

Time and disbursements recorded against a matter but not yet billed. Usually just WIP.

Money the firm pays out on a client’s behalf, such as a search fee or a filing fee, recovered on the invoice.

Outstanding invoices grouped by how long they have gone unpaid, usually in thirty, sixty and ninety-day buckets.

Reducing an invoice or unbilled time below what was recorded, usually because it cannot reasonably be charged.

The opposite, and much rarer. Billing above recorded time where the agreement allows it.

The date a chain of deadlines is calculated from. Exchange, service, the date of injury, a hearing being listed.

The last date a claim can be brought. Missing one is generally not recoverable, which is why it is usually the trigger date everything else hangs off.

A document the firm has decided is good enough to reuse. A template with the firm’s judgement already inside it.

Producing a complete draft by answering a set of questions, with the answers and the matter’s own data filling in the variables.

Original documents the firm physically holds for clients: wills, title deeds, share certificates, powers of attorney.

The record of who has held an item and when. What makes a safe custody register defensible years after the fact.

Checking whether acting for a client would conflict with a current or former one. Only useful if it covers relationships rather than just names.

A person or organisation connected to a client: a director, a subsidiary, a spouse, a referrer. The reason a conflict check has to traverse relationships.

Politically exposed person. Someone in a prominent public role, screened for during client verification because the risk profile is different.

Who ultimately owns or controls a client entity, as distinct from whose name is on the paperwork.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre. The regulator for anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing.

The record of every action taken, who took it and when. Useful only if it is complete, attributed and exportable.