COFA Masterclass

Since January 2013, the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA) within a firm has special responsibility for ensuring that clients‘ money is handled in accordance with the SRA Accounts Rules and that any breaches of the SRA Accounts Rules are documented and reported back to the SRA. This course has been developed to provide COFA’s, who have a non-financial background, with a deeper understanding of what can go wrong within a firm. The main focus of this course is to ensure that the COFA fully understands the importance of bank reconciliations (both client and office) and the warning signs which could indicate potential problems when reviewing reconciliations prepared by others. Other issues covered include debit balances, residual client ledger balances, office credit balances and unpaid professional disbursements.

This course has been designed to meet the needs of those individuals, with a non-financial background, who have been appointed to act as a firm's COFA or their deputy.

The following topics will be covered -

Introduction

• An overview of the role of the COFA

Understanding Bank Reconciliations

• What is a bank reconciliation?
• Case study - How to prepare a reconciliation
• How to audit a bank reconciliation
• How problems can be disguised through the bank reconciliation

SRA Accounts Rules: Common Problem Areas

• Debit balances
• Residual client ledger balances
• Office credit balances
• Unpaid professional disbursements
• Accounting to clients for interest due on clients' money
• Commission and other financial benefits

Open Forum

• A chance to ask questions and seek advice on specific issues