What has to be on every trust ledger entry
Rule 47 lists the particulars a trust ledger has to record for each transaction. Most of the gaps an external examiner finds are one of them, left blank months ago.
·7 min readAustralia
Rule 47 lists the particulars a trust ledger has to record for each transaction. Most of the gaps an external examiner finds are one of them, left blank months ago.
·7 min readAustralia
Rule 52 says who gets a statement, what it carries, when it has to go, and which ledgers it exempts. The exemption is narrower than most firms assume.
·7 min readAustralia
Rule 60 requires a register of the powers and estates your practice acts in for trust money. It is short, it is easy to miss entirely, and an examiner asks for it by name.
·6 min readAustralia
Monthly updates
What is still due this month, what falls in October, and the two changes that started on 1 July. Payday super has taken the quarterly super date off the calendar, and only Queensland asks a principal to review the trust reconciliation.
·6 min readAustralia
The Fair Work Act sets one working day. The Regulations set the contents, including extra lines for staff paid by the hour.
·4 min readAustralia
The duty to report a trust account irregularity is not only the principal's. The Uniform Law sections that say who reports, how fast, and what a deficiency adds.
·4 min readAustralia
A lump sum bill is allowed, but a client can ask for it itemised. The Uniform Law sections that set the deadlines, and what a request does to recovery and interest.
·5 min readAustralia
The Fair Work Act sets the seven years. The Regulations set the list. What goes on it, for a cafe paying casual staff by the hour.
·5 min readAustralia
Controlled money is trust money the client has told you to put somewhere else. The Uniform Law sections deciding where it goes, how a practice holds it, and how it leaves.
·4 min readAustralia
For an ordinary costs agreement the Uniform Law asks for very little. The detail is in conditional agreements, uplift fees, and what makes an agreement void.
·5 min readAustralia
An examination goes quickly when every record is already in the folder. What that folder should hold, section by section.
·4 min readAustralia
A director cannot resign into a vacancy, and a late ASIC filing moves the resignation date forward. Both matter because section 588G applies debt by debt.
·4 min readAustralia
A debt is not an interest in land. That question decides most of these applications, and it comes before any argument about the amount.
·4 min readAustralia
Disclosure falls due before the retainer, or as soon as practicable afterwards. Get it wrong and the agreement can be set aside and the bill assessed without it.
·2 min readAustralia
Since 1 July 2026 a practice providing a designated service is an AUSTRAC reporting entity. It turns on the service, not the size of the firm.
·2 min readAustralia
Since 1 July 2026 super must reach the fund within 7 business days of payday. The quarterly deadline is gone, and with it the buffer most small practices were holding.
·2 min readAustralia
Seven years from the last entry, not from when the matter closed. That distinction decides what you can safely archive, and the journal counts as a record too.
·2 min readAustralia
Rule 48 gives you 15 working days after month end, and requires two statements rather than one.
·2 min readAustralia