Audit-ready trust accounting.
Every month, every year.
Monthly accounting and audit-file preparation for the entities legally required to keep a trust account. Three-way reconciled. Documented to the standard your auditors expect. Designed to remove the burden from your practice and to typically reduce annual audit costs by 10 to 20%.
Practising since 2009. The client and retention figures are our own estimates across that time.
Credentials
- CA(SA) ledChartered Accountant (South Africa)
- SAICA memberSouth African Institute of Chartered Accountants
- Reg. 2009/018813/07Managing Advancing Wealth (Pty) Ltd
Three frameworks. One discipline.
Whether you operate under the LPC, the PPRA or as an officer of the court, the underlying discipline is the same: every rand of client money must be reconciled, documented, and accountable.
Legal Practice Act
Trust account compliance under the Legal Practice Act and the LPC Rules. Annual audit, monthly reconciliation, and strict treatment of interest payable to the LPFF.
Property Practitioners Act
Trust account requirements under the PPRA for estate agents and managing agents handling deposits, rentals, body corporate funds and sale proceeds.
Other Fiduciary Environments
Sheriffs of the court and other fiduciary environments where client or third-party funds are held in trust and require independent annual assurance.
Six phases. One backbone SOP.
A standard operating procedure that runs from onboarding through year-end audit and continuous improvement. The same backbone whether you use Zoho Books, LegalSuite, or any other practice management system.
Onboarding & Setup
Confirm regulatory scope, prior-year audit findings, chart of accounts, matter-type taxonomy and minimum supporting-document standards.
Daily Processing
Every receipt and payment captured, allocated to the correct matter and trust-creditor ledger, with mandate and instruction support attached at source.
Monthly Reconciliation
Three-way reconciliation: bank statement to trust ledger, trust-creditor list to control account, exception reporting, sign-off by your principal.
Documentation & File Management
Digital file structure by year → client → matter. Retention periods enforced. Audit-relevant schedules dated and locked.
Year-End & Audit Preparation
Pre-audit clean-up, bank confirmations, trust-creditor listing, sample packs and policy evidence handed to your auditor in one bundle.
Continuous Improvement
Post-audit review, SOP updates, periodic training on fiduciary responsibility, internal monitoring on documentation and reconciliation timeliness.
Seven service categories, one integrated engagement.
Each category below is part of the standard monthly engagement. Where a practice needs additional scope (clean-ups, system migrations, training programmes), it is scoped and quoted separately.
Trust Account Setup & Structure
Chart of accounts and trust-creditor ledgers designed per client and matter. Matter-type taxonomy. Bank account setup guidance aligned to LPC, PPRA and other regulatory requirements.
Daily / Monthly Trust Accounting
Capture and classification of every deposit and withdrawal per matter. Mandate-matching at source. Month-end three-way reconciliation with exception reporting for unmatched items, debit balances, and misposted interest or charges.
Supporting Documentation Management
Digital filing by client → matter → transaction. Minimum documentation checklists per transaction type (estate disbursements, conveyancing fees, criminal matters, rentals, body corporate funds). Versioning, completeness, retention.
Regulatory Compliance & Best Practice
Procedures aligned to LPC, PPRA and the regulatory environment for sheriffs and other fiduciaries. Policies for interest, bank charges, unclaimed monies, dormant matters. Periodic compliance reviews and remedial action plans.
Audit-Ready File Preparation
Audit packs prepared for your trust-account auditors: reconciliations, trust-creditor listings, sampling support bundles, policy and process documentation. Liaison support during the audit. Post-audit improvement recommendations.
Systems & Automation
Design and implementation of Zoho Books-based trust accounting workflows. Tags, custom fields and alerts for matter references, document links, negative balances and ageing trust balances. Integration with practice management systems where feasible.
Advisory & Training
Training for partners, practice managers and bookkeepers on fiduciary duties, day-to-day processing rules and red-flag indicators. Ongoing advisory on improving controls, reducing audit findings, and lowering audit costs.
The three-way reconciliation.
The single most important monthly control in trust accounting. Three independent positions, agreed to each other, with no unexplained difference. Every month.
Bank Statement
The reconciled balance on the trust bank account at month-end, per the bank’s own statement.
Trust Creditors
The sum of every individual trust-creditor ledger, matter by matter, client by client.
Control Account
The aggregate trust-control account balance in the general ledger, independent of the creditor list.
Typical reduction in annual audit costs.
The audit file we produce, combined with the systems we run, typically reduces audit costs by 10 to 20%. The auditor spends less time chasing documentation and reconciling differences, and more time on assurance work.
Built on Zoho Books, extended by MAW.
A dedicated trust-accounting workflow inside Zoho Books today, with a purpose-built MAW companion app in development for an integrated client experience.
Zoho Books trust workflow
A configured Zoho Books organisation per practice, with a custom Matters module that holds mandates and matter-level data. Transactions are allocated by matter, tagged by purpose, and linked to supporting documentation at source.
- Dedicated trust bank, control and creditor ledgers
- Custom Matters module with mandate attachments
- Automated alerts for debit balances and ageing
- Three-way reconciliation reporting built in
MAW companion app for Zoho Books
A dedicated MAW application linked to Zoho Books that consolidates the trust-accounting workflow into a single client interface: matter capture, mandate uploads, and live reconciliation status in one place.
- Currently in development
- Available to all Trust Accounting clients on release
- No additional fee, included in the engagement
Three audiences. Co-equal.
All three operate under a regulatory regime that requires an independently-audited trust account. We work with each.
Attorneys
Conveyancers, litigators, estate practitioners and general practice firms keeping client funds in trust. Monthly reconciliation, audit file, and LPFF interest treatment handled to LPC standard.
Estate & Managing Agents
Estate agencies and managing agents holding deposits, rentals, body corporate funds and sale proceeds. PPRA-aligned trust workflows, interest handling, and annual audit support.
Sheriffs of the Court
Sheriffs and other court officers receiving and disbursing funds in execution of court orders. Audit-grade documentation and reconciliation for every receipt and payment.
The questions we hear most often.
How does the 10 to 20% reduction in audit costs actually work?
What does the monthly engagement actually include?
Do you take over our existing trust account, or set up from scratch?
What if our trust account has historical issues or is behind?
How is this priced?
Which auditors do you work with?
Do you sell financial products (insurance, RAs, investments)?
Remove the burden. Become audit-ready.
Start with a discovery call: free, no commitment. We listen first, then propose the right path for your practice.
What happens on the call: 30 minutes, online. We get to know your business and check that we are the right fit for each other, answer the questions you bring, share best practice for your setup, and quote for any work that falls within our services.
CA(SA) led practice +27 10 592 7717 info@mawinc.co.za 101 Rose Avenue, Lenasia, Johannesburg