When you receive trust fund, the Law Society’s By-Law 9 requires you to deposit the fund in your trust account no later than the next banking day.
Also, You should also make sure to record the information required by By-Law 9 on your deposit slips.

If you receive or disburse client trust funds, you will need to open a trust bank account. There are four different types of trust bank accounts:
1. Mixed Trust Account
This is the most common type of trust account used in a law office. It is also called “pooled” trust account or operating trust account. A mixed trust account holds money for more than one client. Therefore, There are specific rules regarding opening or closing a mixed trust account.
2. Separate interest bearing trust account
Unlike a mixed trust account, a separate interest bearing trust account contains money for only one client in an interest-bearing form such as passbook accounts, GICs, or Term Deposits.
3. Estate and power of attorney account
This is the separate bank account to hold the estate funds. If you exercise a power of attorney for property or act as an estate trustee or solicitor with control of the estate assets, you should ensure to keep proper trust accounting records and reconcile the accounts monthly.
4. E-reg trust account
These are special trust accounts you set up to authorize Teranet to withdraw the registration fees and land transfer tax for electronic registrations in Ontario’s land registry system. An E-reg account is a mixed trust account. Interest earned on e-reg trust accounts should be paid to The Law Foundation.

A general monetary retainer is an amount paid to a lawyer by a client to secure the availability for a specific period time.
Unlike a specific retainer, general monetary retainer cannot be allocated to any legal services that are rendered or will be rendered.

Most law firms have two bank accounts: general account and mixed trust account. Also, The Law Society has guidelines regarding what money goes into trust account and what money goes into general account. It is important to understand the rules.

First of all, we need the following documents for bookkeeping purpose:

Trust accounts bank statements with canceled cheques.

General accounts bank statements with canceled cheques.

Invoices to clients.

Deposit Book For Trust and General Accounts

According to the requirements of the Law Society, you must keep the following records for at least ten full fiscal years:

Trust receipts journal

Trust disbursements journal

Client trust ledger

Monthly trust comparisons, including supporting trust bank reconciliations and client trust lists

Valuable property record

Bank statements or pass books, cashed cheques, and detailed duplicate deposit slips for all trust and general accounts

Signed electronic trust transfer requisitions and signed printed confirmations of electronic transfers of trust funds

An important decision every lawyer faces in setting up their practice is how to ensure their books and records are maintained in accordance with the requirements of the Law Society.

There is a prevalent notion among lawyers that the bookkeeper’s role is akin to that of a data entry person. Some lawyers may hire a relative for this job or delegate it to a secretary without careful deliberation of their qualifications. Poor books and records lead to costly administrative suspension by the Law Society.