What does the SQE1 Solicitors Accounts section actually test?

Client money and accounts rules. The SRA assessment specification breaks Solicitors Accounts into 8 topics, each examined through single-best-answer (SBA) questions in the FLK2 paper.

Is Solicitors Accounts part of FLK1 or FLK2?

Solicitors Accounts sits in FLK2. From January 2027 the FLK2 paper is 170 single-best-answer questions (180 until July 2026), sat as two sessions of 85 questions, 2 hours 33 minutes each, on the same day.

How many topics are in Solicitors Accounts?

8. Our notes, flashcards, and question bank are mapped one-to-one against the SRA's SA specification so nothing is missed.

How long should I spend on Solicitors Accounts?

Most candidates allocate roughly 24–40 hours across notes, flashcards, and timed practice. The exact split depends on your background — re-sitters can usually focus on weak topics rather than re-reading.

What is the best way to revise Solicitors Accounts?

Active recall beats re-reading. Read the notes once, then practise SBA questions in mixed order, then revisit weak topics. Our weak-area tracker surfaces the topics where your accuracy is below 70%.

Are these Solicitors Accounts SQE notes free?

The notes preview on this page and the sample topics are free, and the first chapter of the Solicitors Accounts study guide downloads free as a PDF and EPUB. The complete notes for all 8 topics come with lifetime access to the platform, and the whole subject is also available as a £9.99 study guide.

Are the Solicitors Accounts notes updated for the January 2027 specification?

Yes. The SRA's updated SQE1 specification applies from the January 2027 sitting, and the notes, questions and flashcards were revised against it in July 2026. Updates are included at no extra cost.

What is the difference between these notes and the Solicitors Accounts study guide?

Same content, two formats. The platform gives you the notes alongside the SA question bank, flashcards and mock exams with progress tracking. The study guide is the Solicitors Accounts notes as a book, PDF and EPUB with a paperback edition, with worked questions and flashcards in every chapter, for £9.99.

Can I practise Solicitors Accounts questions without paying?

Yes. The free readiness quiz includes a sample from every subject, and free accounts can access sample questions across all subjects. The full SA question bank is unlocked with a one-time lifetime purchase and is covered by the 14-day money-back guarantee.

SAFLK2 · 8 topics

Solicitors Accounts SQE notes.

Client money and accounts rules. Below: a preview of the notes, all 8 topics, sample questions with worked explanations, and the first chapter of the Solicitors Accounts study guide to download free, all mapped to the SRA’s FLK2 specification.

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Free sample chapter

The first chapter of the Solicitors Accounts study guide, with five worked questions, as a PDF and EPUB. The full guide is £9.99 on its own, and every subject is included with lifetime access.

From the notes

Topic 01: Introduction to Solicitors Accounts

How the Solicitors Accounts notes read. Every one of the 8 topics is written the same way: the rule, the trap the examiners set, and a worked question.

Solicitors regularly handle money belonging to clients. This includes deposits for property purchases, damages on settlement of litigation, estate funds, and money held in trust. The SRA Accounts Rules exist to protect this money and ensure clients can trust their solicitors with their funds.

Apply to all regulated firms handling client money
Require separation of client and office funds
Mandate reconciliation of client accounts at least every five weeks
Specify detailed record-keeping requirements

Accounts Knowledge is Essential: Every solicitor must understand solicitors accounts, regardless of practice area. Breaches of the Accounts Rules are among the most common sources of disciplinary action against solicitors. Understanding the rules protects both your clients and your career.

Full notes for all 8 topics are included with lifetime access, or as the Solicitors Accounts study guide (£9.99).

All 8 topics in Solicitors Accounts

SRA-aligned

01
Introduction to Solicitors Accounts
Core principles, double entry bookkeeping, SRA Accounts Rules overview
Free
02
Client Money
Definition, payment into client account, withholding, repayment, accounting entries
03
Client Account Operations
Meaning of client account, no banking facilities, withdrawals, accounting entries
04
Interest on Client Money
Requirement to pay interest, accounting entries, exceptions
05
Breaches of the SRA Accounts Rules
Identifying breaches, duty to correct, accounting entries, reporting
06
Records, Ledgers and Reconciliation
Client ledgers, reconciliation, bills, disbursements, transfers, VAT
07
Joint Accounts and Third-Party Accounts
Operation of joint accounts, client's own account, third-party managed accounts
08
Accountants' Reports and Record Retention
Obtaining accountants' reports, delivery, storage, retention of accounting records

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4 sample SA questions

Real SBA questions from the Solicitors Accounts bank, with the full explanation. The paid bank covers all 8 topics and difficulty levels.

A newly established firm is opening its bank accounts. The firm's bank has offered a single business account in which every deposit can be tagged in the accounting software as either the firm's own money or money held for a client, and the book-keeper says this arrangement would halve the bank charges. On the firm's first day of trading a client sends £5,000 to fund the purchase of a shop lease on which the firm is acting. The supervising partner asks whether that £5,000 can go into the single tagged account.

May the firm properly pay the client's £5,000 into the single tagged account?

No, because client money must be held in a client account that is separate from the firm's own money. Correct
No, because the firm must first obtain the client's written consent to the bank's tagging arrangement.
Yes, because tagging each deposit records the two sorts of money separately, which is what the rules require.
Yes, because a single account may be used provided the firm's own balance always exceeds the total held for clients.
Yes, because the £5,000 may be kept with the firm's money until it is needed to complete the purchase.

Why: The correct answer is A. Rule 4.1 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2019 requires client money to be kept separate from money belonging to the firm, and rule 2.3 requires client money to be paid promptly into a client account. The £5,000 is client money because it is held for a client in relation to regulated services, so it must go into an account that is separate from the firm's own account and identified as a client account (rule 3.2). Labelling entries inside one shared account does not achieve that separation. B is incorrect because a client cannot consent to an arrangement the rules forbid; the objection is not a want of consent. C is incorrect because separate ledger entries are not a substitute for separate bank accounts. D is incorrect because a margin of the firm's own money does not make a shared account permissible. E is incorrect because client money must be paid into the client account promptly, not held with the firm's money until it is needed.

A small firm holds client money on a handful of matters. Its book-keeper proposes to compare the client account bank statement with the cash book and the client ledger total once each quarter, and to skip any quarter in which no client money has been paid into or out of the account. In the quarter just ended there has been no movement at all on the client account, so no comparison has been carried out. The sole practitioner asks whether the firm is meeting its obligations.

Is the book-keeper's proposed reconciliation timetable compliant with the SRA Accounts Rules?

Yes, because a reconciliation is needed only for a period in which client money has actually moved.
Yes, because quarterly checks are enough for a firm holding client money on only a handful of matters.
No, because a reconciliation is required at least every five weeks, whether or not any transactions have occurred. Correct
No, because the client account must be reconciled on the last day of each calendar month without any exception.
No, because a reconciliation is required each time client money is paid into or out of the account.

Why: The correct answer is C. Rule 8.3 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2019 requires a reconciliation of the client account bank statement balance with the cash book balance and the client ledger total at least every five weeks, signed off by the COFA or a manager. The requirement is a fixed maximum interval: it does not depend on there having been any movement on the account, so a quarterly cycle with dormant quarters skipped breaches the rule twice over. A is incorrect because a period without transactions still has to be reconciled; that is how missing or misposted entries are caught. B is incorrect because the obligation does not vary with the size of the firm or the number of matters on which it holds money. D is incorrect because the rule sets a five-week maximum, not a calendar-month deadline; a monthly cycle happens to comply, but it is not what the rule requires. E is incorrect because reconciliation is periodic, not transaction-by-transaction.

A reporting accountant has delivered a qualified accountant's report on a firm, and the SRA has investigated. It has established that over eighteen months the sole practitioner repeatedly took money from the client account to meet the firm's rent and wages, replacing it each time within a few weeks. Every client has been paid in full, none has complained, and the client account is now in order. The solicitor says that as nothing was lost and the money always went back, there is nothing for the SRA to act on.

What action is now open to the SRA in respect of the sole practitioner?

No action, because every client has been paid in full and no client has suffered any loss.
A rebuke only, because breaches that cause no loss cannot be treated as serious misconduct.
A referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which may fine, suspend or strike off the solicitor. Correct
A direction to improve the firm's accounting systems and to undertake further training, but no penalty.
A written warning first, with a referral available only if a further breach occurs within five years.

Why: The correct answer is C. Taking client money to fund the firm's own outgoings breaches rules 4.1 and 5.1 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2019 and, on these facts, the SRA Principles requiring honesty and integrity. The SRA may deal with a breach itself by rebuke or fine, but for the repeated unauthorised use of client money it may refer the matter to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, whose powers under section 47 of the Solicitors Act 1974 include an unlimited fine, suspension and striking off. Repayment and the absence of client loss go to mitigation, not to liability. A is incorrect because the breach is complete when the money is taken; the absence of loss does not undo it. B is incorrect because a rebuke is one of the available outcomes rather than the ceiling, and repeated misuse of client money is capable of being serious misconduct. D is incorrect because the SRA is not confined to remedial directions and training. E is incorrect because there is no requirement to warn first, and no rule confining referral to repeat breaches within a period.

A firm has one client bank account and one office bank account. On the same morning the cashier pays £3,000 of the firm's own money to its landlord for the quarter's rent, and banks £6,000 received from a client to fund a purchase. The book-keeper enters the £6,000 in the cash book but leaves out the rent, saying that the cash book is a record of client money and that office payments can be picked up from the bank statements when the annual accounts are prepared.

How must the firm record the £3,000 payment of rent to its landlord?

In the cash book, in the office bank payments column, in date order with the other bank transactions. Correct
In the cash book, in the office bank payments column, but only when the annual accounts are prepared.
In the office ledger alone, because the rent is an expense of the firm rather than a movement of client money.
In the cash book, in the client bank payments column, so that both accounts reconcile to one total.
Nowhere in the cash book, because it records only movements of client money through the client account.

Why: The correct answer is A. The cash book is the firm's central chronological record of every movement through its bank accounts, with separate columns for client bank receipts and payments and for office bank receipts and payments. Rule 8.1 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2019 requires accurate, contemporaneous and chronological records covering money that is not client money as well as client money, and the five-weekly reconciliation under rule 8.3 depends on the cash book being complete and up to date. The rent is an office bank payment and is entered as such on the day it is paid. B is incorrect because entries must be contemporaneous; writing up the office columns once a year defeats the purpose of the record. C is incorrect because the office ledger records costs and disbursements incurred for clients, not the firm's own overheads, and it is not a substitute for the cash book. D is incorrect because putting an office payment through the client columns would misstate the client account and corrupt the reconciliation. E is incorrect because the cash book covers both bank accounts, not the client account alone.

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