Settling the client's account when a matter closes

What a law practice checks and sends so a client's fee account is settled, refunded or written off before the matter file is closed.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Legal businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

The judgment is in, the transfer is registered, or the settlement has been paid. The attorney has moved on to the next file, and the matter is marked for closing. Then, months later, a statement goes out showing a small balance the client never knew about, or a client phones asking why the practice is still holding money they overpaid.

Closing a matter properly means closing its money too. The fee account should end at nothing: every fee note issued, every payment allocated, any credit returned or used, and any balance that will never be paid written off with the right approval. This article sets out how a law practice in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya can do that in Achekam before the file goes to storage. It deals with the practice's own fee account; money held in trust follows its own rules and records.

The final fee note, and anything still sitting in draft

Start by finding everything that has not yet become a fee note. Work recorded but not billed, a disbursement paid last week, a fee note drafted and forgotten: these are the usual culprits.

A business creates customer invoices as drafts it can change or delete. Before closing, list the client's drafts and decide each one: issue it, or delete it if it should never go out. Issuing takes the next number in the sequence and posts the fee note to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Then raise the final fee note for any remaining work and disbursements, so the client receives one last bill rather than a trickle of small ones after the file is closed.

If a fee note was issued in error and nothing has been paid or credited against it, an administrator can void it, which reverses its journal. Where payments or credits exist, use a credit note instead.

Credit left on the client's account

Credit arises in several ways at the end of a matter: the client paid a deposit larger than the final fees, paid a fee note twice, or received a credit note for a disputed charge.

In Achekam, payments are recorded against one fee note or spread across a client's fee notes, a part payment leaves the fee note part-paid, and any extra is held on the client's account. A credit note is issued from the fee note it corrects, in full or for chosen lines, and leftover credit is held for the client too. There is no credit note without an invoice behind it.

At closing, decide what to do with each credit:

A refund of an online payment is not sent through the gateway by Achekam; it is made in the gateway's dashboard and recorded by a person. Make sure both halves happen.

A closing statement of account the client can check line by line

Once the fee notes, payments and credits are final, send the client a statement. The server produces a customer statement of account as a PDF that can be e-mailed, and the screen says whether it was sent. Check that line before assuming the client received it.

A closing statement does two jobs. It shows the client, in one place, every fee note, payment and credit on their account, so any disagreement surfaces now rather than in a year. And it gives the practice a dated record of the account as it stood when the matter closed. Where someone other than the client paid part of the fees, such as an insurer or an employer, the statement is where the client sees that; when someone else pays the fee note covers recording those payments.

Balances that will not be paid

Some balances will not be collected: a client who has died, a company in liquidation, a disputed fee the practice decides not to pursue. Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals, so old balances on closing matters are easy to find.

An unpaid debt can be written off once a partner approves. That approval step is the point: one person proposes the write-off with a reason, and a partner decides. Record the reason in terms a later reader can follow. The ACCA's article on trade receivables and revenue explains how irrecoverable debts are accounted for, and writing off irrecoverable fees covers the practice's own route in more detail.

Filing the closing correspondence with the matter

The money and the paperwork should close together. Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files, tags, archives and searches them, and a new version keeps the earlier ones. File in the matter's folder:

• the final fee note and closing statement of account;
• the closing letter to the client;
• any refund confirmation or write-off approval;
• the client's written instruction about any credit kept on account.

Then archive the folder rather than deleting it. How matter files are organised generally is set out in matter files in Document Centre.

A matter-closing checklist for the bookkeeper

1. List and resolve all draft fee notes for the client.
2. Raise the final fee note for remaining fees and disbursements.
3. Allocate every payment; check nothing sits unallocated.
4. Decide every credit: re-allocate, refund or keep with written instruction.
5. Propose any write-off and obtain a partner's approval.
6. Send the closing statement and confirm it was sent.
7. File the closing documents and archive the matter folder.

Run the checklist before the attorney signs the file off, and make "account settled" a condition of closing, just as much as the final report to the client.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.