Lawyers & Ledgers October 6, 2026

Welcome to our first edition of Lawyers & Ledgers!

Welcome to Q4: The Quarter Where “We’ll Deal With It Later” Becomes “Oh… We Should Probably Deal With That.”

October has arrived. Which means Q4 is officially underway. For law firms, this is the point in the year when two things tend to happen at exactly the same time:

Everyone gets incredibly busy… and there are suddenly a lot of financial decisions that need to be made before December 31.

There are roughly three months left in 2026. That's plenty of time to make meaningful changes. But it's not plenty of time to keep ignoring things until December 20. So this month, we're talking about what deserves your attention right now.

💰 The Lawyer Who Thought Tax Planning Happened at Tax Time

We once had a conversation that went something like this:

Lawyer: “My tax bill is HOW MUCH?”
Us: “That's the estimate based on your profit.”
Lawyer: “Okay. What can we do to reduce it?”

And there it is. The question accountants everywhere hear after the year is already over. The problem? Once December 31 passes, many of the planning opportunities that could have been considered are gone.

October is different. October gives us time to look at what's happening, estimate where you'll finish the year and talk about your options before decisions become history.

🧮 October = Tax Planning Season

If you're an incorporated lawyer with a December year-end, now is the time to start estimating your 2026 corporate results.

You should have a reasonable idea of:

Your projected year-end revenue
Expected taxable income
Corporate taxes payable
Tax instalments already paid
Salary and dividends paid to shareholders
Shareholder loan balances
Planned bonuses
Major purchases before year-end
Cash required for upcoming CRA obligations

And don't forget your personal tax picture.

Corporate and personal tax planning shouldn't happen in completely separate universes.

How you're taking money from the corporation matters.

The goal isn't simply to minimize tax.

It's to determine the most appropriate strategy for the business and the shareholder—and make those decisions while there is still time to implement them.

📊 Then We Found $47,000 Sitting in WIP

Here's one of our favourite financial conversations.

A firm owner tells us: “Cash has been a little tight lately.”

So we start looking. Revenue is decent. Expenses aren't wildly out of control. Receivables aren't terrible. Then we open the WIP report.

And there it is. A substantial amount of completed work that hasn't been billed. The firm didn't necessarily have a cash-flow problem. It had a billing problem.

This is why we're such big fans of reviewing WIP before year-end.

Run your report. Look at every matter.

Ask: Can we bill this? Because unbilled work doesn't pay payroll.

💸 Your October Cash-Flow Challenge

Here's something we recommend every firm do this month:

Build a cash-flow forecast through January 2027.

Not just December. January.

Because December can be deceptive. There are holidays. Clients disappear. Payments slow down. There may be bonuses, holiday parties, vacation pay and year-end purchases. Then January arrives with payroll, rent, CRA payments and all the usual expenses.

Your forecast should include expected:

Cash coming in: Collections, retainers, recurring revenue and other expected receipts.
Cash going out: Payroll, rent, software, loan payments, taxes, bonuses, major purchases and owner compensation.

You don't need a perfect forecast. You need enough visibility to see a cash crunch before you're standing in the middle of it.

⚖️ Trust Accounting: Please Don't Save the Cleanup for February

For our Alberta lawyers, we're going to keep talking about this.

The Law Society of Alberta's annual Trust Safety filing deadline moves to the last day of February beginning in 2027, including the Law Firm Self-Report.

That means your 2026 records need to be clean and current.

October is a great time to review:

Trust reconciliations
Client trust ledgers
Outstanding trust cheques
Old or inactive trust balances
Unidentified transactions
Supporting documentation
Your firm's internal trust accounting procedures

If something doesn't balance, investigate it now.

February-you has enough going on.

Don't give them a trust reconciliation from June to figure out too.

👋 BC Lawyers — We're Coming to Vancouver!

We have something fun happening this month. Trust Us Legal Accounting is heading to the Women in Law Conference in Vancouver, BC! And we're really looking forward to getting out from behind our computers and actually meeting some of you in person. We spend our days talking about trust reconciliations, law firm profitability, bookkeeping systems, cash flow and all the strange little financial problems that are uniquely part of running a law practice. But there's something much better about having those conversations face-to-face.

So if you're a lawyer in BC and you'll be attending the Women in Law Conference, please stop by the Trust Us Legal booth and say hi. Come introduce yourself. Ask us a bookkeeping question. Tell us your biggest financial frustration. Or just come say hello. We'd genuinely love to meet you. And don't worry—we promise not to ask whether your trust account is reconciled. At least not immediately.

📅 Your October Q4 Check-In

Before October ends, we'd like every law firm owner to be able to answer:

What is our projected 2026 profit?
What is our estimated corporate tax liability?
Are our tax instalments sufficient?
Have we reviewed our salary/dividend strategy?
Is there a shareholder loan balance that needs attention?
How much unbilled WIP are we carrying?
How much A/R is over 60 and 90 days?
What does cash flow look like through January?
Are all trust accounts reconciled and current?
Are there old trust balances that need investigation?
Are there any major business purchases or investments we're considering before December 31?
Have we scheduled our year-end tax-planning conversation?

If you don't know the answer to everything on that list, don't panic.

That's the point of doing this in October instead of December.

💡 October Takeaway

Q4 isn't about frantically trying to spend money before December 31 because someone once told you it would “save taxes.”

It's about making deliberate decisions.

Know where you're going to land.

Know what you'll owe.

Know what's sitting in WIP.

Know who owes you money.

Know what cash you'll need.

And make decisions based on information rather than your bank balance.

Because one of the biggest differences between practicing law and running a successful law firm is understanding the business behind the practice.

✨ Finish 2026 With a Plan

At Trust Us Legal Accounting, we help law firms understand the financial side of their practices—from monthly bookkeeping and trust accounting to cash flow, profitability and tax planning. If you're heading into Q4 thinking: “I should probably have a better handle on this…”

That's a pretty good reason to have a conversation.

Reach out to Holly to book a call. And if you're joining us at the Women in Law Conference in Vancouver, come find us. We'd love to say hello.