A specialist accountancy practice for solicitors, LLPs, incorporated firms and chambers — with a deliberately clear split between the accounting work we do and the registered auditor who signs the report.
Accountants for Solicitors is a trading style of Buzz Accounting Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15182358. We act for law firms and we do not spread ourselves across everyone else within ten miles of the office. Sole practitioners, partnerships, LLPs, incorporated practices, COFAs who need the compliance side carried, and self-employed barristers.
The reason for the focus is simple. A general accountant may meet the SRA Accounts Rules once a decade. The five-week reconciliation cycle in rule 8.3, the bill-before-transfer requirement in rule 4.3, residual balances under rule 5.1(c), the salaried members rules that turn a fixed-share member into an employee for income tax purposes — none of these are obscure. They are simply specific, and specific is what a specialist is for.
We do the client account bookkeeping and the three-way reconciliations, the firm's annual accounts, the partnership or corporation tax return, partners' self assessment and tax reserves, payroll and auto-enrolment, VAT, and the management figures the firm is run on. We do not audit anything, we do not sign SRA Accountant's Reports, and we do not give legal advice.
Client account bookkeeping and the five-weekly three-way reconciliation. The firm's annual accounts, the partnership or corporation tax return, partner tax reserves and drawings, payroll, VAT and the management figures you run the firm on. All the preparation that decides whether the report is clean.
Buzz Accounting Ltd is licensed by the AAT and a member of the ICPA. It is not a chartered accountancy firm and not a registered auditor.
Colin Ellis, ICAEW and a Responsible Individual, prepares and signs the SRA Accountant's Report itself. Rule 12.5 of the SRA Accounts Rules requires a member of ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA or ICAI who is, or works for, a registered auditor — and only that person can sign it.
Anstey Bond LLP is a separate firm, registered for audit by the ICAEW. Companies House OC360626.
That split is a deliberate model, not a hole in the service. Rule 12.5 of the SRA Accounts Rules requires the report to be prepared and signed by an accountant who is a member of ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA or ICAI and who is, or works for, a registered auditor. Both limbs, cumulatively. A firm that quietly implies otherwise is either not reading the rule or hoping you will not. Meanwhile the work that decides whether your report is clean happens in the twelve months before it is written, and that is the part we do.
It is worth saying what an accountant's report is not, as well. It is not a statutory audit of the firm's accounts. It is a reasonable-assurance engagement on compliance with the Accounts Rules, and the SRA does not require law firms to have audited accounts. Most law firm LLPs sit below the statutory audit thresholds — for accounting periods beginning on or after 6 April 2025 an entity is small if it meets two of turnover not more than £15 million, balance sheet total not more than £7.5 million, and not more than 50 employees — and they still need the rule 12 report if they hold client money above the exemption limits. Those two things get confused constantly, usually in a way that costs the firm money.
Buzz runs Buzz Legal alongside Robert Festenstein, a practising solicitor at RHF Solicitors (SRA number 324115). Running a legal service next to a solicitor teaches you things about a law firm's economics that no textbook does: how long a matter really takes to bill, how quickly work in progress turns into an argument, how much of a COFA's month disappears into the client account, and how differently partners behave about drawings once the tax reserve is a real figure rather than a rule of thumb. We mention it for credibility, not as an offer — RHF Solicitors does not act for the law firms who come to us for accountancy, and we do not give legal advice to anyone.
There are no client counts, testimonials or success statistics anywhere on this site, because we are not going to invent them. There are no turnaround promises on regulated work, because the report is not ours to promise. What there is instead is the rule number, the date it applies from, and a named registered auditor you can look up at Companies House and at the ICAEW. If you want to see how that works in practice, the quickest route is a free client account review. If you would rather poke at something first, the calculators are free and ask for nothing, and the compliance calendar is the page most firm owners bookmark.
This site is run by Buzz Accounting Ltd. Buzz was built by two people who got tired of the profession's worst habits — the jargon, the once-a-year silence, the surprise bills.
Co-founder
Andy is an entrepreneur and operator who has spent his career building better professional-services businesses — practices that run on strong systems and plain-speaking advice rather than billable-hour meters and jargon. He co-founded Buzz to prove an accountancy firm could be genuinely useful to the people it serves, and drove its expansion into an international group spanning the UK and South Africa.
Co-founder & Finance Director
Peter is a seasoned accounting professional with more than 20 years' experience. He built and grew his own accountancy firm organically — client by client, referral by referral — to a substantial recurring fee base, so he understands from the inside what business owners actually need from their accountant. As Buzz's co-founder and Finance Director he sets the quality bar for the group's financial work. The AAT practising licence (1001556) that Buzz Accounting Ltd holds is registered through Peter.
One free conversation about your client account, your accounts and your partners' tax positions. No obligation, and a straight answer either way.
One short email: what has changed in the Accounts Rules, the dates coming up, and one number worth checking in your firm. No spam, unsubscribe any time.