---
title: "An accounting firm's fees and client invoices: separating authority"
canonical: https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/accounting-firm-fees-client-invoices-mandates/
lang: en
alternate: https://www.billabex.com/fr/blog/cabinet-honoraires-factures-clients-mandats.md
updated: 2026-10-05
index: https://www.billabex.com/llms.txt
---

# An accounting firm's fees and client invoices: separating authority

An accounting firm may follow up its own unpaid fees and help a client collect that client's invoices. Both activities involve balances, due dates and similar correspondence. The firm's position is nevertheless different: it is the creditor in the first case and a professional acting for a client in the second. That distinction must remain visible in engagement scope, access, decisions and the bank details communicated to debtors.

Confusion is easy when a colleague works across several cases during the day. “Client” can mean the firm's client or the debtor of that client. A message template can insert the wrong beneficiary. An aggregate report can make receipts belonging to an assisted business look like the firm's cash. Before automating, name the parties precisely. The professional framework discussed below concerns French registered experts-comptables, rather than every accounting profession throughout Europe.

## Establish whose behalf the firm is acting on

For the firm's own fees, the case links the engagement letter, invoiced services, debtor client and the firm's settlement account. The responsible person examines any dispute about the engagement or amount. For invoices belonging to an assisted business, the case identifies that business as the creditor and defines the basis on which the firm contacts its debtors under the agreed service.

Article 22 of the ordinance governing the French profession permits, as an ancillary activity and under specified conditions, amicable collection under a mandate through the client's or member's bank account. This regulated possibility does not turn access to accounting records into general authority to collect on the client's behalf. [Ordinance of 19 September 1945, article 22, version effective September 2024](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/article_lc/LEGIARTI000045178537).

Write the roles without shortcuts: “firm collecting its own fees” or “business A is the creditor; firm acts under the agreed engagement”. The method for [checking invoice identity](https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/duplicate-invoice-numbers-legal-entities/) helps preserve the correct issuer and recipient. The same invoice reference appearing in two working environments should never, by itself, justify combining those documents into one case or one receivable.

## Connect the mandate to practical actions

Article 151-4 of the decree governing practice requires a special mandate for the amicable collection engagement it covers, which may be included in the engagement letter. It also requires identification of the client's bank account into which the debtor is to pay. [Decree of 30 March 2012, article 151-4](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/article_lc/LEGIARTI000039400976).

The operational task is to translate the agreed scope into understandable actions. Does the firm prepare an overdue list, draft messages or send them? Who confirms the balance following a receipt or credit? Who answers a commercial dispute that the firm cannot resolve? The answers must match the engagement actually accepted and identify a responsible contact within the client business for decisions and missing evidence.

Do not assume that bookkeeping services automatically include every intervention. Helping a director organise reminders and undertaking an amicable collection engagement are not interchangeable descriptions. Have the proposed service classified under the applicable professional requirements, then describe its operation in suitable contractual documents. The agreed scope should also explain where the work stops and which circumstances require the client to decide the next step.

## Keep the client's validation in the process

The Paris Île-de-France professional body's Full service white paper includes a collection engagement example in which the client validates the identified receivables. The model also states that the client remains responsible for the invoicing information supplied. It is a professional illustration to adapt, rather than a ready-made contract suitable for every situation. [Full service white paper, page 67](https://www.oec-paris.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Livre-Blanc-Full-Service.pdf).

Validation prevents a ledger line from being treated as a complete case. An invoice may remain open while a credit is being prepared, delivery is disputed or a commercial arrangement has not reached accounting. The firm asks the client for the facts that change the next action and retains the response in the appropriate file, where the person continuing the work can find it.

For an extension request, the approach to [payment approval authority](https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/payment-extension-approval-collections-tool/) should define what the firm may propose and what needs the client's decision. Being able to send a reminder does not establish authority to grant a discount, waive an amount or commit the business to a new arrangement. Clear approval makes the service easier to deliver instead of leaving each colleague to interpret the mandate differently.

## A worked example where the collected cash belongs to clients

Imagine three fictitious scopes. The firm is awaiting €1,200 of its own fees. Business A has assigned follow-up of €6,000 in receivables and business B has assigned €8,400. The total amount under review is **€15,600**, but only €1,200 is the firm's own receivable in this example. The remaining amounts belong to the two businesses whose customer invoices are being followed up.

During the week, A receives €4,000 from its debtors and B receives €3,000 from its own, into their respective accounts. The firm's fees remain unpaid. The report can therefore show **€7,000 received by the assisted businesses and zero received by the firm against its fee invoice**. Reporting only “collections: €7,000” without the beneficiary obscures the result that matters to each party and its own cash planning.

The remaining balances are separate: €1,200 in fees, €2,000 for A and €5,400 for B. They total €8,600, equal to €15,600 less €7,000. The arithmetic is useful but cannot replace creditor identity, payment allocation and the destination account. The firm invoices its service under the agreed terms; the process described here does not route client funds through the firm's account to deduct its own fees before onward payment.

## Check separation through to attachments and exports

A colleague may work on several engagements without the clients being able to see each other's cases. Check message recipients, attachments, exports and shared links. A correctly filtered screen is insufficient if its download includes rows belonging to other businesses, or if a reminder template inserts the firm's own bank details into a request made on behalf of an assisted client.

Prepare an exercise with two fictitious businesses and easily distinguishable invoices. Ask the colleague to switch engagements, prepare a reminder and produce a progress report. At every step, inspect the named creditor, payment account and attached documents. The check should examine what can actually be sent or downloaded, rather than relying on the case label visible at the top of the application.

The approach to [data required by an AI collections agent](https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/ai-collections-agent-data-minimisation/) applies too. Information useful for the client's general accounting may have no relevance to requesting payment of one invoice. Access rights, confidentiality obligations and data processing responsibilities need examination for each engagement and the tools used. They should not be inferred simply from the fact that a colleague already has access for another purpose.

## Give disputed fees their own resolution route

A disagreement about the firm's fees concerns its own contractual relationship with the client. Examine it using the engagement letter, invoices and correspondence. The Pays de la Loire professional body describes seeking resolution and making efforts to obtain acceptance of professional conciliation or arbitration before court action, in accordance with the profession's rules. [Pays de la Loire professional body, client disputes](https://www.paysdelaloire.experts-comptables.fr/experts-comptables-et-experts-comptables-stagiaires/exercice-professionnel/vous-rencontrez-des-difficultes/vous-avez-un-litige-avec-votre-client/).

Keep that dispute separate from the amounts owed by the business's debtors. The engagement report can identify invoices followed up, funds received by the client and decisions still awaited, while the fee disagreement follows its own handling process. This allows each issue to be discussed with the appropriate documents and responsibilities, rather than combining unrelated balances into a single unclear demand for payment.

When considering Billabex, start with [its operational workflow](https://www.billabex.com/en/product/how-it-works/) and verify the concrete scope of your project: the firm's own fees or assistance to a business under a defined engagement. Test the required access and decisions with the firm and client. A dependable organisation begins with understandable mandates and case records that let every person explain exactly whose behalf they are acting on when contacting a debtor.

## Sources

- [1945 ordinance, article 22, version effective September 2024](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/article_lc/LEGIARTI000045178537).
- [2012 decree, article 151-4, effective November 2019](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/article_lc/LEGIARTI000039400976).
- [Paris Île-de-France professional body, Full service white paper, page 67](https://www.oec-paris.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Livre-Blanc-Full-Service.pdf).
- [Pays de la Loire professional body, client disputes](https://www.paysdelaloire.experts-comptables.fr/experts-comptables-et-experts-comptables-stagiaires/exercice-professionnel/vous-rencontrez-des-difficultes/vous-avez-un-litige-avec-votre-client/).