The present invention relates to a method for the continuous manufacture of bisphenol A comprising i) feeding one or more feed streams comprising phenol and acetone to a reactor and reacting said acetone and phenol in the presence of an ion-exchange resin catalyst thereby forming a product stream comprising bisphenol A, phenol, acetone, water and by-products, ii) crystallising bisphenol A and/or bisphenol A/ phenol adduct crystals from said product stream in one or more crystallisation units thereby forming a slurry consisting of said crystals and a mother liquor, iii) separating the mother liquor from the crystals in one or more solid-liquid separation units, iv) heating the mother liquor in a heat recovery unit and feeding the heated mother liquor to a distillation column, v) separating the mother liquor in the distillation column thereby forming a bottom stream comprising phenol and optionally a minor amount of water and a top stream comprising water and optionally a minor amount of phenol, vi) cooling the bottom stream in said heat recovery unit.