How We Work with Law Firms

This can save the firm money in the long run and help to maintain accurate records. Finally, an easy expense reimbursement system can help employees and partners feel more comfortable using company credit cards for business expenses. A mileage tracker app can help you keep track of all your business miles, as well as plan for future expenses. A free time tracking software can be used until you get your legal accounting system set up. There are a few different ways to streamline time and mileage tracking, but the most important thing is to just get started.

• As an attorney, you’re aware that when you receive money that belongs to a client, you must place those funds in a trust account separate from your own money.
• Three-way reconciliations are an important part of practicing law and must be performed on a regular basis to ensure accuracy in your financial records.
• Law firm bookkeeping records the financial transactions and balances the financial accounts for your firm.
• This way, your firm can stay compliant with ethics rules—and you can ensure you aren’t leaving money on the table.
• In addition, using software like Clio Manage to keep your financial records up-to-date can be a huge time saver.
• Successful law firms know everything about their money, from where it came from to where it will go.
• These transactions are recorded on equal sides, known as debits and credits.

You’re busy providing legal services and developing business, so that Uber expense to meet a client sometimes falls through the cracks. It’s best to record these expenses as they happen, but realistically there will be times when you forget. Solutions without law firm bookkeeping built-in, specialized law firm accounting features require a high degree of customization and can only be used by a highly trained law firm accountant. And frequently, the required customization can make the software cumbersome and more difficult to use.

Law Firm Bookkeeping 101: How to Choose The Best Accountant for Your Firm

When organized as a business system – accounting can provide strategic clarity and confidence for decision making and planning as you build. It takes years to build a strong attorney reputation and one second to destroy it. Law firms are held to a high standard and suffer greatly when errors occur, even when the errors are unintentional and understandable. Law firm accounting helps you keep your firm’s name reputable and clean.

• Either way, law firms succeed or fail on client trust, and accurate, thorough bookkeeping is essential to building a reputable, compliant, and trustworthy firm.
• First, you’ll deposit all retainer checks and similar money that belongs to a client in an IOLTA account.
• It’s called the “corporate veil,” and it protects business owners and their personal assets from legal action taken against the company.
• It’s a cloud-based accounting software that works well for those in need of small law firm accounting software.
• This method does not recognize various payment accounts, such as accounts receivable and payable.

Second, it can help to prevent personal funds from being used to pay for business expenses. In addition to thinking about expenses, it’s also important to project future revenue when setting a budget for a law firm. This will help you make sure that you’re bringing in enough money to cover your costs and hopefully make a profit. Accounting for law firms may be new or challenging to you, but it doesn’t have to be scary. What’s most important is that you get the details right so that you can stay compliant with ethics rules and help your firm grow to its full potential. Accounting for law firms becomes so much easier when you work with an accounting professional from the beginning.

Figure out how you’ll get paid

This will help you stay on top of your finances and make sure that you’re not overspending. A legal bookkeeper can also help you manage your firm’s budget and make sure that you are staying on track financially. The bookkeeper should also be familiar with the firm’s billing cycle and invoicing procedures in order to ensure that all billable hours are accurately recorded and invoiced in a timely manner. For example, when a law firm pays its rent, the transaction would be recorded as a debit to the asset account for cash and a credit to the liability account for rent. The purpose of double-entry accounting is to act as a safeguard against errors and to provide an accurate record of all financial transactions. The accrual method of accounting is an accounting method that records economic events regardless of when the cash is actually received or paid.

• A fundamental concept in accounting and bookkeeping, double-entry accounting states that all financial transactions have equal and opposite effects in two different accounts.
• As an accountant or bookkeeper, it is important to ensure accuracy in your law firm’s financial records.
• So, for example, if a law firm provides services to a client in December but doesn’t receive payment until January, the accrual method would require the firm to record the revenue in December.
• This allows you to determine which cases are the most profitable, which ones drain the most resources, and where money is being spent but not made.
• Accrual accounting is a more sophisticated method that records revenue and expenses at the time they are earned or incurred, regardless of when you receive the money.
• This system sorts all transactions into two categories, assets and liabilities.

QuickBooks is an industry leader and one of the oldest accounting software options. Countless law firms have used the features QuickBooks offers to handle their financial and legal concerns. Although it can benefit law firms of any size, QuickBooks tends to work well with smaller and midsize firms. LeanLaw was designed with the midsize law firm in mind and is specially equipped to handle the time tracking and monitoring, billing, and trust needs of law firms. When you add QuickBooks through instant integration, you can easily access a full suite of tools to help you manage your small or midsize law firm.