Accounting and Bookkeeping Services for Law Firms

Interestingly, tax deductions can ease the burden when used correctly—yet not all lawyers are up-to-date on their tax deductions. Many lawyers go to one or the other extreme—they either claim everything (and possibly more than they’re allowed to), or they’re so afraid to overstep they miss out on tax deductions. Accounting for law firms is often intimidating—even for seasoned lawyers. While you’ve spent years honing your skills to become a great lawyer, you didn’t learn about accounting or bookkeeping for attorneys at law school.

• The purpose of double-entry accounting is to act as a safeguard against errors and to provide an accurate record of all financial transactions.
• Our law firm accounting services are designed to automate your bookkeeping capabilities, manage your IOLTA accounting, and provide analytical insight to reduce overhead and increase profits.
• There are several reasons to keep books and records properly in your law practice.
• Bookkeeping happens first and relates to the administrative side of tracking your cash.
• This will make it easier to find what you’re looking for and will help you avoid any mistakes.
• Now you cross off law bookkeeping out of your to-do list and feel stress-free about the financial aspect.

Make sure whatever tool you use integrates properly or choose an all-in-one software for both. Additionally, users can generate reports by category or bill type to analyze their finances. For further assistance with the setup process of QuickBooks Online for lawyers in your office setting, the author is happy to come onsite if necessary. For example, if a law firm were to use Xero for bookkeeping, they would be able to see real-time insights into their finances and integrate it with Clio. This would make bookkeeping and accounting much simpler and more efficient for the law firm.

Choose Your Firm’s Size

When you later earn your fee, you would debit Trust Account Liabilities and credit your revenue account. Best of all, as we like to do at the Biglaw Investor, we’ve negotiated a special deal for readers of the site. If you sign up using the links on this page, you’ll get 20% off your first six months of bookkeeping with Bench. I’ve been so happy with the experience that I’m on the annual plan and my guess is that after six months of working with them, you’ll be on the annual plan too. First, you’ll deposit all retainer checks and similar money that belongs to a client in an IOLTA account.

• Get your invoicing simplified to minimize wasted time chasing down unpaid invoices.
• Remember earlier when we discussed setting up a Chart of Accounts in Chapter 1?
• When this happens, the company could have compliance issues with their books getting found to be inaccurate.
• Next, you’ll withdraw money from the IOLTA account and transfer it to your firm’s account after invoicing a client and receiving their approval to pay the fees.
• Finally, we’ll go over some common financial mistakes and how to avoid them.

Ultimately, by having an effective bookkeeping system in place, law firms can better manage their finances and create more opportunities for growth. Law firms also benefit from being able to keep client and financial data perfectly in sync. Users can also trial Xero for free before committing to use it full-time. Moreover, the accountant should be able to capture expenses accurately while also understanding client trust. Additionally, an accountant who can use data to make informed decisions about the firm’s financial health is highly desirable.

Accuracy is guaranteed in every IOLTA trust account.

For example, if a law firm has multiple partners, each with their own areas of focus and billable hours, the bookkeeper will need to be able to track this information correctly. 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. For example, when a law firm pays its rent, the transaction would law firm bookkeeping be recorded as a debit to the asset account for cash and a credit to the liability account for rent. Some firms will even use accrual for their monthly reports but then submit their year-end tax return as the cash method. Choosing an accounting method is another piece of the financial puzzle for a new company. Before the firm files its first tax return, it must select its method of accounting.

A good law firm accounting software should include features such as billing and invoicing, bookkeeping, reporting and analytics, and payroll. The software should also include a mileage tracker, the ability to offer online payments, timekeeping tools, and the ability for multiple users to access the tools. The use of accounting software is important for bookkeeping in a law firm because it enables the efficient tracking of clients, invoices, and other financial data related to running the firm. Bookkeeping is a process of recording, classifying, and summarizing financial transactions to provide accurate and up-to-date financial data.

How Premium Money in the Bank Billing Service Works

By now, you know you can’t simply create a financial strategy and budget and sit back and relax. Using key performance indicators will help you know sooner if you’re on track. At Lawyerist, we firmly believe in the benefits of automation for accounting and bookkeeping. That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to review a wide range of tools for you, so you don’t have to.