Law Firm Accounting Services: Audit, Tax, & Advisory Services

Understanding what goes into accounting is essential; you still are not an accountant or a bookkeeper. Bringing in an expert will give you peace of mind knowing that your business will get tax seasons done right. Having people come in and help provide their expertise in accounting and bookkeeping will help you see that it is being taken care of accurately and ethically. 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. At Supporting Strategies, small businessbookkeeping and controller servicesis our core business. For over 15 years, Supporting Strategies’locally owned and operated officeshave served thousands of companies.

Some partners also earn guaranteed payments to ensure stable income even if the business operates at a loss. The standard law firm business structure is a limited liability partnership . Owners, called partners, enjoy the benefits of pass-through taxation under a shield that protects their personal assets from business liabilities. Refundable retainers — where the client may have a refund for hours prepaid but not worked during the month — are what accountants call unearned or deferred revenue. The retainer fee goes into a CTA, and you can draw from it as the client approves invoices for services rendered. Thankfully, there are a lot of tools available to help you manage your trust accounts, so you don’t have to go at it alone. Remember that your trust account is your client’s money, not yours.

Keep strict records

If you don’t have any accounting tools in place, you’ll need a great, basic software that can do it all. If you only need a few features, such as bookkeeping, a simpler tool or two may suffice. You can go with an accrual or cash accounting method in the US, and the difference is mostly about timing. While this primarily law firm bookkeeping applies to new law firms, ensuring that the basics are determined and set up correctly is critical. Make better business decisions with the help of a real-time view of your firm’s cash flow. Get Clio Grow and law practice management with Clio Complete. If you’re going to hire employees, you will need to set up payroll.

Understand what it takes to remain compliant with your state and federal laws so that you can grow your firm into the best it can be. Bringing in an expert will help you with accounting tasks, accounting processes, business decisions, bookkeeping tasks, and more. Do not be afraid to bring in an expert to allow you to focus on things you are better at, like solutions for your clients’ legal problems. If you are still inputting numbers manually, you are probably finding that it is leading to mistakes or duplicated data entry. These mistakes waste time, create mismatched records, create billing complications, and potentially compliance violations. Using a 3-way reconciliation is a great way to check and verify your financial data periodically. It can be checked with accounting software or checked manually.

Incorrectly differentiating income and revenue

Unless the IRS requires you to use the accrual method—for law firms, this rule only kicks in once you start making $10m a year—which method is best will depend on your accounting needs. Manage business revenue in your checking account, and set aside money you’ll need at a later date (for emergencies, to pay taxes, etc.) in a savings account.

As a lawyer, a lot of your work is done on the go and away from the office . WithFreshBooks mobile accounting app, you can handle the management of your finances from anywhere and at any time. Create professional looking estimates and invoices while in the courtroom and run your expense report at the end of the day from your office or home.

Record payroll activity to your general ledger system after each pay period. Process vendor bills with the proper approvals and timely payments. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. TimeSolv also offers a custom plan for businesses with prices that start at $24.95 per user per month for one to nine users.

You must follow the ethics regulations governing law firms in your area. While not necessary, we recommend working with a bookkeeper who has experience working with law firms.

TimeSolv Features

Every law firm has a responsibility to stay compliant with ethics regulations, and your firm is no exception. Ethics rules vary in each jurisdiction, but there are some basic commonalities definitely some basics when it comes to accounting for law firms. As an attorney, you’ll spend a lot of your time invoicing your clients.

• Most importantly, you must find a plan that works well for you and stick with it.
• If you cannot answer these questions to your own satisfaction, we can help.
• The Botkeeper approach to bookkeeping for law firms considers your individual needs, managing everything from client invoicing to monthly expenses.
• Poor management of trust accounts can lead to penalties, suspension, or even losing the right to practice law.
• Get incredible insight into your financials with unlimited reporting, beautiful dashboards, and round-the-clock support.
• Use accounting software to aid in your law firm’s tracking for billable time, revenue, expenses.

It is industry standard to give clients a bit of leeway when paying invoices (typically days). However, you still need to chase up late or delayed payments.

What to look for in a legal accountant

Though rules vary from state to state, most state Bar Association rules permit debit, credit and other electronic payment processing for law firms. For an in-depth discussion about the rise of electronic payments in the American legal profession, check out this guide to payment processing from the American Bar Association. Once you’ve determined what kinds of payments your firm will accept, you’ll then need to choose a payment provider to work with. And when you commingle your personal and business finances, the following problems can arise. Many attorneys prefer to get paid by credit card (online or in-person), which incur their own special fees.

Like every bank account, CTAs come with bank service charges. Some states prevent law firms from depositing their own funds into CTAs, so you’d pay them from your operating account.

Do lawyers need accounting?

Since then, we have complete visibility into our clients’ payout ratio. Accordingly, our managing partners and principal attorneys have a better visibility into the firm’s income capabilities.

• If you are running a law firm, don’t make that severe mistake.
• QuickBooks tracks every dollar coming in and going out of the firm.
• Manage retainers based on your state’s specific rules within Chart of Accounts.
• After selecting your bank, you want to open the necessary accounts.
• If you sent your client an invoice, that is immediately counted as revenue if you don’t receive the money for weeks.

Most notably, lawyers often hold onto funds that don’t belong to them, and specific rules govern how you need to handle that cash. Fortunately, most accounting concepts for law firms are relatively straightforward. The finances of service providers tend to have far fewer moving parts than those of businesses with an inventory on the books. We’re obsessed with giving lawyers exactly what they need in order to take control of their accounting and bookkeeping.

Stay on top of trust accounting

Do your due diligence and make sure every dollar going into the trust account is supposed to be there. Just be sure to verify your exact responsibilities https://www.bookstime.com/ with the State Bar Association and/or a professional accountant. Your business operates as its own entity with its own credit rating.

• Outsourcing legal accounting services to Cogneesol will wipe out problems with staff turnover, management’s effort, and time used on employing, training & handling employees.
• We’ll cover the unique accounting challenges lawyers face, some general best practices to follow, and the most common pitfalls you need to avoid.
• It is best practice for most attorneys to keep at least two different bank accounts—an account for operating and a separate account for IOLTA.
• Identify the contents of the line items commonly found in the statement of cash flows.
• Choosing an accounting method is another piece of the financial puzzle for a new company.

The daily pressures and demands of the legal industry don’t leave much time to keep up with the books. Leveraging the skills of our Carrollton, TX CPA firm to handle your law firm accounting and bookkeeping will save you precious time and money. With us managing the financial end of your firm, you’ll be free for more lucrative pursuits like working with clients for billable hours and attracting new clients. Our team of financial professionals takes pride in delivering personal attention, accuracy, and excellence in all we do. When your law firm trusts us with your accounting, bookkeeping and tax needs you’ll have peace of mind knowing that a qualified CPA Firm is overseeing your finances.

Well kept books for attorneys will aid accountants by giving them accurate financial data to work with. When you take funds out of your business for personal use, it can either be classified as a capital withdrawal or as a payment for salary. These are two different types of transactions and need to be managed accordingly. Having a bookkeeping and accounting system in place will ensure that the payments to yourself are recorded appropriately as salary.

We are a premier payroll services company that’s small enough to give you… Your bookkeeper should be a trusted partner, not someone that is quietly ruining your financial life. It is a standard procedure within many industries to send out an array of invoices at the end of the month.

Among all the law firm accounting software on our list, Zola Suite is the only program that has CRM features. It provides law firms with client intake forms that help them manage and track leads as well as a built-in email management system for communicating with prospects. While bookkeeping is more transactional and administrative, accounting is more subjective, giving you insights into your law firm’s financial health based on bookkeeping information.

Creating invoices that explain what funds were removed from a trust and what remains in their trust account. Set goals, including personal (how many vacations do you want to take in a year?) and business (how fast do you want your firm’s revenues to grow?). The IRS doesn’t require you to keep records of certain expenses under $75, but we still recommend that to be safe, you keep digital copies of all records. The IRS accepts digital copies of receipts, and apps and online services make it relatively easy to scan and save them.

Client Testimonials

Multiple pricing options give you the ability to scale as your firm grows, meaning you won’t pay for features until you actually need them. If you’re just getting started, then consider using one of the best free time tracking software until you get your legal accounting system set up. The trust ledger is similar to a checkbook register and should include every trust transaction for every client.

Your client trust accounts are required to keep separate from your business accounts. While PCLaw is our overall best legal accounting software, it doesn’t mean that it’s good for every law firm. If you don’t want to use separate programs for managing your bank accounts, cases, clients, and legal matters, PCLaw is right for you. If you’re currently using QuickBooks Online and want to transform it into a capable legal accounting solution, then choose LeanLaw. If you need a software program that can help you automate your CRM workflows and can help you manage leads, then Zola Suite is a great option. While there are a lot of factors to balance, here are the essentials for law firm accounting and bookkeeping success that you should get a handle on ASAP. Committing to accounting for law firms will allow you to be better equipped to identify growth opportunities.

Law Firm Office Manager/Bookkeeper

How much cash and credit do you have available in non-client (i.e., not trust) accounts to keep your business afloat? As a solo attorney, managing your books via accounting software may get you started. Yet, if you own a small firm with multiple attorneys, employees, or contractors, hiring a bookkeeper is more than worth it. First things first, bookkeeping and accounting aren’t the same things. Although they share a common goal, they occur at different stages of managing your firm’s finances.