Firm Finances: Bookkeeping, Accounting, and KPIs 2023

Both general accounting and trust accounting are necessary for your firm’s success—and integrations seamlessly tie the two areas together. Poor accounting practices, such as struggling to track billable hours or sending out invoices late, can lead to money leakage. Double-entry accounting is a system of bookkeeping where every entry to an account (i.e., every financial transaction) requires a corresponding and opposite entry to a different account.

Working with us eliminates the need to hire a controller, an HR administrator or an accounts payable manager. We can fill all those functions, giving your firm one comprehensive, cost-effective, long-term solution for your back-office needs. Supporting Strategies offers a range of outsourced bookkeeping and controller services that will transform the financial management of your law firm. With this guide, you’ll understand key financial concepts, financial levers affecting your business, best practices for billing and collecting money, and how to manage and outsource financial work.

How to Choose an Accounting Software for Your Firm

Controllers often oversee the bookkeeper’s work, reconcile the accounts, and make more significant ledger adjustments. They can use your financial data to understand what it tells you about your business. Set up categories and track income and expense items like payroll, rent, court fees and client payments. All money in and out of your checking account can be assigned to a category and tracked to the penny.

• They’ll be more familiar with the ins and outs of law firm accounting, including the rules and regulations that could get you into trouble.
• A controller can help you set up and oversee your financial system and accounting infrastructure.
• Trust accounting (including IOLTAs) isn’t a part of standard business accounting.
• And when you commingle your personal and business finances, the following problems can arise.
• We were in the middle of making a lot of plans, but the lack of data was holding us back.
• You should budget for an accountant and bookkeeper to assist you with managing your firm’s finances and ensuring you’re compliant with ethics regulations.

In contrast, the CPA designation isn’t required to work in accounting within a company, but it is for a job at a public accounting firm. The “Big Four” is the nickname used to refer collectively to the four largest accounting firms in the U.S. Aside from auditing services, the Big Four offer tax law, strategy and management consulting, valuation, market research, assurance, and legal advisory services.

Open the three main accounts

Connect your bank account with the tools you use every day and eliminate the time spent working between two systems. Nota works in collaboration with major practice management, legal payment and accounting platforms to optimize your efficiency. PCLaw | Time Matters legal software solutions make the business of law more manageable with easy-to-use, intuitive tools that support your law firm’s performance and your personal success. When choosing an accountant or bookkeeper for a law firm, it is important to select someone who has experience working with businesses in the legal industry. This will ensure that the accountant or bookkeeper understands the unique financial needs of a law firm.

• Here are five common law firm accounting obstacles and mistakes you should be aware of so you can avoid them.
• Trust accounts are one of the most common areas where legal accounting mistakes are made.
• You’ll also identify what areas of your firm (practice areas, types of clients, etc.) are most profitable.
• For example, if a law firm has a goal of saving money, they may choose to cut back on non-essential expenses like office parties or new office furniture.
• As your budget year crawls on, you can adjust numbers to more accurately reflect reality and plan the rest of the year accordingly.
• Federal insurance contributions consist of the social security and Medicare taxes you withhold from your employee’s pay and match with your own contributions.

With that information, you can better understand your firm’s financial health and plan for the coming months. It would be best if you chose your legal accountant for their experience working with law firms, specifically those in your practice area and jurisdiction. They’ll be more familiar with the ins and outs of law firm accounting, including the rules and regulations that could get you into trouble.

Why it’s important to organize your law firm’s accounting and bookkeeping

When bookkeeping for lawyers, differentiating income from revenue is a common challenge because a portion of the funds are used to cover incurred costs and should not be factored into income. Deploying law practice management software is a simple method to track incurred costs in real-time and correctly subtract them from firm income. Software solutions help accurately reflect proper income and even help avoid compliance issues come tax time and regulatory review. There are many different software options available to help with efficient legal bookkeeping. A good law firm accounting software should include features such as billing and invoicing, bookkeeping, reporting and analytics, and payroll.

Trust accounting software is a specialized type of software designed to help lawyers with bookkeeping and compliance requirements. It helps lawyers track, transfer, report, and monitor funds as necessary to remain compliant with state bar regulations. Additionally, law firm bookkeeping it allows lawyers to generate reports quickly without compromising functionality or data by enabling integrations with other platforms. By using trust accounting software effectively, law firms can maintain their reputation while ensuring compliance.

Get clear on trust account rules

Furthermore, Xero integrates with Clio which makes bookkeeping and reconciliation tasks simpler. There are many different accounting software programs available, so find one that works best for you and your firm. 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. This can be done by setting up different income and expense accounts for each partner, as well as setting up a trust account to track client funds. First, it helps to ensure that all expenses are tracked and accounted for.

It’s similar to two-way reconciliation, where you compare your bank account balance to your company’s books to make sure it matches. Do your due diligence and make sure every dollar going into the trust account is supposed to be there. You should only ever charge your clients fees directly related to their account. Just be sure to verify your exact responsibilities with the State Bar Association and/or a professional accountant.