LeanLaw referred Brandy Derrick, a LeanLaw Accounting Pro and QuickBooks ProAdvisor, to provide assistance in migrating from Time Slips and PC Desktop to LeanLaw. Brandy taught me how to generate invoices and properly manage funds in QBO, including the handling of trust accounts and reimbursed funds. LeanLaw’s is dedicated to bringing your law firm the industry’s best legal accounting experts, so you can focus on your own client experience, not the books. The highlighting feature of Xero is that is most useful for small law firms and includes comprehensive user guides as well as responsible customer support. With a subscription to Xero, you can add unlimited users to manage your accounting. There is no additional fee for users which is common in other accounting software services on this list.

• When you need to manage client and matter-specific level data that is required by your firm’s workflows, it’s best to use a system that has a client portal — such as Clio and PC Law.
• The software is user-friendly, offers plenty of useful feature modules, and is highly affordable.
• All of these applications automatically sync with CosmoLex, meaning data is easily transmitted between tools without requiring time-consuming duplicate data entry.
• But you can also invite your accountant to get access to do general accounting tasks, gather info, and help you grow your business.
• As with any other general ledger package, if you choose to use FreshBooks for your small law office accounting software, you will need to pay close attention to your IOLTA records and reconcile them often.

I have a client who uses LeanLaw and loves the ease with which time keeping gets pushed to billing/creating invoices that then gets pushed to QuickBooks Online. Between LeanLaw’s dedicated customer success team and our industry partners, we can do a complete accounting migration to ensure the application and all of your financials are set up correctly. Thomson Reuters is a dedicated and trusted intelligence technology company that has developed ProLaw specifically for lawyer’s accounting needs. Bill4Time’s starting price is focused on solo law practitioners with more options for those running a law firm with multiple partners. Jane Haskins practiced law for 20 years, representing small businesses in startup, dissolution, business transactions and litigation.

Benefits of using legal accounting software

Select from our range of features any time to streamline your processes and keep your law practice on track. Clio is practice management software for case management, billing, accounting and client intake to support your firm’s practice at every stage of the client journey. When choosing law firm accounting software, it can be challenging to know which specific features you need to keep your business running smoothly. Clio is a complete practice management software option for law firms of all sizes. It comes highly recommended by more than 50 bar associations across the U.S., and law societies around the world love it, too.

This kind of accounting software is intuitive and easy to use, with all the functionality you need. When many firms first partner with CosmoLex, they’re transitioning from a different legal practice management software solution. We are able to help firms safely and securely migrate their existing data with turn-key service to ensure all data is transferred to CosmoLex successfully and without data loss. Legal accounting solutions will calculate billable hours and your preset hourly rate to create an invoice. Some solutions allow clients to set up an account through a portal to pay online by credit card or through an electronic bank account transfer. From keeping up-to-date on earnings to tracking expenses, find out what’s making money for your law practice and where you can cut costs.

Legal Professionals Prefer FreshBooks. The Reviews Prove it.

ZoHo helps you solve accounting challenges with the use of finance apps that take care of tasks like invoicing, expenses, subscriptions, etc. Customers will be assigned a dedicated Practice Management Advisor and access to our Help Center, LiveChat, and LEAP University for ongoing support and training. Instantly record time made on calls to clients from your cell phone or smartwatch.

We see a lot of manual work where folks are having to accommodate the lack of connection between applications – usually with how time tracking and billing ties into accounting. New cloud-based accounting software today should provide for total automation once the raw data is entered. Know what reports you need, have a list and make sure you “kick the tires” before you commit. Once you sign up for a demo and free trial (ask for it if they don’t offer), don’t wait to use it. You’ll know in the first week if this is the right legal billing software for you by just using it. It provides more flexibility and ease of use for employees and the time of day (or night) that they want to work.

Support

A cheaper solution might offer a quick fix for one problem, but you’ll be back to the drawing board when the business experiences unexpected changes or growth. One thing that makes evaluating accounting solutions so tricky is that there is an abundance of software that classify themselves as “legal accounting software”. Added to that, many of these solutions have similar functionality, at least on paper. Firstly, many common, industry-agnostic law firm bookkeeping accounting solutions seem perfectly fine for use in an attorney’s office because they feature legal use cases on their websites or sales material. However, that software is frequently not purpose-built to integrate with legal processes or follow financial rules set by state bar associations. Without careful oversight, general accounting solutions may ultimately add complexity to record keeping and maintaining compliance.

And in case you’re a smaller law firm with humble needs and didn’t find anything you like on this list, take a look at our best small business accounting software post. Small and medium law firms have a lot to benefit from this software, as well as solo accountants working for multiple clients. When our clients aren’t using a legal-specific accounting software such as PC Law or ESILaw, we set up their accounting records in Xero Accounting Software.

Top 7 Law Firm Accounting Software For Lawyers

Some accounting software can also be used to prepare taxes for your firm so you can review, approve, and even pay your taxes all in one place. Link your bank accounts for up-to-date transaction information with little or no manual data entry. Drives Better Decision-Making It’s impossible to accurately evaluate your firm’s strengths and weaknesses without real-time data. Customizable dashboards and reports let you visualize and hone in on the areas that matter most to you. A clear and comprehensive view of your firm’s performance is vital to making meaningful long-term decisions. TrustBooks provides comprehensive Trust/IOLTA accounting with three-way reconciliation, trust audit reports and more.

• AbacusNext offers software solutions for firms of all sizes, but it’s the best one on this list for large, complex firms that could benefit from its Private Cloud and integrated accounting features.
• And while some technology providers help with setup, ongoing support ensures that if any problems do arise, you’ll be up and running again quickly.
• This can be tough with all the different components involved with how a lawyer or legal professional should be compensated, especially if you use the billable hour where time presents an extra layer of complexity.
• Whether you should take payments via payment apps, such as PayPal or Venmo, depends on whether clients are paying for earned fees or retainers.
• You also want to make sure the law firm accounting software you choose is one that integrates with the general ledger package your accountant or bookkeeper uses.
• For instance, in Ohio, funds must be held for at least five years, and after that time they must be donated to a legal assistance foundation that increases access to justice.