These entities deal with a large number of financial transactions, including billing clients for their services, managing a client’s trust account, paying employees, and invoicing clients. Accounting software can automate many of these processes and provide real-time information on a law firm’s financial status. Law firm accounting software is a specialized accounting software designed to meet the unique needs of law firms. It can manage financial transactions, track billable hours, generate invoices, and provide reports on a law firm’s financial health. Clio is an excellent option for law firms seeking quick and efficient communication tools—its built-in text messaging feature allows you to communicate quickly with your clients and team members.

• There is a good deal of invoicing features, on top of expense tracking, online payments, sales tax, time tracking, and profitability tracking.
• You can also integrate trust accounting data into invoices with a customized report.
• 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.
• It also includes more than 100 reporting options to help you better understand your firm’s financial performance.
• While most legal accounting software does offer some level of trust account management, you should be sure that it can reconcile the account(s) to the level that you need depending on the jurisdiction of your law firm.
• Managing client trust accounts seems easy; all you have to do is keep client money separate from that of your law firm.

No matter what your specific needs are, it’s important to take stock of the features that are most important to achieving your goals. That said, when considering features, it’s also important to think of your goals both in the short and long term. 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. This best legal accounting software roundup covers everything from the best small law firm accounting software to premium law office accounting software for larger companies. As a lawyer, it’s your responsibility to protect client data, including data that may be stored or processed in your legal accounting software. With this in mind, it’s important to vet the security features of any potential solution.

Time tracking

Although there’s no free plan, you can access all Xero features for free for 30 days. Sign up to receive more well-researched small business articles and topics in your inbox, personalized for you. CosmoLex offers a free 14-day trial, so you can try it for free before buying. Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. Unfortunately, reports that give you what you need can be cumbersome to create manually.

With 80% of our clients coming from the legal industry, TimeSolv understands the unique needs of practice management for lawyers, and our legal billing and time management software reflects that. CosmoLex is designed https://www.bookstime.com/law-firm-bookkeeping for attorneys and law firms, but it has major benefits for clients, too. When you use CosmoLex to manage your business accounts, you improve the client experience from your first touchpoint to your last.

Aderant Review – by Uptime Legal

You can share documents securely with clients and request documents from clients for secure uploads. You can create templates for matters that you can apply to any cases in the future. Accounting programs for lawyers make your legal services run more effectively and efficiently. There are many accounting programs available and most are designed to improve time management, billing, accounting, and case management.

• This is why it’s essential to partner with legal tech providers that are cloud-based and offer ongoing support.
• TimeSolv receives an average of 4.7 across Capterra, G2, Trustpilot, and Google reviews.
• Most modern online accounting platforms offer intuitive dashboards, so you can monitor your firm’s business at a glance.
• Complex bookkeeping and accounting can be handled digitally, freeing up time and saving money by having more efficient processes for handling finances.

For example, in Xero, you can easily edit the layouts of your financial reports to prioritize what’s most relevant for your firm. Compare product reviews and features, and learn from our Finance Software Research. 4.4 out of 5 stars based on user reviews collected by G2Crowd as of Spring 2022. Find help articles, video tutorials, and connect with other businesses in our online community.

PCLaw® and Time Matters® – Why Your Law Firm Needs an Annual Maintenance Plan

The software is user-friendly, offers plenty of useful feature modules, and is highly affordable. The free version is free forever and has plenty of invoicing and accounting functions. You can impress clients with professional estimates and invoices that show off your brand. FreshBooks accounting https://www.bookstime.com/ software offers online billing and payment options to get you paid faster. It has to come with superior accounting features, handle client trust accounts, and maintain detailed records to properly bill clients. Yes, you can—but it’s best that you integrate them with legal accounting solutions.

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. The honest truth is that, just like everyone else, no technology provider can predict the future. This is why it’s essential to partner with legal tech providers that are cloud-based and offer ongoing support. Cloud-based software (as opposed to on premises) means you can use your solution from anywhere, and that you are always getting updates for the latest 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. 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.

Housing all Financial Data in One Location

However, QuickBooks is not a legal industry-specific solution, so larger firms with a large caseload could find it lacking in some areas. For example, you will have to use tags to keep payments or records for each client straight. With legal accounting software, records and transactions can be automatically applied to specific client accounts, making it easier to find the information you need quickly. Three-quarters of consumers prefer to pay with a credit or debit card, so expanding your firm’s accepted payment methods can improve the client experience and boost loyalty. In addition, the way that the software handles matter management, time tracking, trust accounting, and billing needs to work with your law firm’s current processes and workflows. While most legal accounting software does offer some level of trust account management, you should be sure that it can reconcile the account(s) to the level that you need depending on the jurisdiction of your law firm.

• Cosmolex combines legal practice management software with legal accounting software for a complete solution.
• In this article, we’ve covered the best law firm accounting software packages.
• In this roundup post, we suggested that FreshBooks is the best law practice management software overall, as it’s a suitable solution for solo accountants, lawyers, and small and medium-sized business owners.
• Clio is a complete practice management software option for law firms of all sizes.

Here are our top recommendations for accounting software options, plus tips on how to decide. Businesses need reports to help assess key business performance indicators like profit and accounts receivable. 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.

Which Law Firm Accounting Software Is Best for You?

Some accounting software includes some bookkeeping functionality, but not everything that you need, and some offer complete bookkeeping and accounting features. Before you purchase software, it’s important to make sure that it will do what you expect. We’ll get into recommendations for the best law firm accounting software choices later in this article. Using digital tools to manage accounts was once seen as a convenient, but ultimately unnecessary, part of law firm operations. Cloud-based solutions allow attorneys more flexibility by giving them the ability to access complex, business-critical accounting features from anywhere.