Law firm accounting software
- Fee on the bill
- $10,819.20
- Recorded value of the time
- $11,760
- Written off
- $940.80
Every figure printed on this site is arithmetic on the worked example we publish: 6 fee earners, a blended charge-out rate of $280 an hour, 5.2 recorded hours each per working day, 21 working days a month. Change any of those on the worksheet and the numbers change with them. Nothing here is a market statistic and nothing is quoted from a third party.
Law firm accounting software is not general accounting software with a legal skin on it. A firm's books have an obligation ordinary businesses do not: client money is not the firm's money, it must be held separately, and it must be reconcilable three ways at any moment: the bank, the client ledger and the individual matter balances. This page explains what that requirement actually changes about the software, what it does not change, and where the firm's own books stop being different from anybody else's.
Open the Law firm invoicing software Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Separate the client account from the firm's
This is the whole of the difference and it is not a formatting choice. Money held for a client is a liability, never income, and a system that lets the two mix is not one you can be audited on.
Reconcile three ways, not one
The bank statement, the client ledger and the sum of individual matter balances all have to agree. Two out of three agreeing is the state most firms discover a problem in, and it is why the reconciliation is a routine rather than a year-end job.
Keep the firm's own books ordinary
Once client money is separate, the rest of a firm's accounting is a business closing its books like any other. Do not buy a legal-specific product for the ordinary half; that half is monthendly.com's subject, and this site says so.
Will it do what you need for Law firm accounting software?
Tell us how your firm bills and what is not working, and we will tell you plainly whether this is the right shape of tool for it.
Law firm accounting software: common questions
What is the difference between this and normal accounting software? Client money. A firm holds money that is not its own, and the software has to keep it separate and reconcilable to the individual matter. Everything else about a firm's books is ordinary.
Do we still need a ledger? Usually yes. A firm's operating software sits beside the general ledger rather than replacing it, and pretending otherwise is how firms end up running two half-systems.
Does this handle our trust reconciliation? It keeps the record the reconciliation is done against: matter balances, movements and their history. The reconciliation itself is your responsibility and your regulator's rules govern how often it happens.
Partnro Pro
Keeping what you make
Keep this month's answer, and every month after it, without rebuilding the spreadsheet each time.
- Download the finished sheet as a file
- Send it without the Partnro line on it
- Save a matter's bill and reopen it next month
- Put your firm's name and logo on it
- Export every matter, timesheet and bill at once
- Bills emailed to the client from the matter they came off
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$79per month, whole team
Start Partnro Pro PricingThe plan renews monthly on the day you started it, at the same price you signed up at. We tell you by email before any price change, and a change never applies to a term already paid for.