Accounting for Law Firms: A Guide Including Best Practices

Data entry errors lead to wasted time, as you comb through records to figure out what the error is, as well as billing complications and compliance violations in the worst cases. Not all income is revenue — this is a distinction that needs to be made or you could have to deal with inaccurate bookkeeping. And with one error comes many more, so it’s crucial to keep things organized. Not all accountants are familiar with the rules and regulations governing these accounts, nor do they know that the rules change with each jurisdiction.

Below we’ll show you the most commonly fall short in accounting practice. Regardless of the size of your law firm, it’s important to know accounting and bookkeeping basics to ensure that your business is compliant with ethics rules. In this article, we present law firm accounting tips and best practices for accurate and efficient accounting along with the challenges that are unique to law firms. To ensure you don’t intermingle, keep separate accounts for your business and your personal finances.

Small Business Owners Love FreshBooks

If your firm is not keeping good books or reviewing financials regularly, these leaks could go unnoticed—which means your firm loses out on hard-earned revenue. 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.

• Everyone from your bookkeeper to your CPA and the IRS needs you to keep documents proving the income, credits, and deductions you put on your tax return.
• We will cover the best practices to follow and common mistakes you should avoid.
• Account numbers of chart of account are structured to suit the needs of your law firm, the jurisdiction, and the practice area.
• From there, you can create your invoices in as few as four clicks, meaning you will no longer have to “find time” to bill your clients.
• If your law firm doesn’t already have business bank accounts, it’s time to open them.
• Many mileage trackers can run in the background on your phone and automatically start and stop trips based on the movement of your phone.
• However, every law firm owner needs to know what bookkeeping and legal accounting are for their business.

They can also be used to calculate tax deductions, control mileage costs, and plan for future expenses. And law schools don’t really go into how https://www.bookstime.com/ to manage these accounts properly, so we see a lot of lawyers going in blind. Trust accounting isn’t a part of standard business accounting.

Bookkeeping Vs. Accounting For Law Firms

The distinction matters because equity partners can’t earn salaries like employees. They’re taxed based on their portion of the firm’s earnings and pay themselves through an owner’s draw.

• We recommend scheduling a time to track your finances at least weekly.
• Reliable bookkeeping for attorneys also provides accurate financial data for legal accountants to work with.
• While not necessary, we recommend working with a bookkeeper who has experience working with law firms.
• If you’re confident that you can manage a business credit card properly , it’s an excellent tool to grow your business.
• If you’re planning to open your own law firm, make sure you give your accounting the attention it’s due sooner rather than later.
• Plus, you’ll save yourself the headache of dealing with accounting issues, and you’ll always have accurate financial statements available.
• Build in late payment fees to make sure you’re paid what you’re owed from your client.

Accelerate invoicing to avoid a cash flow problem where you’re spending money on your client’s behalf without getting it back from them. Follow these tips to ensure compliance with legal firm accounting.

Figure out how you’ll get paid

It’s an almost administrative task that involves relatively low levels of critical reasoning. In addition, you may need to use clients’ funds on their behalf, in which case you must provide detailed reports about your activities to remain in compliance. Apply for financing, use free bookkeeping tools, send invoices, and more with a single Lendio account.

• While the trust ledger includes all trust transactions across all clients, the individual client ledgers separate these transactions by client.
• As a secondary layer of reconciliation, you’ll also need to make sure that each client’s IOLTA balance on your firm’s books adds up to the total balance of your IOLTA bank account.
• Xero is substantially cheaper than Quickbooks, so it might make sense if you’re just getting started.
• Do some additional research to narrow your list down to only your top 2-3 choices.
• Being a professional and maintaining a good reputation is everything in the world of law.

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. Choosing an accounting method is another piece of the financial puzzle for a new company. Before the firm files its first tax return, it must select its method of accounting. If you are still inputting numbers manually, law firm bookkeeping 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. 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.