Bookkeeping & Accounting for Lawyers

Entering numbers manually often leads to mistakes and duplicated data entry in the accounting process. This results in wasted time, mismatched records, billing complications, and even compliance violations. So, with double-entry accounting, every financial transaction gets sorted into a specific category (assets, liabilities, or equity). Once those transactions are sorted, the two sides should match. Double entry accounting is a helpful practice for lawyers to know about, as it provides an extra guard against errors.

You can perfectly enhance your internal system and augment the transparency of your organization by outsourcing accounting to us. Our talented experts have several years of expertise to carry out legal accounting services. We always make use of the latest technology in accounting solutions. This can lead to financial savings by reducing the time spent on implementing, buying, and managing non-core business tasks. Every state has an IOLTA program, and it’s likely that the bank where you opened your regular business checking account also offers IOLTA accounts. But rules vary by state, so consult your State Bar Association and a professional accountant before finalizing your accounting setup.

Thinking you can do everything without professional help

Have access to CPA-level insight into your bookkeeping practices. Process vendor bills with the proper approvals and timely payments. Your bookkeeeping shouldn’t be handled by the same accountant who services your plumber. Your bookkeeper, CPA, and the IRS all require you to keep documents proving your income, credits, and deductions. You will also need to understand your obligations in regards to employment law and employment tax. This is especially important when it comes to paying mandatory disability or worker’s compensation insurance.

And we even have skilled tax attorneys on staff to assist with legal concerns surrounding your tax situation. Lawyers spend years honing their legal skills, but they often have little knowledge of accounting practices. The following tips can help you get a better handle on your finances. Bookkeeping is the process of recording daily transactions in a consistent way and is a key component of building long-term financial success. Putting it off means having to catch up at the end of the year—the more stressful and time consuming approach.

Set up payroll

As an attorney, you’re aware that when you receive money that belongs to a client, you must place those funds in a trust account separate from your own money. These funds are stored in IOLTA or “interest on lawyers trust accounts” accounts. To avoid this type of situation, use accounting software that allows you to automate these processes. For example, keeping track of invoices or monthly recurring expenses.

For example, you might think you have plenty of money in the bank and buy a new computer before realizing you forgot to record that check to the court reporter. A simple mistake could send your firm into the red for the month. Or, you might lose track of critical transactions that affect your taxes. Remember earlier when we discussed setting up a Chart of Accounts in Chapter 1? Your bookkeeper goes into your accounting software regularly (at least weekly) and records all the money coming in and all the money going out so that it appears in the correct place.

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Keeping accurate records of your law firm’s accounts is a challenging yet vital part of running a legal practice. Law firm bookkeeping records the financial transactions and balances the financial accounts for your firm. Legal bookkeeping takes place before any accounting can occur and is an essential administrative task law firm bookkeeping for any law firm. Reliable bookkeeping for attorneys also provides accurate financial data for legal accountants to work with. Trust accounts are one of the most common areas where legal accounting mistakes are made. Trust accounting mistakes can lead to penalties, suspension, or even losing the right to practice law.

• When used for that much data, Excel becomes clunky and lacks features you could use to improve your reporting.
• Legal accountants look at the bigger picture, using the data your bookkeeper provides to determine how your firm can improve its financial health.
• The balance sheet will contain assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Payroll management is also an integral task in bookkeeping when you have more people working under your law firm.
• If they have to dig through your personal account to find the odd business transaction, you’re giving them extra unnecessary work and will be charged for it.
• We will partner with you to solve problems, providing custom solutions to meet your unique goals.

Whether it means using legal accounting software to simplify and automate your accounting, hiring a professional legal accountant, or both—don’t be afraid to delegate when you need to. As an attorney, you may be aware of state bar requirements for trust accounts, but that doesn’t prevent you make mistakes. The most common mistakes are putting funds in the wrong account, accidentally or intentionally withdrawing funds, fail to report monthly, and so on. Poor management of trust accounts can lead to penalties, suspension, or even losing the right to practice law. While you spend many years honing your expertise and experience to become a professional attorney and run your law firm, you didn’t learn about bookkeeping and accounting for law firms. And even you have an overview of what is bookkeeping and accounting, you wouldn’t know what involve when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting for law firms.