6 Best Law Firm Accounting Software in 2024
Take Xero and Clio Manage, the integration lets your firm automatically connect your client invoices and expenses from your practice management software to your accounting software—streamlining the process. This gives you the best of both worlds while making your law firm’s comprehensive accounting situation easier to manage. 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. Make it easy for clients to pay online by debit or credit card via third-party payment services.
- Importantly, it integrates well with cloud-based services such as Dropbox and Google Workspace, further supporting firms in their remote work endeavors.
- Poor accounting practices, such as struggling to track billable hours or sending out invoices late, can lead to money leakage.
- CosmoLex is designed for attorneys and law firms, but it has major benefits for clients, too.
- It’s daunting to jump into the world of accounting when you didn’t go to business school.
- All of these applications automatically sync with CosmoLex, meaning data is easily transmitted between tools without requiring time-consuming duplicate data entry.
If a free tool can make your life as a lawyer or law firm office manager easier, you should jump at the opportunity to use it. And a tool that provides free accounting software for lawyers is especially valuable. Award-winning support means talking to a real person for the help and info you need because we provide so much more than just online accounting software for law firms. Winning new clients is easy with professional-looking proposals, estimates, and e-signatures. Grow your law firm with a platform that simplifies document management and your law practice’s accounting. Before you decide on a piece of legal practice management software, make a list of things that are important for you in a software solution.
More Useful Software for Law Firms
ProLaw is robust practice management, document management and liabilities in accounting. It’s the only legal software platform that includes all three of these main pillars to running a law practice. However, with cloud-based law firm accounting software, it’s easy to quickly produce reports that give you the insights you need. You can use these reports to create budgets for your firm, track financial trends, and more. With the right information available when you need it, you can make data-driven business decisions to help your firm succeed. As a lawyer, utilizing technology specifically created for the legal industry will save you time and money, especially when it comes to accounting.
Cloud-based solutions allow legal professionals to access financial data and manage accounts from anywhere, at any time, fostering enhanced flexibility and productivity. Many law firms use QuickBooks for their core accounting, but acknowledge that QuickBooks does not follow the rigid Trust Accounting rules. (Some law firms https://accountingcoaching.online/ try anyway, or worse yet, use an Excel spreadsheet to manage trust accounts). CosmoLex was among the first cloud-based law practice management applications that includes complete, end-to-end accounting. Regardless of which accounting software best suits your law firm’s needs, Uptime Practice wants to help you host it.
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We recommend software like TimeSolv with Xero or LeanLaw with QuickBooks Online if ease of use is important to you. Accountants play an integral role in every business—law firms are no different. Legal accountants often prepare financial statements, help with forecasting, and record expenses. Which is why we created this round-up of the best accounting software for lawyers you can try for free. The Starter plan allows users to track and categorize transactions and manage bills. The more advanced plans add features such as investment, loan, retirement tracking; bill pay; and even basic business invoicing and tracking.
Other tools include billing and creating professional invoices, including bulk invoices if you’re handling multiple clients. With the matter management features, you’ll be able to manage items and events related to matters, including expense cards, trust transactions, and time cards. FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software that we voted as the best legal accounting software overall. In a nutshell, it’s a suitable solution for solo accountants, lawyers, and small and medium-sized business owners. We reviewed many legal accounting software options loved by law firms, and came up with a list of the 10 best apps you should know.
It gives you the ability to view your firm’s work in progress, billing history, invoice payments, aging receivables, and more. QuickBooks Self-Employed, owned by Intuit, is a basic online and mobile app designed primarily for freelancers or independent contractors who file a Schedule C for tax purposes. Key features include tracking mileage, categorizing business expenses, excluding personal expenses, full integration into TurboTax, and estimated quarterly tax payment calculations. When used together, Clio and QuickBooks let you sync everything from contacts to bills to financial transactions.
Use financial reporting to identify opportunities
With the integration, it’s easy to sync financial information and print checks securely. You can enter trust records once in Clio, and that data automatically syncs with QuickBooks Online. As a lawyer, your primary job should be practicing law, not accounting. However, according to the 2023 Legal Trends Report, 63% of the workday gets put toward non-billable work, which often includes accounting tasks.
Access from anywhere
Yes, you can—but it’s best that you integrate them with legal accounting solutions. For instance, you can integrate QuickBooks Online with LeanLaw to develop a powerful legal billing and accounting solution. Within CARET Legal, you can view all matters through different filters. Moreover, it offers advanced features like customizing matters by practice area and responsible attorney.
These are the reasons why CARET Legal is our best pick for matter management. The platform has all the practice management features we want to see—except for client portals. We understand, however, since PCLaw is desktop software, not cloud-based. Moreover, it has a steep learning curve, and some users may find it too advanced.
Law Firm Accounting Software Features
Yes, law firms and legal practices should consider using accounting software to help streamline their process and improve efficiency. Accounting software can help track billing, manage client financials, and more accurately forecast the performance of the business. In conclusion, finding the right law firm accounting software is a significant step towards ensuring profitability and seamless management of your firm’s finances. These tools offer comprehensive solutions that encompass a wide range of accounting functions necessary for a legal business. ActionStep is a comprehensive practice management software with an integrated accounting module. It centralizes case, document, and billing management, making it an all-in-one solution for law firms seeking simplified operations.
With CosmoLex, the financials of every client/matter is front-and-center, and intrinsically linked to each case. ProLaw comes in a number of packages and editions, some of which include ProLaw’s fully-featured accounting software. With ProLaw, your law firm can manage its clients, matters, billing, documents and accounting on a single package. Consider whether your firm would be best suited for combined practice management / accounting software (or separate software for each), and consider the specific features your law firm needs. Next, we recommend that your firm makes an inventory of the specific capabilities and features that you require in your law firm accounting software.
We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site—read our affiliate disclosure to learn more about how we aim to stay transparent. As long as you have an internet connection, you can access QuickBooks anytime, anywhere on your device of choice. All QuickBooks Online plans come with a one-time Guided Setup with an expert and customer support. Track and analyze cases or clients that drive the most revenue to capitalize with better planning and resource allocation. Create recurring invoices and customize templates to represent your brand consistently.
While having a basic understanding of accounting is essential for every business owner, legal accounting software can do much of the heavy lifting. Legal accounting software is especially useful with legal trust accounting to ensure you stay compliant with industry regulations. Launched in 2010, Wave began as a Toronto-based startup offering accounting software. By 2019, though, Wave’s workforce had grown to 250 employees, and the company was acquired by H&R Block. This free accounting software is available online and through its mobile app.