The Best Law Firm Accounting Software

Juris provides full-fledged accounting as well as nuanced, detailed billing for a variety of billing models. 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. QuickBooks Online is an industry leader when it comes to the best accounting software for attorneys. It’s relatively easy to use, offers plenty of features, and automates many accounting tasks.

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. Get a demo today and learn how AltFee can make a difference in your law firm. If your firm has already moved to the cloud and gotten rid of on-premise servers, you might find getting quality, legal-focused IT support difficult. Some of the links that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation. Although there’s no free plan, you can access all Xero features for free for 30 days.

Best for Small Firms Using QuickBooks

Does your law firm already have a cloud strategy, but have one premise-based application still running on onsite servers? A Private Cloud will host your desktop-based legal software, documents and data in the cloud. Get the reliability, security and mobility of the cloud without sacrificing your software. The offers that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation.

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. For trust accounts, PC Law and ESILaw offer streamlined accounting solutions to administer trust accounting payments. You can use trust-general transfers for retainers to pay down client accounts.

Ongoing Support and Updates

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. One thing that makes evaluating accounting solutions so tricky is that there is an abundance of software that classify themselves as “legal accounting software”. Added to that, many of these solutions have similar functionality, at least on paper. Firstly, many common, industry-agnostic accounting solutions seem perfectly fine for use in an attorney’s office because they feature legal use cases on their websites or sales material.

• For day-to-day accounting, NetSuite lets you maintain a general ledger where you can record your transactions along with complementary details such as transaction number, summary, and currency.
• Costs must be tied to the correct matter, and client payments must be separated from fee reimbursements.
• Other options include Clio Grow, which is priced at $49 per user per month when paid annually, and Clio Suite, which starts at $89 per user per month.
• There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to legal accounting software.
• If your firm has already moved to the cloud and gotten rid of on-premise servers, you might find getting quality, legal-focused IT support difficult.
• Tabs3 provides essential “back-office” functionality including time, billing and accounting; PracticeMaster provides powerful “front-office” capabilities including client and matter management.

Krishi is an experienced B2B and B2C content writer who reviews and compares different software to help both individuals and businesses find the right programs for their needs. Krishi’s specialized writing educational material on customer relationship management (CRM) software and project management tools, but he also covers many other software topics for Techopedia, including antivirus programs. The billable hours will go directly on your invoice, law firm bookkeeping whereas the non-billable hours will give you an idea of how much time your team puts into working on your firm’s productivity and goals. If your law firm deals with a lot of paper bills, you’ll also be happy to know that Xero has partnered with Hubdoc and now lets you capture all your bills and receipts and store their digital copy. This way, you can keep your office clutter-free yet have a copy of all your expenses for tax season.

Challenges of Legal Accounting

Trust accounting is considered the main responsibility of Attorneys to ensure that all records are precise and true as well as in compliance with the state regulations and guides. The law firms have failed to comply with the trust account rules, leading to harsh penalties and serious issues with their clients. Thus, effective accounting softwares will support gathering data, and tracking client funds and all money transferred in and out of the trust accounts. In addition, the reconciliation is made between the client’s trust account, client ledgers, and bank statement.

• It does billing, timekeeping, and document management — plus it has a client portal.
• Those who are looking for an all-in-one solution — including a general ledger package — for their law firm need look no further than PCLaw by LexisNexus.
• Lawyers can view detailed insights into their firm’s accounting data, with scalability that easily allows for new entities and updates.
• There’s ample scalability and add-ons, and it’s jam-packed with features, from recurring billing to automatic payment reminders and class-leading encryption and security.
• A critical part of the legal accounting process focuses on analyzing financial reports and KPIs to uncover critical insights and  make informed business decisions.
• This kind of accounting software is intuitive and easy to use, with all the functionality you need.