How to Effectively Do Bookkeeping for a Law Firm Tips from an Accountant and Bookkeeper

The software makes lawyers more productive with features like time and expense tracking, online payments, billing, accounting, integrations, and calendaring. Most law firms prefer cash basis accounting because it is easy to understand. Cash accounting makes it easy to ascertain when a transaction has occurred from your financial statements. It may still be necessary to track receivables or payables for informational purposes, but they will not appear on your financial statements. With cash basis accounting, revenue is money in the bank, and expenses are reductions to your cash balance.

That’s why it’s important to take your time, double-checking your entries as you go. As owners of our own law firms, we’ve made our fair share of mistakes. Unfortunately, bookkeeping mistakes have consequences for your business, income taxes, and license.

What are the benefits of effective bookkeeping for a law firm?

As the name implies, TaxSlayer is a powerful software for all things tax-related. It allows firms to execute a variety of tax actions, as well as create and send important financial and tax documents. Millions rely on TaxSlayer to ensure they comply with all of the necessary tax regulations and adequately fulfill their tax duties.

All transactions are then recorded in a ledger, which is a record of all financial transactions. Automated accounting software can help streamline the process, freeing up time for other tasks. It is important to accurately record all transactions on a daily basis in order to avoid mistakes and maintain accuracy. It’s easy to record all deposits to bank accounts as income, but deposits made to IOLTA accounts aren’t income for your law firm—they belong to your client. If you’re not dealing with trust accounts, and just want to accept payments online or in-person, we recommend using Square. It’s intuitive, reliable, and the industry standard for accepting payments online.

Get clear on trust account rules

This will help you make sure that you’re bringing in enough money to cover your costs and hopefully make a profit. For example, when a law firm pays its rent, the transaction would be recorded as a debit to the asset account for cash and a credit to the liability account for rent. The law firm bookkeeping purpose of double-entry accounting is to act as a safeguard against errors and to provide an accurate record of all financial transactions. The accrual method of accounting is an accounting method that records economic events regardless of when the cash is actually received or paid.

IOLTA can be used to track billable hours, expenses, client payments, and trust accounting. A bookkeeper can be hired to help with accounting tasks, such as billing clients and monitoring expenses. Accounting and bookkeeping happen at different stages while managing your small law firm’s finances. Bookkeeping is the process of tracking the cash coming into and out of your business, and it’s the foundation for proper legal accounting. Typical bookkeeping tasks are (1) recording financial transactions, (2) creating and sending invoices, and (3) running payroll. These errors can lead to wasted time and complications for a law firm’s bookkeeping process.

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Each of these records should be kept for a specific length of time—some for 10 years, some for as few as three. You can learn more about record retention periods in our guide to business recordkeeping. 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. Bookkeeping tasks are ongoing and can be performed daily, weekly, or monthly.

If you’re curious about how outsourcing your law firm bookkeeping can benefit your business, start your free trial of Bench today. The FUTA tax rate is 6%, which https://www.digitalconnectmag.com/a-deep-dive-into-law-firm-bookkeeping/ taxes wages up to the first $7,000 earned by the employee during the year. There are also state and sometimes municipal payroll taxes to be collected.

Law Firm Accounting 101

If there are any differences between the three, your trust reconciliation report should show the reason for the discrepancy. For example, say you deposited a check for $10,000 to the trust account on December 30 but the deposit didn’t clear the bank until January 2. The December 31 bank statement shows a balance that is $10,000 less than your books or the client’s trust ledger due to a timing difference. You would note this in your reconciliation report and ensure your January 31 bank statement includes the deposit. Within each of those categories, you may have dozens of general ledger accounts.

• This can save the firm money in the long run and help to maintain accurate records.
• Winning new clients is easy with professional-looking proposals, estimates, and e-signatures.
• This model has led to discovering numerous dumpster fires in law firm accounting.
• I helped switch us from Quicken (the PERSONAL accounting software) to QuickBooks Online.
• Bookkeepers work directly to keep financial records in order at the law firm.

Below, you’ll find a short breakdown of some of the more popular options for accounting software for law firms. Successful law firms know everything about their money, from where it came from to where it will go. If you don’t have a strong accounting practice handling your affairs, you might be surprised at all the expenses you incur and pay each month. There is no room for error when blending client funds with law firm funds. It pays to have an effective system that will prevent this from occurring.

First things first, bookkeeping and accounting aren’t the same things. Although they share a common goal, they occur at different stages of managing your firm’s finances. Bookkeeping happens first and relates to the administrative side of tracking your cash. One of the main things to look for in a bookkeeper is to find one who specializes in accounting for law firms.