Tips for Preventing Negative Trust Accounts:
1. Understand which funds belong in trust accounts.
2. Keep client funds separate
3. Never overdraft from your clients’ accounts
4. Balance all incoming and outgoing funds
If you’re the new owner of a budding law firm, your first instinct may be to focus on developing a slate of clientele as a first priority. However, in time, you will realize that getting your books in order in the beginning will prevent a lot of heartbreak and extra work down the line! Bookkeeping … Read more
One of the greatest challenges facing law firms today is navigating how to get clients to pay on time. Because attorneys generally cannot withdraw their representation due to a client’s ability or failure to pay an invoice, it is important that law firms have systems and procedures in place to improve the collection of fees … Read more
Calculating your law firm operating expenses can be challenging when it comes to reimbursements. Since law firms tend to have reimbursements more often than other types of businesses, there is an enhanced need to accurately record and reflect this data in your books. Today, we’ll discuss multiple types of reimbursements and how to record these … Read more
As a bookkeeper, I frequently recommend using QuickBooks Online for law firms because of the fantastic capabilities it has for effectively managing law firm finances and because of its ability to aggregate financial information that can be really helpful for growing law firms. For attorneys, accounting is especially important because it must be done a … Read more
For law firms operating under the typical fiscal calendar, March 31st marked the end of the first financial quarter of 2022. That means it’s time for firms to evaluate their quarterly financial data in order to draw conclusions about how to best improve their firm in the remaining financial quarters this year.
When it comes to your legal billing system, having the appropriate measures in place to ensure that you’re paid by your clients each month is step one in running a more successful and profitable firm. Though billing is easier than ever, with many legal billing software options that integrate with your accounting system, many attorneys … Read more
When it comes to IOLTA accounting, the American Bar Association has imposed clear and important rules about how funds should be handled by attorneys and law firms. While many firms utilize attorney trust accounts with the purpose of separating clients’ money from the regular business or operating accounts of law firms, many lawyers find themselves … Read more
When it comes to your law firm KPI dashboard, it can be a challenge to know which metrics are most important. Key performance indicators vary widely across industry and discipline, but no matter your firm’s specialty or structure, there are a few law firm KPIs every firm should be aware of. These baseline law KPIs … Read more
Flat rates: When do you transfer funds to the operating account?? If you are the kind of attorney who charges flat rates to your clients, you probably know the bar association rules are pretty vague as to when to transfer this money to the operating account. Most say something to the effect of, you transfer funds … Read more