Five Must-Have Features for Your Law Firm Accounting Software

The best accounting software for your law firm has many features you need to manage your firm’s finances. But, it’s important to look for these five features in particular when deciding what law firm accounting software is best for your legal practice. Most importantly, it’s best to choose a flexible application that will scale with you as your firm grows.

Whether you are still using QuickBooks or stuck using paper systems and spreadsheets, it’s time for an upgrade in your back office.

Trust Accounting

Trust accounting features are a must-have for law firm accounting. It’s a major responsibility for attorneys. Clients rely on their lawyers to hold funds and keep their funds in trust. Trust accounting usually carries a lot of rules and regulations. So, it’s vitally important to keep accurate records and follow your state guidelines. Failing to comply with trust account regulations can lead to serious problems with your clients and the state bar.

Your law firm accounting software should take these specific rules into consideration. They allow you to collect, track, and reconcile all money going into and out of your client trust accounts. 

A trust accounting system performs accounting for your customers’ assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses rather than your own. These are assets and liabilities that are held and managed by your organization as a Trustee. These assets and liabilities are not the property of your organization and should remain separate from your own financials. To learn more about how to use Accounting Seed’s multi-ledger feature, click here. 

Invoicing

Invoicing is extremely exhausting without the right law firm accounting software. For example, attorneys are forced to waste valuable time when they look back and review client-matter tasks for billing purposes. Your accountant shouldn’t have to go around the office trying to round up time tracking records from the attorneys. This inefficient process is time-consuming and filled with inaccurate data. Your accounting solution should free your time while ensuring financial accuracy instead. 

Your law firm accounting software should provide real-time financial insight and an automated process for creating customized invoices for your clients. 

Accounting Seed manages the entire invoicing and collections process so you don’t have to waste important time creating invoices or collection notices. Time tracking records are quickly imported into invoices that are completely customizable to your firm’s needs. 

Learn how the law firm Ayo & Iken utilizes applications Advologix, GridBuddy, and DocuSign in conjunction with Accounting Seed to successfully manage their billing needs. 

Time Tracking

Accurate time tracking is crucial to the success of any law firm. Inaccurate time tracking leads to the overbilling or underbilling of clients. You are either going to damage your clients and reputation by overcharging them or damage your firm’s bottom line by undercharging for your services.

Accounting Seed gives your back-office the tools you need to quickly and efficiently track the time spent on client projects. Our labor costing and expense reporting features come out of the box and are easy-to-use. Learn more about these features here. 

Custom Reporting 

A critical, much needed feature for law firm accounting software is the ability to review the firm’s financial health on a regular basis. This lets you identify areas for potential improvements. Law firms need accounting software that allows the back-office to run numerous reports about the firm’s billing practices, realization, accounts receivable, and expenses. That’s why it’s essential to have a powerful business reporting feature as part of your accounting software package. 

Accounting Seed provides users with management and financial reports in various formats, so you can keep a constant eye on your practice. These reports are available to users out-of-the-box and enable accountants to properly gauge the firm’s profitability. After all, your practice is also a business. Choose an accounting solution that seamlessly assists you in monitoring the practices’ profit margins to continue growing. 

Expense Tracking

Simply put, you cannot have a successful law practice without detailed knowledge of where money is being spent. From your firm’s overhead costs to expenses incurred on behalf of a client, you need to constantly maintain an accurate record of these costs. When there isn’t an adequate law firm accounting software in place, your attorneys and staff may attempt to track expenses by saving receipts or writing payments in a ledger. All of these are recipes for improper data management and draw your attention away from clients. 

Choose Accounting Seed for Your Law Firm Accounting Software 

Ensure your practice’s success and growth by choosing law firm accounting software that comes with these three features: 

• Trust Accounting
• Invoicing
• Time Tracking
• Custom Business Reporting
• Expense Tracking

Accounting Seed takes pride in being the choice for many law firms around the world by providing these comprehensive  accounting tools and more. Our innovative accounting platform enables law firms to grow and succeed, and there’s no overruling that!