The Best Free Accounting Software for Lawyers

This best legal accounting software roundup covers everything from the best small law firm accounting software to premium law office accounting software for larger companies. Its features are second to none, allowing users to collect payments from clients, pay vendors, manage trust accounts, and track appointments, expenses, time, and tasks. Legal accounting solutions will calculate billable hours and your preset hourly rate to create an invoice.

For example, lawyers need solutions that can handle client trust accounts and the interest on trust accounts. The software also needs to track time and expenses by the case and service code so that clients are billed appropriately. On top of general bookkeeping capabilities, law firms might look for solutions that include client portals, document management, and calendars.

Specifically, QuickBooks lets you connect the appropriate bank account to sync and categorize trust transactions automatically. With this feature, you can avoid lost or forgotten invoices and receipts. Approved bills, bill payments, and transactions made in Clio are synced to QuickBooks Online. By keeping client information organized and synced securely and easily, lawyers can have peace of mind.

• To effectively manage legal accounting for law firms, it’s wise to start with a foundation that works for all aspects of running your firm.
• CARET Legal (formerly Zola Suite) is a good fit for legal professionals seeking a legal accounting software with strong CRM features.
• You can share documents securely with clients and request documents from clients for secure uploads.
• However, with online legal accounting software, it’s easy to quickly produce reports that give you the insights you need—whether you need reports on sales, expenses, taxes, or other metrics.

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. If you’re looking for accounting software that can accommodate multiple users, Xero is a great option. And if you need law firm-specific accounting, TimeSolv will convert your Xero platform to powerful law firm software. TimeSolv is cloud-based, making it easy to track time and expenses from anywhere. It provides both the required trust accounting with three-way reconciliation as well as tools to help better manage your client matters.

Support

With up to 50 billable clients, pay $30 per month for its Plus plan (your first four months cost $15 per month). Because billing is foundational to a law office’s operations, using debit and credit there are a number of stand-alone solutions on the market. Time tracking and billing modules are also integrated into more comprehensive practice management software suites.

Plus, Gusto’s easy-to-use software means payroll takes only minutes to complete. Cloud-based software is hosted on external servers and accessed via the internet, offering a more modern approach to data management. With limited reporting and accounting features, TimeSolv is a good fit for smaller firms with less complex needs. It’s also a strong fit for nonprofit organizations, which can use the software for free. If you’re contemplating adopting accounting software for your firm, you may consider alternatives to QuickBooks Online.

• Features like smart insights and reports help you retain your most profitable clients, get paid on time, and see how you’re doing compared to competitors.
• The free version is free forever and has plenty of invoicing and accounting functions.
• Integrating financial management with inventory, HR, customer management and e-commerce, it consolidates disparate systems into one unified platform.
• If clients aren’t being billed properly for your attorney’s time, the firm will lose money.
• 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.

With accounting software for lawyers, this jam in the payment process is easy to detect. Now, because you have this information, you can check-in with your client and offer them an alternative payment arrangement to support their ability to pay for legal services. You can track your billable hours using multiple timers to switch between cases. Use the app for iOS or Android to track time and access case information when you’re out of the office. You can create an invoice for unbilled hours with a few clicks, and LEDES billing is available.

You can also integrate trust accounting data into invoices with a customized report. Since your legal trust accounting is always in sync, your trust accounting will undergo a 3- way reconciliation on a weekly or monthly basis. The 3-way reconciliation is between the bank account, trust account, and QuickBooks Online. LeanLaw and Intuit have partnered to better serve law firms and because of this collaboration between LeanLaw and QuickBooks Online, it’s a strong competitor among legal software.

See what Xero accounting software can do for your legal firm

Besides its primary plans, it also offers a custom plan with custom pricing for businesses with complex needs. The connection between a smoother client-centered experience and accounting software for lawyers might not seem obvious at first. Though, the more insight you have into a client’s particular case, the better equipped you are to support them. Let’s say client X hasn’t paid their invoice even though you’ve sent it to them three times.

Seamlessly Migrate From Your Current Accounting Software

The platform includes conflicts management and trust accounting for your law firm’s unique needs. While PCLaw is our overall best legal accounting software, it doesn’t mean it’s good for every law firm. If you don’t want to use separate programs for managing your bank accounts, cases, clients, and legal matters, then PCLaw is right for you. If you’re currently using QuickBooks Online and want to transform it into a capable legal accounting solution, then you can integrate it with LeanLaw. If you need a program to help you automate your CRM workflows and can help you manage leads, then CARET Legal is a great option. LeanLaw is mostly a legal billing software, but one of its biggest strengths is that it reconciles trust accounts automatically.

Best for Small Firms Using QuickBooks

You can automatically share intake forms and get documents signed online. MyCase is less robust than competitors and a better fit for small firms without complex accounting and reporting needs. Team members can see a daily to-do list for projects, and anyone can track time and expenses on or off-line through the apps. With these factors in mind, QuickBooks Online is the optimal choice for lawyers. The full-featured accounting tool is simple to use, secure, and syncs with Clio for an end-to-end solution. In addition to improving efficiency, QuickBooks also makes it easier for lawyers to stay organized.

Accounting and Bookkeeping Best Practices for Law Firms

Since PCLaw is part of the LexisNexis family of legal practice management products, there are plenty of ways you can connect it with other programs that you currently use. It doesn’t have a built-in payroll management tool but it integrates with ADP to process payroll duties. To determine the best accounting software, we meticulously evaluated numerous providers across specific categories. Each software was scored based on its performance in these areas, and these scores were calculated to determine the product’s total score, with a potential maximum of five stars.

If you’re the owner of a small law firm, you need to know the essentials of bookkeeping and accounting for law firms. This way, your firm can stay compliant with ethics rules—and you can ensure you aren’t leaving money on the table. CARET Legal (formerly Zola Suite) is a good fit for legal professionals seeking a legal accounting software with strong CRM features. It is also a great fit for firms handling a large volume of documents every day, especially if you’re using Office 365 or Google Workspace. It’s important to note that the cost of accounting software can vary greatly, so it’s important to compare different systems and plans to find the best fit for your business. You can choose a basic system and add à la carte options such as project management or CRM, or you can choose an all-in-one system that includes everything you need.

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. For this, you should confer with both your legal team and your accountant. All solutions include features for both case management and invoicing and billing. Team members can track time and expenses on the go with a mobile app or online, and you can integrate a calendar to set court dates and stay ahead of deadlines with automated court rules. A TimeSolv Legal plan also includes legal-specific billing formats, including LEDES 2000, 1998B, 1998BI, Chubbs and Litigation Advisor.

FreshBooks’ robust accounting platform helps you stay on top of client work and keep all your client documents in one place. Consider what you need, and seek out accounting software that fits those needs. Some accounting software helps prepare your taxes, or if your law firm hires an accountant to prepare your taxes, legal accounting software helps keep accurate records that are essential at tax time. Moreover, many online accounting tools have options to create useful online reports on taxes. Legal accounting software with billing features (such as the ability to create or track invoices) or that connects with your practice management software helps simplify your workflows. 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.