Bookkeeping and Accounting for Family Lawyers

As a family lawyer, there are several crucial accounting considerations for your firm. The key factors can be broken down into the following categories:

• Trust Accounting: This is a critical aspect of running a law firm. Mismanagement of trust accounts can have serious implications, including legal repercussions. An experienced bookkeeper can ensure that your firm is compliant with rules related to client trust funds.
• Expense Tracking: Tracking client invoices, office rent, staff salaries, and other operational costs is idea. Closely monitoring these expenses can improve your firm's financial health and help you identify areas for cost reduction.
• Revenue Recognition: Law firms typically recognize revenues at different stages of a case. Employing best practices in recognizing revenue accurately and in a timely manner ensures proper income tracking and provides clearer insight into the financial health of your firm.
• Tax Planning: Tax regulations for law firms can be complex. Working with a knowledgeable bookkeeper can help you devise effective tax strategies, take advantage of tax benefits and minimize tax burdens.

Enlisting the help of a professional bookkeeper can greatly assist in managing these specific accounting considerations for your law firm.

A bookkeeper can significantly aid in the management of your client billing and trust accounts in your family law practice. They are skilled in maintaining accurate financial records, an integral task when it comes to tracking billing information and disbursements from trust accounts. They can help in:

• Creating accurate billing statements for clients
• Reconciling trust account transactions
• Ensuring compliance with financial regulations related to trust accounts
• Keeping track of payments received and payments due
• Providing detailed financial reports for a clear understanding of your practice's finances

With a bookkeeper's assistance, you can focus more on your legal work, knowing that your financial management is in capable hands.

The choice of financial systems or software for efficient bookkeeping largely depends on the specific needs and requirements of your family law firm. Bench offers sophisticated tools for tracking income and expenses, generating reports, tax-filing, and more. Some firms also utilise legal-specific financial software such as Clio or MyCase, which offer integrated bookkeeping features designed to work seamlessly within the legal industry. It's important to explore different options and consider factors such as ease of use, cost, customer support, and integration with other tools you may be using in your practice.

Nope! All bookkeeping is completed in-house.

Your bookkeeper will be your main point of contact, but at times you might hear from another member of your team. This is usually when your bookkeeper goes on vacation, is sick, or otherwise unavailable.

We handle the bookkeeping for you but sometimes we’ll need your input, especially at year-end. On average, expect to spend 15 minutes each month answering questions for your bookkeeper, or uploading supporting docs.