For a Law Firm to prosper, it is important that all of the basics are done right. This includes not just the legal side but also the management of the firm. The bedrock of good firm management is good financial management. It is no good having the best lawyers in the world in your firm, if you cannot pay for practising certificates or you cannot prove to the SRA the last time you reconciled client account.
Law Practices are not like other companies and there are a number of specific requirements that set them apart from other businesses. Very few companies have their accounts scrutinised to the extent that Solicitors’ firms do. The COFA in the firm will want to know that the firm’s accounts are handled by a system that is SRA rules aware and helps all staff remain compliant.
This is why it is essential for Law Firms to have a Legal Accounts System that meets their specific needs and requirements without compromise.
You have earned your customers’ trust by being legal experts, why would you trust something as important as your accounts to a non-Legal Accounts System?
Client and Matter Accounting forms a central part of a Legal Accounts system. The proper recording and reconciliation of client account monies is essential. Ensuring that disbursements are properly recorded, whether they be incurred, billed or anticipated is vital. Making sure that staff are warned if they are in danger of breaching the SRA rules is not just desirable, it is a fundamental part of what your legal accounts software should be doing for you.
Accounts For Your Business
To manage a Law Firm effectively you need to know how you are performing as a business. Your Legal Accounts Software should be able to assist with managing expenditure against budgets, reconcile bank accounts, producing a VAT return, performing cash-flow forecasts and much more.
As part of the SRA Accounts Rules (formerly the Solicitors Accounts Rules), firms have to reconcile each of their accounts at least every 5 weeks.
Insight Legal has inbuilt bank reconciliation functions to enable quick and straightforward reconciliations along with reports that you can print or save to show what has been done.
The basic principle of the bank reconciliation is that every time you post an entry, which affects a bank, the system will save those transactions in one area. When you are ready to reconcile, you simply go to the bank reconciliation screen and select the appropriate bank from a drop down list. All the entries that you have posted to that bank will then be listed, with a check box at the side to indicate whether the entry has already been cleared or not.