Questions attorneys ask us

An IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts) is a special bank account where attorneys hold client funds — retainers, settlements, filing fees — that don't yet belong to the firm. Those funds must be kept strictly separate from the firm's operating money.

It matters because mishandling client funds is one of the fastest routes to bar discipline. Commingling operating and client funds, or drawing on unearned retainers, can jeopardize a license even when it's an honest bookkeeping mistake. That's why trust accounting sits at the center of our work.

It's the monthly process of matching three numbers that should always agree: the trust account's bank statement balance, the trust ledger balance in your books, and the sum of every individual client's ledger balance. All three must match to the penny.

More than half the states require attorneys to perform three-way reconciliations, and most state bars expect them at least monthly. We perform, document, and archive them every month so a bar examiner's request is a non-event.

A generalist can record transactions accurately and still get law firm books wrong. The classic error: recording a retainer as revenue the day it hits the bank. Retainers are client money held in trust — they become revenue only as they're earned — and misclassifying them distorts your financial statements and your trust reporting at the same time.

Legal-specific bookkeeping also means a chart of accounts built around matters, advanced client costs, and trust liabilities, plus fluency in the compliance rules that generalists have never had to learn.

No. We focus on bookkeeping, trust compliance, advisory, and CFO work — and we keep your books so clean that your CPA's job gets easy. At year end your tax preparer receives accurate, reconciled financial statements instead of a shoebox.

We coordinate directly with your CPA, including around quarterly estimates, and can recommend one who knows law firms if you need a referral.

Cash basis records money when it actually moves; it's simple and works well for smaller firms with straightforward billing. Accrual basis records revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, which reveals the real economics of a practice: work-in-progress, receivables, and earned versus unearned fees.

As a rule of thumb, solo and small firms start on cash basis, while growing firms that carry significant WIP and receivables — or that want matter-level profitability — get more value from accrual. We'll recommend the right basis for how your firm actually operates.

Usually not. We work with the accounting and practice management platforms law firms already use — QuickBooks Online paired with tools like Clio, MyCase, or PracticePanther — and your data stays in cloud software you can access anytime.

If your current setup is actively working against you, we'll say so and propose something better. But the starting point is meeting your firm where it is.

Yes — that's a catch-up engagement. We reconstruct and reconcile the missing months, correct misclassifications, rebuild client trust ledgers if needed, and bring everything current before regular monthly service begins.

Catch-up work is quoted by scope after we see the state of the books. Waiting only makes reconciliation harder and compliance risk larger, so sooner genuinely is better.

Flat monthly fees, quoted up front. Your rate depends on your firm's size, transaction volume, and the services you need — a solo practice with simple operations pays less than a multi-partner firm with trust activity across dozens of matters.

See the pricing page for starting rates for each service level.

Yes. All work runs through established cloud accounting platforms with bank-level encryption, two-factor authentication, and role-based access. Documents are exchanged through secure portals rather than email attachments, and we follow least-access principles on every account.

When the questions outgrow the bookkeeping: Should we raise rates? Can we afford another associate? Why is revenue up but profit flat? Which practice area deserves investment? If those decisions are being made on instinct, CFO-level analysis usually pays for itself.

A fractional arrangement delivers senior financial leadership — forecasts, strategy, partner-meeting participation — for a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO hire.