Bookkeeping for Law Firms

Closed by the 10th. Trust reconciled to the penny.

General Bookkeeping Isn't Law Firm Bookkeeping.

Law firm books have things regular business books don't. Client trust accounts. Matter-based accounting. Unbilled time. Cost advances. Retainer applications. Three-way trust reconciliation. Get any of those wrong and it's not a bookkeeping problem, it's a bar discipline problem.

That's why generalist bookkeepers struggle with law firm books, and why most accountants who claim to serve "every industry" don't actually know how to run a trust account. They can handle your operating account fine. Trust is where they miss deposits, misclassify disbursements, and fail to reconcile at the client level. And most of the time, no one realizes anything is wrong until a bar audit or an unhappy client asks for a ledger the firm can't produce.

FM Accounting builds law firm bookkeeping around the mechanics that actually matter: three-way trust reconciliation, matter-based tracking, and a monthly close that gives you a trust ledger you can hand to the bar on request. Same 10th-of-the-month schedule. Same fixed fee. Same team that handles tax planning for law firms and your return.

What You Get Every Month

Every month with FM as your law firm bookkeeper includes:

Books closed by the 10th of the following month, reconciled to the penny
Three-way trust account reconciliation matching the bank, the trust ledger, and the client-level ledger, every month, on every trust account
A client trust ledger by matter you can produce on demand
Operating account reconciliations on every bank and credit card
A full financial statement package (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow) delivered on the same schedule
Practice management software coordination with Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, LEAP, Rocket Matter, or whatever platform you use
A monthly summary flagging trust anomalies, unbilled work, cost advance issues, and cash flow shifts

Everything runs on our calendar. You don't chase us for the report.

What We Actually Handle

IOLTA and trust account reconciliation

Three-way reconciled every month, on every trust account. Deep dive on the mechanics is here: IOLTA trust accounting.

Client trust ledgers by matter

Every client’s trust balance tracked individually, so the total always ties to the bank and no client ledger ever goes negative.

Cost advances and disbursements

Filing fees, expert witness fees, deposition costs. Tracked as advances against the correct matter and applied against the correct client.

Retainer application

Retainers held in trust, moved to operating on approved invoices, applied to the correct matter every time.

WIP and unbilled time

Coordinated with your practice management software so what shows up on the books matches what’s actually been billed.

Operating account bookkeeping

Payroll coordination, vendor bills, credit cards, categorized transactions.

Matter profitability tracking

When the scope calls for it.

Year-end close and tax handoff

Books are already tax-ready when it’s time to file the firm’s return. No delays. No cleanup scramble.

One point of contact

Who understands both law firm accounting and trust rules, and picks up when you call.

Who This Is Built For

Law firm bookkeeping becomes worth outsourcing at the point where the trust account, matter tracking, or bar compliance risk outgrows what a general bookkeeper (or the firm's office manager) can handle safely.

The attorneys who get the most out of it:

Solo attorneys and small partnerships running one or more IOLTA accounts
PLLCs and PCs where entity structure and personal liability intersect with the firm's books
Firms currently doing bookkeeping in-house where the office manager is stretched too thin
Firms who've been burned by a generalist bookkeeper and lost trust ledger integrity
Firms preparing for a bar audit or coming out of one
Firms consolidating bookkeeping, tax preparation, and tax planning under one team

If your firm has an active trust account and no one currently doing a proper three-way reconciliation every month, the risk exposure is higher than most attorneys realize.

How It Starts

Step 1

Discovery call

Thirty minutes on your firm, your trust setup, your practice management software, and what’s not working.

Step 2

Trust and books diagnostic

We look at your last three months of trust activity, your current reconciliation process, and your books to understand the state of things. Trust integrity is the first thing we check.

Step 3

Scope and quote

We come back with a fixed monthly fee, a separate cleanup fee if your books or trust ledgers need it, and a start date. Everything in writing before you sign.

Step 4

Onboarding and first close

Once you sign, we get access to your accounts and close your first month, with a full three-way trust reconciliation, within 30 days.

Why FM

We only bookkeep for industries we know deeply. Law firms are our deepest specialty. Which means the person doing your books actually knows what a client trust ledger is and why it has to reconcile to the penny.

Three-way trust reconciliation, every month. Not "when we get to it." Not "at year-end." Every month, on every trust account, on the same schedule as the operating account close.

Fixed monthly fee. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices for asking a trust question.

Bookkeeping, tax prep, and planning are one team. Which means what shows up on your firm's books is already set up correctly for the return, and correctly for PLLC partner comp planning, and correctly for state pass-through elections. Most firms split bookkeeping from tax prep and every year-end becomes a scramble.

Practice management software coordination is built in. Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, LEAP, Rocket Matter, TimeSolv. If you're on one of those, we integrate with it. If you're on something else, we'll figure it out during the discovery call.

Serving law firms in all 50 states. Fully cloud-based workflow. Trust rules are state-specific and we track them per jurisdiction.

What It Costs

Law firm bookkeeping runs between $750 and $6,000 a month, depending on the size of the firm, the number of active matters, the number of trust accounts, transaction volume, and how clean the starting point is.

Every engagement is quoted in writing before you sign, with the monthly fee and any one-time cleanup fee spelled out separately. No hidden charges. No hourly billing.

For most firms, the fee is meaningfully less than what a competent in-house bookkeeper who actually understands trust accounting would cost, and the work gets done by a team that knows both accounting and legal-specific mechanics.

FAQ's

Answers to Common Questions

What is three-way trust reconciliation?

It's the monthly process of matching three things to the penny: the bank statement, the firm's trust account ledger, and the sum of individual client trust ledgers. All three have to agree. If they don't, something is wrong and it needs to be found before the next month closes. Most bar rules require this to be done regularly, and it's the single most important control in law firm bookkeeping.

Can't my legal practice management software do this?

Practice management software (Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, etc.) tracks what should be in trust. Your bank tracks what actually is in trust. Reconciling the two is separate work, and it's what a real law firm bookkeeper does every month. The software is a tool, not a bookkeeper.

My current bookkeeper is fine. Why would I switch?

If your books are closed monthly, your trust account is three-way reconciled every month, and you have a client-by-client trust ledger you could hand to the bar tomorrow, you probably don't need to switch. If any of those three isn't happening, the risk is bigger than the fee.

Do you handle firms with multiple IOLTA accounts?

Yes. Multi-account firms, multi-state firms, and firms with both IOLTA and non-IOLTA trust accounts are common. Each account is reconciled separately, every month.

What if my books are behind or my trust hasn't been reconciled in months?

That's most new engagements. We diagnose the state of things, quote a separate cleanup fee, and get you current before the ongoing work starts. If trust is off, cleaning that up is the first thing we do.

Do you file our firm's taxes too?

Yes, if you want. Most law firm clients bundle bookkeeping with tax preparation and tax planning so it all sits inside one team.

Do you work with contingency-fee firms?

Yes. Personal injury, employment, and other contingency-fee practices have specific accounting patterns (cost advances, settlement disbursement, referral fee splits) that we handle regularly.

How fast can you start?

Usually within two weeks of signing. Trust cleanup engagements can take longer if there's significant history to work through.

Do I need to be in your city to work with you?

No. We serve law firms in all 50 states through cloud-based accounting. Trust rules vary by state and we track them per jurisdiction.

Will I still talk to a real person?

Yes. You have one point of contact who knows your firm and your trust setup, and picks up when you call.

Do you offer trust account training for our staff?

Yes. Attorneys are ultimately responsible for trust compliance under bar rules, so we work with your office manager, paralegals, or intake staff to make sure the front-of-house side of trust intake is handled correctly.

Get Trust Books That Actually Reconcile.

Every month a trust account goes without a proper three-way reconciliation is a month of exposure that doesn't come back. Fixing it is a 30-minute conversation and a written quote. Book a free discovery call. We'll look at your current setup and tell you what it would take to get things running clean.

No commitment. No pressure. Just numbers.