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Accounting and Bookkeeping Problem Faced by Businesses in the Legal Practice Industry

The legal practice industry, with its multifaceted area of practice, had multiple accounting and bookkeeping challenges. Your area of practice can be corporate, litigation, criminal, annulment or anyone from the long list of practices. Still, you must understand that accounting and bookkeeping are as crucial for your organisation as it is for any other business in a different industry. Law firm accounting procedures are not a core function for your law or legal practice, but it can become a time-consuming process. Let's understand what more accounting and bookkeeping challenges are there for the legal practice industry are –

Law firm chart of accounts

Legal practice organisation manages clients' funds related to settlements, retainers, escrow funds and so on. These funds are to be handled so that every individual's fund is distinct from each other while keeping the firm's fund separate, helping to maintain error-free charts of accounts.

Matter Cost Accounting

Matter costs are costs incurred on individual clients. While it sounds simple, it is, in fact, a complicated process. Reimbursable cost shows up on the Profit & Loss Statement while advanced client costs appear on the Balance Sheet. Therefore, it is essential to record the right amount to accurate books of accounts.

Separate Billing & Accounting Systems

Law firms generally use two separate systems for their accounting and billing. To maintain legal accounting compliance, one must not fail to integrate both the system result in error or more significant chaos like billing issue, duplication of data, missed revenue.

How To Tackle Accounting and Bookkeeping Issue For Your Legal Practice Organisation?

We at Whiz Consulting provide accounting and bookkeeping services for legal practices, which helps the organisation serve clients better without accounting for headaches. As a law and legal professional, you can focus on what you do best. Meanwhile, our professional accountant will help with the accounting, bookkeeping and tax administration of your law or legal practice. We make sure we apply best our industry knowledge, which will help you eliminate the accounting and bookkeeping challenges you face.

Our expert will perform all the accounting services for legal practice industry and assist you in serving your clients back taking care of you accounting for clients' fund. In addition, we assist with matter cost funding helping to produce accurate financial reports whenever required without any delay.

We keep up to date with all technological advancements to help you integrate multiple accounting software for increased productivity.

Accounting & Bookkeeping Services We offer for Legal Industry at Whiz Consulting

Bookkeeping Service

We provide the following bookkeeping services –

  • Bank & CC Reconciliation
  • Payable & Receivable Function
  • Payroll Calculation & Tax Payments
  • Inventory Management & Reconciliation
  • Monthly Financial Statements
  • Financial Ratios Reporting
  • Cash Flow Forecasting
  • Preparation and Lodgement of BAS & FBT
  • Budgeting Quarterly / Yearly
  • CFO Advisory Every Monthly
  • Planning of Taxes
  • Cash/Revenue/Expenses Forecasting
  • KPI Reporting
  • Strategic Advice on Managing Revenue, Expenses, Cash Flow
  • Lodging Income Tax Return
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Accounts Payable

We prepare a daily, biweekly, or weekly report as requested for accounts payable and send the same to you so that you never breach payment terms with your clients. In addition, our outsourced accounting service covers the scanning of invoices to make sure about payment terms and so forth that adhere to your company policy. We will make sure that things are exactly as they should be, and we will make it our responsibility to raise a red flag with you when they are not.

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Accounts Receivable

You cannot expect your business to sustain, let alone talk about growing if you are unsure how much you ought to receive from your debtors. You also need to make sure you receive what the others apart from the debtor owe you while ensuring that it is done promptly to keep that cash flow moving. We ensure that our clients receive money from the debtors on time, either by reminding clients of the overdue payments or contacting the debtors directly on your behalf.

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Financial Reporting

With years of experience working with Australian clients, we know exactly what is needed for Australian Accounting and regulatory bodies' requirements. We can produce for you Periodic Reports, Business Activity System (BAS), Income Statement Analysis, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Ratio Analysis and much more. So you can trust us with your financial reporting requirements, and we can even get in touch with your CPA and make sure everything is there as and when he wants.

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Payrolls

Outsourced payroll services at Whiz Consulting include receipt and analysis of payroll data, reporting payroll taxes, issuing payment and reports to employees (pay slips), and reporting data to end-user. We look after biweekly, weekly, or monthly payrolls for our clients, including PAYG, Superannuation, Tax Calculations and Deductions, and e-mailing salary slips to employees. In addition, our online accounting service will help you keep a vigilant eye on the complete payroll activity for your business.

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Business Activity System (BAS) Preparation

We have been providing accounting and bookkeeping services in Australia for a long time now. So we understand and know the mandatory regulatory filings like BAS, and we can prepare BAS returns for our clients, which their CPA's or BAS agents can file. So you can count on us for the accuracy of these statements, and we will make sure these statements are prepared well before due dates.

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BAS /FBT Lodgement

We are proficient in filing yearly, quarterly or monthly BAS & FBT returns with the ATO. We can also calculate and pay PAYG and FBT amounts. Therefore, you can rely on us for the accuracy of these statements, and we will make sure that these statements are prepared and lodged well before due dates.

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TAX Filing

Having dealt with clients in Australia for over a decade and having a highly experienced Australian CPA in our team, we can prepare and lodge your tax returns, be it for Companies, Trusts, Partnerships, or Individuals. We also advise and assist our clients in planning tax liability in the most efficient way.

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Why Choose Whiz Consulting for your Accounting and Bookkeeping Service?

We at Whiz Consulting provide legal accounting services in Australia irrespective of your area of practice and scale of operations. If you are looking for accounting & bookkeeping services for legal practices, here is why you should choose us –

Automation

We use high-end up-to-date accounting and bookkeeping software to ensure that your finance is error-free and is always up to date with existing practices.

Decade long Experience

We have vast knowledge and experience of how the legal practice industry functions. We will provide integrated bookkeeping and accounting systems to increase your organisation's productivity and help it work seamlessly.

Reduction in cost

Hiring an expert who has in-depth knowledge of the legal practice industry can be difficult as it is a difficult decision, and it will cost you 50% more than hiring our service, where you will have a pool of resources serving you.

Business Growth

While we take care of your vital function, you can focus on serving your client with the best legal service possible, thus helping you grow your business while catering to the bookkeeping and accounting needs of the business.

Boundless Consultation

We provide unlimited phone and e-mail consultations with experienced professionals, and we can modify a plan for you based on your particular business needs.

Consistent Report

Our accounting services for the legal practice industry provide regular detailed reports of all the processed invoices along with the status of your invoices and reconciliation summary statements.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Numerous factors affect the decision regarding who will be the best accountant for a legal practice firm. It is essential to consider all factors before and while hiring an accountant. The most important factors to consider before hiring a legal accountant are the qualification and experience of the accountant. In addition to that, the accountant’s knowledge of the legal industry is also important. These factors affect the quality of work performed by the accountant.
A firm must consider factors such as the size of the business, the amount and complexity of the work, and the firm’s budget for the particular position.
Check the reputation and reviews of the accountant in the industry and the amount they charged for the job. The basic point to analysing the cost of hiring a legal accountant is the cost as per the market standards.
The cost of hiring a legal accountant varies based on numerous factors. The main reason for such variation is the qualification and experience of the accountant. The other factors include the size of the business, the amount of work, the complexity of work to be done, and the work completion timescale. Considering all these factors before hiring an accountant for a legal firm is essential.
Properly managing the financial accounts is necessary, but legal firms and lawyers don’t specialize in accounts, making it difficult for them. Even an accountant can make some basic mistakes in accounting if they do not have enough knowledge of the industry and some prior experience. Some of the most common accounting issues faced by a legal firm are:
• Incorrect posting of revenues- The biggest issue a law firm faces in accounting is the inaccurate posting of the revenues. The invoice payments received by the law firms need to apply various other items like a sales tax payable, etc., before depositing the amount.
• Failure to recover costs properly- The matters related to the clients of a law firm need a substantial amount of money to be spent. These are all considered costs or expenses and, if not appropriately charged to the client account, can affect the firm’s profits. Therefore, recording every cost accurately and billing it to the client is necessary.
• Failure to make right decisions based on data- Any business decision made by the firm should always include proper consideration of the financial data and reports. Excluding the financial reports from decision-making can lead to losses for the firm and a lack of funds.
• Mishandling client funds- When it comes to client funds, it is important to follow the compliance guidelines and manage every single penny accurately until it is marked ‘earned’ in the books.

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