The Best Law Firm Accounting Software: Top 10 Compared for 2024

Recurring Bills – A notable feature of this legal invoicing software includes recurring billing, where you can charge regular clients automatically each month. You’ll also be able to track the time you spend on a client, so there’s no confusion about what you’re owed.

Automatic Tracking – Automatic tracking is available for transactions made via a bank or credit card, meaning it’ll be more seamless for you to file taxes at the end of the financial year. On its highest plan, you’ll enjoy lower credit card transaction fees – something large law businesses will benefit from quite a lot.

Payment Links in Invoices – FreshBooks can turn estimates into invoices, which is a huge plus. All this takes the hassle out of billing for both parties and ensures you get paid on time. FreshBooks also further simplifies the process by allowing you to add payment options directly to the invoice. You can add links to the payment option you provided, making it easy for your client. The easier you make it for clients, the faster they’ll pay you, and this is what you’re looking for in the right legal billing software.

FreshBooks offers four plans to support your legal business needs.

FreshBooks Lite plan is suitable for professionals with basic needs who only need to manage up to 5 billable clients. It offers features such as unlimited expense tracking, accessible tax reports, unlimited estimates, payment with credit cards, and bank transfer (ACH). As your team grows, you can upgrade to either Plus or Premium to support more advanced features.

FreshBooks offers no free plan but a 30-day free trial to explore the platform. It also offers add-ons, such as extra team members for $11/month, advanced payments at $20/month, and payroll at a quoted price.

Asset Management – NetSuite allows you to manage your fixed assets–you can track the complete lifecycle of an asset (both depreciating and non-depreciating) right from its purchase to disposal. Numbers such as a change in value will come in handy when you want to calculate your law firm’s overall worth and market valuation or do your taxes.

Accounts Payable and Receivable Management – To further simplify the management of your books, NetSuite divides your transactions into two parts — accounts payable and accounts receivable. The former lists down the payments your law firm is due to make. You can link your bank/card and automate these payments to avoid late payments.

Account Reconciliation – This involves tallying your record of a particular period’s expense with the bank’s records to ensure you haven’t missed any entries. This feature helps legal professionals prevent unauthorized transactions from ill-intentioned employees and helps you establish a solid reputation for your law firm. These legal accounting solutions can really make a difference while cutting down on manual data entry.

Oracle NetSuite offers a customized price plan based on individual business needs. Your total annual subscription includes the main platform, optional modules, and the number of users. However, to get started with NetSuite, you need to pay a one-time implementation fee.

NetSuite is best for large law firms needing comprehensive financial management capabilities and automated day-to-day accounting processes.

Client Management – This is a more efficient way for legal professionals to deal with their clients than conventional routes such as emails. With this feature, your clients can make online payments, either in bulk or individually, so that they don’t have to depend on your team for routine transactions.

Expense Management & Audit Trail – Expense management is super simple, but I love the audit trail more. From deleted entries to new additions and edited numbers, you can track every small change. This way, if anyone tries to manipulate the numbers, you’ll find out right away.

Multiple Payment Options – Just like FreshBooks, it lets you add payment methods to your invoices so that your clients can pay you directly from there. The only difference between the two is that Zoho offers more payment options. With FreshBooks, it’s limited to credit cards and ACH, whereas Zoho offers up to 10 options, including Paytm, Razorpay, and Eazypay.

Zoho offers free invoicing for law firms to help them send, track, and manage invoices. However, to access more of its accounting features, you may choose from its five paid plans.

With Zoho Books’ free plan, law firms can access free invoicing and basic accounting features such as payment reminders automation, setting up recurring invoices, mileage tracking, self-service customer portal, and more.

One thing I admire about Zoho Books’ price package is its free forever plan and trial for exploring its paid plan features.

Bill Management – If your law firm deals with a lot of paper bills, you’ll be happy to know that Xero has partnered with Hubdoc and now lets you capture all your bills and receipts and store their digital copy – an example of its fantastic management features. This way, you can keep your office clutter-free yet have a copy of all your expenses for tax season.

Expense Claim Management – Along with the default plans, this legal practice management software offers several paid add-ons for your expanding accounting needs. One of its most popular accounting add-ons is expense claim management. Your employees can use this tool to record company-oriented expenses and submit them to the necessary department for quick reimbursement.

Bulk Transaction Reconciliation – Since your bank accounts will be connected to Xero, you can directly reimburse the claims from within the platform, just as you pay bills. This is a great way to keep your law firm’s financial health in check.

Xero offers a monthly-based price plan supporting a pay-as-you-go option. Its price plans are in three tiers.

The Early plan is designed for law firms with limited invoice needs. The plan allows you to send quotes and 20 invoices, reconcile bank transactions, and capture bills and receipts with Hubdoc, short-term cash flow, and business snapshots. However, an international firm will need more advanced accounting functionalities, which are available on the Growing and Established plans.

Like FreshBooks, Xero does not offer a free plan for forever use. However, its 30-day free trial offers you an opportunity to test-run the platform.

Scheduling – With Bonsai’s scheduling tool, your clients can access your calendar, find a slot when you’re available, and book a meeting. This saves you the hassle of going back and forth on email threads to schedule a session. You can also charge for the session upfront using Bonsai so that you don’t have to chase the client afterward.

Accurate Tax Estimates – Bonsai establishes its place as one of the most well-rounded accounting software for law firms thanks to its tax estimates, which also include an option to track dedications for accurate tax reporting. Another benefit of using Bonsai is that it offers hybrid plans—even in its accounting plan, you’ll find some of the best CRM and client management features.

Database of Templates – Bonsai accounting software also comes with a rich database of templates. From invoices to estimates of client payments, you’ll find a professionally designed template for every legal industry purpose, which is particularly helpful for new businesses with minimal experience.

Bonsai offers three pricing packages to meet various business demands. Its pricing model is based on feature differences.

The Starter plan is designed for solo freelancers and contractors who need basic accounting features. The plan features all templates, unlimited clients & projects, invoicing & payments, proposals & contracts, scheduling, tasks & time tracking, client CRM, forms & questionnaires, and expense tracking.

Similarly to the most popular accounting software on this list, Bonsai offers a free trial that lasts only 7 days.

Profit Maximization – This law practice management software will help you estimate the revenue from a project and then use your records to calculate the total cost for the job to ultimately maximize your profits. This feature is further supported by a real-time reporting feature where you get to run unlimited reports on your expenses and profits.

Real-time reporting – This is brought to you by an accurate recording of transactions and client payments and collaboration with your accountants and bookkeepers in real time. All of these will help you make informed decisions and churn out more profit.

Automation and Categorization – Automation and categorization abilities with this accounting solution are brilliant, too. For instance, the general ledger is brightly labeled to show net income, and the real-time numbers on the top always tell you what your current profit or expense is.

Sage is a complex accounting software operating on different modules. It offers customized price plans across different packages for law firms to choose from.

The Sage Intacct is a smart accounting and ERP solution that provides access to several advanced accounting functionalities and other business tools.

While there’s no free plan, users can request a demo to see the software in action.

Mileage Tracking – QuickBooks’s mileage tracking is ideal for firms because, as a legal professional, you’re often required to travel and meet your clients. If you’re compensating your employees (or the client is compensating you) for all your traveling, it becomes crucial to track the distance accurately. Using QuickBooks mileage tracking is super simple–just connect it to your smartphone’s GPS and track the trip—similar to using employee tracking software.

Checking Account – Just like Bonsai, QuickBooks lets you have your checking account. The only difference is that for QuickBooks, you need to have a separate bank account to connect to this checking account. This way, you can transfer money back and forth between these two accounts and do other financial transactions easily, depending on the use case.

Accurate Monthly Expenses Tracking – You’ll have the freedom to classify trips as personal or business to help with accurately calculating monthly expenses. Also, since QuickBooks will have access to all your financial records, it can help you forecast your cash flow for up to 90 days so that you can easily plan ahead.

QuickBooks provides monthly pay-as-you-go pricing options in four tiers. Its Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced plans include various features.

The Simple Start plan supports only one user, allowing you to manage invoices and payments, general reports, receipt capture, manage bills, deduct tax, and mileage tracking. As your firm expands, you can choose any of the higher plans that offer the features you need.

There is no free forever plan but a 30-day free trial.

Accurate Tax Filing – TurboTax prides itself in providing accurate filings and promises that if a mistake is made due to their negligence and you’re asked to pay a penalty by the IRS, you’ll be compensated for the entire fine.

Unlimited Expert Support – Having a tax expert like TurboTax helps you get the maximum possible refund from your filings. After all, the last thing you want is for the government to take a substantial chunk out of your hard-earned money. Once you sign up with TurboTax, you can get unlimited support from their experts, not just during the tax season but all year round.

Auditing Support – As you collate and file documents for tax, you’ll get a final review from their experts on the last filing date. Only if you get an expert’s approval on your filing, your tax forms will be submitted. This extra step minimizes the chances of costly mistakes from your side.

Turbotax is a tax filing software that provides you with tax filing support, and you can sign up for free. This means you may explore the platform before committing to a membership because you only pay when you file.

Its Do Your Own Taxes plan is designed for individuals who can handle their taxes independently without external assistance from Turbotax. With this plan, you may get 100% accurate calculations with Intuit AI assistance, a minimum refund guarantee, and easy scan and upload.

If you prefer TurboTax experts to take full control of your firm’s tax filing, you may choose its Full Service package.

Custom Billing Templates – PCLaws offers custom billing templates that you can edit as per your preferences before sending the invoice to your client. It’s worth noting that this is also available in other accounting software like Bonsai and Xero, but offering a dedicated legal accounting software tool like PCLaw is commendable.

Matter Management – PCLaws is a legal accounting software specially designed for lawyers, just like LeanLaw, which is why it offers matter management. It’s the process of managing cases and tasks from inception to completion, which helps you understand the billing and budgeting structure better.

Centralized Platform – In simple terms, you’ll have a centralized platform containing all the files, memos, quotes, and everything you received from the client from day one. This enables better communication and faster problem-solving. The mobile apps, although basic, also allow time tracking on the go, and they’re pretty functional overall.

PCLaws offers a custom-based plan that is only available upon request. You can get a tailored quote that’s specific to your firm by filling out a form on their website, and sales support will get in touch.

Trust Accounting – LeanLaw’s trust accounting is easy to use and detail-oriented without error. It ensures you adhere to state bar standards and ethical rules as you manage client ledgers and reports.

Time Expense Tracking – Legal professionals rely on LeanLaw to efficiently manage time and ensure every billable hour is tracked and categorized appropriately by client and matter.

Matter Management – With LeanLaw’s automation, you can smoothly manage matters and communicate with your law firm team members and clients without leaving the platform. It’s also accessible everywhere as it offers real-time access to relevant data.

LeanLaw offers two price plans based on law firm sizes: LeanLaw Core and LeanLaw Pro. LeanLaw Core is for firms with 1 to 4 users, while the LeanLaw Pro is for firms of all sizes. However, the prices are not publicly available. Users need to request pricing by filling out a form.

One thing to note is that LeanLaw’s price is user-based and billed annually.