Software
Dedicated offshore accountants who understand IOLTA, 3-way trust reconciliation, unbilled WIP, matter-based profitability, and state bar compliance. Clio, PracticePanther, LeanLaw, CosmoLex, CARET Legal – built for firms that don't need another disbarment risk.
Scope
Software
Law firm accounting has one feature that makes it unforgiving: IOLTA errors are career-ending. State bar discipline – up to and including disbarment – flows from mishandled client trust funds. A generic bookkeeper who commingles trust and operating funds, or who records earned fees before they're actually earned, is creating a regulatory problem that can cost a partner their license. Most firms we work with are firms that already had a bad experience with a general-purpose bookkeeper and are re-staffing.
Every state bar requires monthly 3-way trust reconciliation: the trust bank balance must equal the trust liability on the general ledger, which must equal the sum of all individual client trust ledgers. If any of the three don't tie, you have a problem. Offshore accountants trained on legal accounting perform this reconciliation monthly, document variance investigation, and produce state-bar-ready reports. This is the single highest-value thing we do for law firm clients.
In time-based billing firms, the distinction between hours worked, hours billed, and hours collected is everything. WIP (unbilled work) that sits on the books for 90+ days has a collection probability of maybe 60%. Realization – hours billed as a percentage of hours worked – drives partner compensation in most firms. Offshore accountants track both dimensions monthly, flag WIP aging issues, and produce realization reports that partner comp actually uses.
Law firms with corporate clients increasingly get invoice requirements in LEDES 98B or 1998B format uploaded to legal spend platforms (Thomson Reuters Legal Tracker, TyMetrix, Coupa Legal, Onit). Offshore accountants handle the LEDES generation, validation against client billing guidelines, and platform upload.
Law firms typically pair offshore bookkeeping with close management and specialized legal accounting work. Context on offshore accounting on our homepage.
FAQ
Yes. State bar IOLTA rules vary (account structure, interest distribution, reporting), but the underlying 3-way reconciliation requirement is universal. Our legal-trained accountants handle multi-state firms.
Yes. Clio is the most common practice management platform in our legal book. Matter tracking, trust accounts, time and billing, and reporting in Clio are standard scope.
Yes. LEDES 98B and 1998B generation, billing guideline compliance, and platform upload (Legal Tracker, TyMetrix, Coupa Legal, Onit) are standard for firms with corporate clients.
Yes. Contingent fee matter tracking, settlement distributions with fee/cost splits, referral fee accounting, and tax reporting on contingent fee recoveries. Plaintiffs' firms are a regular engagement type.
Yes. Partner draw tracking, K-1 capital account rollforwards, profit allocations per partnership agreement, and year-end distributions.
Yes for larger firms on Aderant Expert or Thomson Reuters Elite 3E. These engagements typically involve senior offshore accountants at higher rates because of platform complexity.
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