Law Firm Accounting

Law firm accounting: every hour becomes an invoice, every invoice gets followed

General accounting software sees the firm the way a shop sees itself: money in, money out. But a firm’s money is tied to matters, clients and trust obligations — and that’s precisely what QuickBooks can’t see. SmartCase accounting is built around the matter, so the books and the practice finally agree.

Billing from captured time

Invoices generate from the time already recorded on the matter — with your rates, your formats, your languages. Month-end stops being reconstruction and becomes review. Firms on SmartCase report billing cycles dropping from days to hours.

Client and trust accounts, separated by design

Client money and firm money never mix. Trust balances track per client per matter, with a full audit trail — protecting the firm from the errors that end careers.

Aged receivables that chase themselves

Every invoice is tracked from sent to settled. The system flags aging debt, schedules follow-ups, and shows partners exactly who owes what, for how long, on which matters. This is where “billed but never collected” stops being a leak.

Disbursements and matter costs

Filing fees, transport, third-party costs — captured against the matter and recovered on the invoice instead of absorbed silently.

Partner-level reports, on demand

Work in progress, fees billed, collections, receivables, profitability by matter or lawyer — one click, always current, no compilation. The firm’s true position stops being a quarterly archaeology project.

Bring one messy month to a demo and watch it reconcile