Bookkeeping for Law Firms

    Your books should run without you.

    Clean, monthly financials. Trust accounts reconciled. Billable expenses tracked. Tax-ready books maintained year-round. All by a team that already knows how your billing software works.

    Revenue You Are Leaving Behind

    Most law firms are losing money they already earned.

    Monthly Billable Expense Audit
    Filing fees advanced on 12 matters3 never billed
    Expert witness retainer (Martinez case)Not passed through
    Westlaw research charges (Q2)Absorbed by firm
    Court reporter fees (4 depositions)Recovered
    Travel expenses (Harrison trial)Recovered
    Service of process (7 matters)Recovered
    Expenses recovered this month$14,280

    We find the billable expenses your firm advanced but never billed back to clients.

    Filing fees, expert costs, research charges, court reporters, service of process. Your attorneys advance these expenses every week. But if your bookkeeper does not track them against each matter inside your billing software, they quietly become firm losses.

    We set up proper expense tracking from day one by working directly inside your practice management system. Every advanced cost is tagged to the right matter and flagged for billing. The result: you recover revenue you were already owed but never collected.

    This is not something a general bookkeeper can do. It requires someone who understands how legal billing software classifies costs and how those costs flow into your financials.

    The Real Cost

    Hiring a bookkeeper in-house is more expensive than you think.

    Most managing partners have a number in mind around $40,000 to $45,000 a year. That was a reasonable salary five years ago. Today, that is barista pay. A bookkeeper who actually understands legal accounting, trust compliance, and your billing software will cost you $65,000 to $85,000 before benefits, taxes, and training.

    Hiring In-House

    One person. One salary. No backstop.

    $65,000 to $85,000+ salary

    If you can find someone who knows legal accounting. At $45K, you get a generalist who needs months of training on your software.

    Add 25 to 30% for benefits and taxes

    Health insurance, payroll taxes, PTO, workers comp. That $70K hire is really $90K+ when fully loaded.

    You become the trainer and the manager

    You are teaching them trust accounting rules, how to navigate Clio, and how your firm bills. That is your billable time disappearing.

    No quality control or second set of eyes

    When they make a mistake, nobody catches it until your CPA tells you the books are wrong. Then the CPA charges you to fix it.

    They leave and you start over

    Average tenure for a bookkeeper is 2 to 3 years. Then you are posting the job, interviewing, onboarding, and retraining from scratch.

    Lancaster CPA

    A trained team. Built-in process. Always covered.

    Starts at $950/month

    A dedicated CPA and accountant assigned to your firm, already trained on law firm accounting and your specific software platform.

    No benefits, no overhead, no HR

    You pay a flat monthly fee. No payroll taxes, no insurance, no PTO management. The cost is predictable.

    CPA oversight built into the process

    Your books are reviewed by a licensed CPA every month. Errors get caught before they compound. Tax season is seamless because the books are already right.

    Your team never shrinks

    If someone on our side is out, coverage continues. You never lose institutional knowledge or face a gap in your financial operations.

    We already know your software

    Clio, Smokeball, LeanLaw, MyCase, Filevine. We work inside these platforms every day. No ramp-up period. No hand-holding.

    What Is Included

    Everything your firm needs. Nothing it doesn't.

    We handle the bookkeeping end to end, and we do it in a way that is purpose-built for how law firms operate.

    Monthly Bookkeeping

    Books closed every month, not once a year in a panic.

    We prepare your financial statements, bank reconciliations, and journal entries on a monthly basis. We meet with you monthly to review your firm's financial position. Clean books every month means no catch-up, no surprises, and tax-ready records year-round.

    Monthly Deliverables
    Income StatementDelivered
    Balance SheetDelivered
    Bank ReconciliationReconciled
    Trust ReconciliationReconciled
    Spending Allocation ReportDelivered
    Monthly Review MeetingScheduled
    Trust Account Administration

    IOLTA compliance with zero tolerance for gray areas.

    Client fund segregation, three-way reconciliation, and transparent trust ledger reporting. We manage trust activity with full compliance for IOLTA, IOLA, IOTA, and COLTAF requirements. Every dollar is accounted for. Every disbursement is documented.

    Trust Account Status
    Client Funds SegregatedVerified
    Three-Way ReconciliationComplete
    Trust Ledger by MatterCurrent
    IOLTA ComplianceCompliant
    Unresolved Exceptions0
    Compliance Oversight

    Catching errors before they become problems.

    We implement proactive systems to surface red flags: uncaptured billable expenses, trust accounting software errors, funds deposited into the wrong account. Your trust records align with actual money movement, clearing out the kind of mistakes that generalist bookkeepers never notice.

    Compliance Checks
    Uncaptured Billable ExpensesFlagged
    Trust Software ErrorsResolved
    Misrouted DepositsCorrected
    Revenue RecognitionAccurate
    Audit ReadinessReady
    Software Fluency

    Your billing software is the backbone of your books.

    A bookkeeper who cannot navigate your practice management system is working blind. They cannot track billable expenses by matter, reconcile trust activity, or produce financials that reflect how your firm actually operates. We work inside your platform from day one.

    75% of law firms under $10M revenue run on one of five platforms. These are the systems we work inside every day.

    Clio
    Smokeball
    LeanLaw
    MyCase
    Filevine
    QuickBooks Online
    Optional Add-On

    Ready for someone to handle all the money movement?

    When your firm outgrows basic bookkeeping and you want the financial operations fully offloaded, our Accounting and Money Movement engagement adds controller-level functions to your team. Same people. Same process. Just more scope.

    Accounts payable and vendor payments processed on your behalf

    Trust account disbursements initiated on agreed terms

    Payroll scheduling and partner compensation management

    Real-time cash flow monitoring across all firm accounts

    Billable expense evaluation: estimated vs. actually billed

    Why This Matters

    One team that owns the entire financial operation.

    Instead of a bookkeeper who does the books, a separate CPA who does the tax return, and you in the middle managing both, our engagement stacks. Bookkeeping flows into money movement. Money movement flows into tax planning. There is one team, one process, and one set of numbers everyone trusts.

    Transparent Pricing

    Less than an in-house hire. More skilled.

    Bookkeeping, trust accounting, and tax prep included.

    Our engagements with law firms typically range between:

    $950 to $10,000 / month

    depending on firm size, practice type, and whether money movement is included. Following our first call, we build a quote specific to your firm.

    • Monthly bookkeeping
    • Trust account administration
    • Tax return preparation
    • Compliance oversight
    • Dedicated CPA team
    • Monthly review meeting
    • Billable expense tracking
    • Payroll scheduling
    Client Testimonial
    "Adding Knight's services to our operations has been tremendously helpful in streamlining our accounting, bookkeeping, and financial functions. The accuracy of his team's work has been outstanding and is a huge improvement over our previous approach. Knight has enabled us to focus more on the legal work we want to be doing and essentially outsourcing what used to be accounting and financial headaches."
    Paul ZimmerManaging Partner, Zimmer & Rens LLC (8-Attorney Firm)
    Get Started

    Stop managing the books. Start managing your practice.

    Your time is worth more than reconciling bank statements and chasing down receipt classifications. We will talk about your firm, your software, and what it looks like when this is simply handled.