Bookkeeping for solo lawyer

[hollyAccountingSPOT]

Hi there,
I have a lawyer client that I do bookkeeping for. I am having a hard time finding an accounting program that will properly (and efficiently) track the trust accounts/funds as well as their business income and expenses.

I am currently using Time:59 to invoice and track receivables and trust balances. Then I use QuickBooks to track the business transactions, and plug in the balances from Time:59. This just seems so inefficient. I'd LOVE to find an accounting program geared toward small legal firms.

Any ideas or thoughts at all?
Thank you!
Holly

[bbSquire]

First off I have no legal experience whatsoever.

But I have noticed that there is a VA Paralegal forum that might be of help. If someone there dooesn't know what program to use they might be able to ask the people who do the bookkeeping for their clients.

Kim.

[hollyAccountingSPOT]

Hi Kim,
Ha! I actually meant to post this in the paralegal forum Thanks for the heads up. I'll post it over there as well.
Thank you!
Holly

[Office Goddess]

I use QuickBooks to track retainer accounts as follows:

Create sales receipt
Customer job
item: retainer ($ received from client)

Record deposit to retainer bank account

When work is completed
Create invoice
Customer Job
item: actual expense
Item: retainer (- $ earned from client)

The invoice will show as paid and the funds will be removed from the retainer liability account. If you use a separate retainer bank account, you will need to transfer the funds from the retainer bank account to the operating bank account and make a g/l entry to record the transfer.