The Best Accounting Software for Your Law Firm

By
Glenn Tyndall, CPA, owns a Certified Public Accounting firm in Jacksonville, Fla., and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs.
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Glenn Tyndall
Updated December 12, 2019

This list of the top five law firm accounting software programs is designed to offer tools specifically for solo legal practitioners and small- to mid-sized law firms to better manage time, billing, accounting, and cases. Each offers benefits to help you manage your legal business, and you'll want to review them all to determine the one that best fits your needs in terms of features, ease of use, and pricing.

AbacusNext

A lawyer at her desk
Robert Daly/Caiaimage/Getty Images

AbacusNext is a legal practice management software for small law firms or solo legal practitioners. Some of the AbacusNext features include:

  • Legal Calendaring
  • Legal Workflow Processing
  • Time Tracking
  • Billing
  • Invoicing
  • Payroll Processing

AbacusLaw's is unique because it is customizable to be used in almost any legal specialty. While this customizations means you have a program that works the way you and your firm does, it requires time to set up. Because set up is required, AbacusLaw doesn't function as easily as other out-of-the-box legal accounting software applications.

If you're willing to invest the time in setting up AbacusLaw, you will find that the software will streamline your practice.

Bill4Time

Bill4Time is used by many small law firms to help manage billing and timekeeping, which is especially helpful in companies that track by billable hours.

There is a legal industry-specific Bill4Time that include America Bar Association (ABA) Task Codes, LEDES export for invoices, and conflict of interest checking. This law-firm edition also includes some trust accounting and trust reporting capabilities.

Clio

Clio is a practice management software for small law firms. With Clio, you have the ability to set up legal calendars, task management, time tracking, trust accounting, and document management capabilities for your law firm.

Clio s a cloud-based law accounting program, so you can access the software from anywhere where you have an internet connection. Clio is a legal accounting software program that is especially useful for lawyer's who are always on the road.

Legal Files

Legal Files is a case and matter management software for law firms. You can use Legal Files for case matter management, litigation management, file notes, response tracking, document text searching, automated task scheduling, and phone messaging.

LegalFiles is useful for practice management and other features, but you will likely need a stand-alone accounting software application to work with LegalFiles to meet your accounting needs. However, LegalFiles practice management features are superior to other legal accounting software programs, making it a worthwhile consideration.

PCLaw

PCLaw is a legal accounting software program from LexisNexis. PCLaw features include contact and client management, case and matter management, and many other accounting features that you will need to manage your legal practice.

LexisNexis makes other accounting modules available to you in this legal accounting software making it scalable as your practice grows, and yet still affordable if your practice is small. For example, you can add payroll processing and credit card processing to PCLaw for additional fees.