Of the many disciplines required in the back office of a law firm, what goes on in the finance function is possibly the least familiar to those running practices for the first time.
You will have the Solicitors Accounts Rules and Money Laundering Regulations to grapple with. And if you are an LLP/Ltd, then there are also requirements under the Companies Acts. If you handle Legal Aid work, then the billing processes are far from straightforward – and are completely different depending on the area of law you handle.
We know how to deal with these matters and can provide support at a fraction of the cost of bringing someone in-house to help you manage your accounting needs.
Cashiering
In your new business, you will need supplier ledgers, client ledgers, and nominal ledgers. Quite apart from knowing what this means, you have got to ensure that all your financial entries are posted – promptly – in the right place. So, let us take away the worry and:
- handle all your daily, weekly, and monthly cashiering and banking
- complete your bank reconciliations
- managing your trial balance
- pay your suppliers
- manage your expenses
- deal with your month end and year end journals; and
- if anyone has any query about anything to do with money or money laundering – let us deal with that as well.
Billing
The life blood of any business is cash in – being able to efficiently invoice for work done and ensure that the money is collected. There is a discipline to billing private work, but it is relatively straightforward compared to the processes for dealing with Legal Aid billing in Crime, Family, Mental Health etc. We can help make sense of everything, leaving you with the reassurance that your money is in the bank.
We can help you every step of the way, including:
- drafting and posting private bills and assisting with cash collection
- preparing Legal Aid bills in a range of practice areas including Crime, Family, Mental Health and others
- managing submissions of Legal Aid bills to the LAA, through the LAA Online Portal or CCMS, as required
- reconciling payments from the LAA; both through Standard/Variable Monthly Payments and ad hoc BACS receipts.