Running a small law firm requires more than just superior legal skills. At the end of the day, a law firm is a business like any other. In a market that already places intense pressure on lawyers across the profession, small firm lawyers face the additional challenge of juggling both the business and legal sides of things.
Firm Central has established itself as the small firm lawyer’s best friend. With Firm Central, Thomson Reuters gave small law firms an all-in-one, cloud-based legal practice management solution that provides the tools necessary to run a successful business while continuing to offer top-notch legal services to clients. From administrative functions to billing to revenue analytics, Firm Central offers small firms a secure, organized, and efficient way to manage law firm business.
Now, Thomson Reuters is raising the bar even further by integrating business accounting tools into Firm Central’s already superior suite of products. It’s no secret that lawyers historically aren’t the best accountants. That’s why third-party accounting software is so popular. But despite the conveniences they offer, these outside programs still require software integrations and switching between multiple platforms.
With Firm Central’s new accounting module, you can forget all that. If you already use Firm Central (and you should), you can now automatically access crucial accounting tools from within the practice management platform you already use every day.
Admin Simplified
Firm Central has always eased small firm administrative burdens. Now it makes admin even easier by integrating with accounting right in the Firm Central platform.
Using outside accounting software requires you to duplicate and transfer information between systems, which can be an administrative nightmare. With Firm Central’s new accounting features, you can manage your books directly through your existing system, with no outside subscriptions, programs, or apps.
Firm Central simplifies your administrative duties through a concept called auto-posting. You simply set your accounting defaults once, and they automatically run in the background going forward. That means that all your crucial functions, like accounts receivable, accounts payable, expenses, taxes, discounts, and write-offs, will be triggered and updated any time you input a new invoice or make or receive a new payment.
Auto-posting makes the admin side of accounting a breeze. The only thing easier might be to give an outside accountant direct access to your system – and Firm Central lets you do that, too. If you want to focus on practicing law and not even think about accounting, simply send your accountant an email invitation with a link where they can register and gain access to the features of your system they need to manage your books (but not your sensitive information or client documents). You always remain in control and can grant or revoke accountant access at any time.
Firm Central similarly allows you to set permissions and limit internal access to sensitive information. After all, not all employees need to see your big picture financial information or have the ability to print checks.
Basically, if there’s a way to simplify accounting admin, Firm Central has thought of it.
All the Accounting Tools You’ll Ever Need
Firm Central has always excelled at taking the burden out of firm administration, but their new accounting features open up a whole new world of possibilities. From a designated Accounting tab in your Firm Central platform, you can now perform all the tasks you used to perform in third-party software.
On the accounts receivable side of things, Firm Central allows you to handle crucial functions like applying payments to specific invoices or across clients, submitting write-offs, voiding invoices, and applying credits. Because the accounting system is built to function hand-in-hand with your practice management system, it runs in the background, automatically performing these accounting tasks without you even having to think about it.
The new Firm Central similarly streamlines accounts payable, helping you to go paperless in the process. Bills from vendors, credit notes, and other payments due can be paid directly from your Accounting tab. The system lets you see your payables and sort them by total outstanding or what’s due within a certain time frame (the next 30 days, the next 60 days, etc.). Inputting new bills is as easy as dragging and dropping files from your desktop. Better yet, Firm Central automatically calculates due dates based on the date a bill was received and the payment terms specified. An internal calculator checks your math and won’t let you save input errors. To complete the picture, bills can be linked to matters so they can automatically become invoices that are billed to clients. It’s hard to imagine an easier or quicker way to handle payments.
Beyond your critical accounts payable and receivable functions, Firm Central incorporates a number of additional features that offer the most streamlined approach to accounting imaginable.
- Chart of Accounts: This handy feature gives you a list of all your general ledger accounts so you can always have a clear sense of your firm’s overall financial health. From this view you can record transactions, print checks, transfer money between accounts, and reconcile bank accounts. The chart allows you to drill down to a transactional level in each individual account and apply dynamic filters to get exactly the information you need, when you need it.
- Account Documents: Think of this as your centralized accounting drawer. When you migrate your accounting over from another cloud-based platform, you risk losing information. Firm Central prevents that by allowing you to drag and drop information exported from third-party software and store up to five years of accounting information in one convenient place.
- Checks: If you need a check to pay a bill or expense, you can order it directly from Firm Central and print it. Now you can quickly cut professional-looking checks with zero hassle.
- Reporting: Firm Central allows you to run a variety of account transaction reports on a cash or accrual basis, tailored to your desired date range, complete with your company logo and firm information.
On top of all that, new features are always being added or improved. When you add accounting to your Firm Central subscription, you get access to all of the features, right alongside the matter management and time and billing functions you’ve come to know and love.
It was hard to imagine that Firm Central could make running a small firm any easier, but they managed to do it. Try Firm Central with accounting today, and you’ll never look at accounting the same way again.