Law Firm Accounting Software

Thanatos

So, I work for a medium-sized law firm (five partners, eight associates), and the accounting software we're using is getting to the point where it needs to be upgraded.

The biggie is going to be our accounting software: currently we're using Juris, which is an old law firm accounting software ported over from DOS (and you can definitely tell it was ported over from DOS) that was bought by LexisNexis a couple years ago and is being phased out. We'd be looking for something relatively inexpensive, as user-friendly as possible, and that allows for electronic submission of attorney timesheets (i.e. ".5 billable hours for case X, 1.25 billable hours for case Y," etc.). I've heard that Quickbooks is a decent way to go, but I'm wondering if it has that sort of functionality, and if anyone has used it in a legal environment, or if there is some form of specialized legal accounting software that would be better? What about Microsoft Money, anything worthwhile there?

scrivenerjones

Zero reason to use anything besides QuickBooks. It has all the functionality you need and everyone uses it, so if you have to turn over your books to an outside auditor, or train new people to use it, everything will go extremely smoothly.

Edit: The other one that people use is Abacus but I've never used it and it's probably expensive... who knows!!

Thanatos

For something like this, am I okay to get Pro, or will Premium be better? Any ideas as to where the best place to get it from is? We already go through CDW for a lot of stuff; is it going to be the same price pretty much everywhere?

kaliyama

Thanatos, the smaller places I've pro bonoed with use quickbooks with little problem and they do cases which require claiming attys fees. The firm I'm at uses prof.
timekeeping software. I'm sure quickbooks is fine though no comment as to pro or premium. When I was in IT we used CDW regularly and found it was mostly cheaper. Does quicken sell site licenses directly? I'd consider talking to b2b. Sales at a big box retailer too.

Lail

You can download Quickbooks for free:
http://quickbooks.intuit.ca/accounting-software/quickbooks-easystart-free.jsp

Most of the options aren't usable, but it should at least give you an idea of how it runs.

The website also lists all the versions and add-ons and stuff.

Thanatos

Anyone fucked around with Oracle at all? According to one of the accounting people at my office, it's what everyone is using these days.

firewaterword

We use QuickBooks for out legal billing, and as far as I know, it's great. I don't have direct experience with the program, but I can say that Intuit is a great company to deal with as far as updates, tech support, et cetera goes.

Tron

Are you looking for a whole hog accounting system or just for a billings/invoice/payroll system? Cause if they main issue is tracking hours worked, Timeslips is pretty good. I work at an audit firm, but we work the same way.

The software package you would want depends greatly on what costs you have to monitor. If your legal payroll/billings is the primary expense and revenue, with the others, such as rent, non-legal payroll being some what fixed, there is no reason to get some big assed corporate sized software package.

For example, if this is the only thing you are keeping track of, Timeslips might be the way to go:

Client
Service Performed
Hours worked
Rate
Billable time
Unbillable time

And it works by each user can have it at their desk and they submit the time to the database. Voila. It also generates reports so the partners can ride the staffs ass for not clocking 60 hours during busy season.

Wulf

Might want to give Account Edge a try as well. It's what we use at the company and it's got the capacity for remote clients and is pretty customizable for different commodities/rates. I think they have a free trial too, just to give you other options.

Mr Blonde

I work in a small firm and 2nd Timeslips. Just don't get last year's version, it was very buggy. 2009 works well, and I imagine 2010 will too.

TL DR

I've worked with a law firm that uses Amicus and they seem to like it. Syncs with Outlook calendar and email, allows timekeeping and intra-office communication/collaboration, and stores data on a central server.