What is WIP for a law firm?
A Work in Progress (WIP) report is the amount of time a lawyer has worked, the value of that time, and expenses that have been executed, but not invoiced. WIP goes beyond what you expect to bill. It’s an asset that can be used to establish loans or insurance. A Work in Progress report is an important part of any law practice, no matter the size.
Beware of Under Investing in Technology in Your Mid-Size Law Firm
What is the purpose of WIP?
The WIP report is a way to add value for the law firm. When the attorneys understand the current metrics of profitability and cash flow, they can make more informed decisions directed toward the operational workflow.
Attorneys can understand what to expect financially in terms of:
- Accounts receivable
- Unbilled time for legal services
- Which law firm clients have an outstanding billables
- Which practice area is billing how much time.
They can also communicate with law firm clients what is in the queue for them. With these tools, the legal accounting software — LeanLaw — becomes a source of data transparency for the law firm.
How LeanLaw Works with WIP
WIP is an integral part of LeanLaw’s legal tech benefits, and we’ve simplified it so that your financials are accessible and visible in one place.
Using LeanLaw’s WIP report, you can look at each client’s receivable balances, recent payments, and funds held in trust all on one page. This allows you to access real-time, cloud-based data about where your money is going, where it is located, and who owes you what. Best of all, it’s always in sync with QuickBooks Online.
Billing Guidelines for Law Firms
You can use the Ready to Bill report to help understand where their practice stands at any given moment. Easily accessed and downloaded to Excel, you have the opportunity to report on cash flow, client’s receivables, trust accounting to WIP ratios, and any significant payments made to the firm.
Best-In-Breed vs. Legal Practice Management Software
Instead of practice management software, best-in-breed legal tech software can be stitched together to make every workflow in your law firm be the best it can be. The total cost is comparable, especially considering you would be using all the software you pay for. Most often, practice management software has two (at most) great features and the rest are just so-so.
Find out which software in addition to QuickBooks and LeanLaw would work for you.
Schedule Demo
Published by
The LeanLaw Team
The LeanLaw Team is the legal-finance content team behind LeanLaw — the billing, trust accounting, and revenue-reporting platform built natively on QuickBooks Online. Drawing on years of work alongside law firms and the accountants who serve them, the team writes about trust accounting, IOLTA compliance, legal billing, and law-firm financial operations. LeanLaw is a QuickBooks Online Premium App Partner.