Customizing LeanLaw + QuickBooks Online for the Midsize Law Firm
We’ve had questions from law office administrators at midsize law firms about LeanLaw software. They want to know:
- How does LeanLaw handle the practice management workflows?
- Does QuickBooks Online Advanced really work for midsize law firms? Is it really the right tool?
- Can LeanLaw solve my compensation, tracking, and reporting needs?
If these questions resonate with you, keep reading.
LeanLaw and Practice Management Software
In larger law firms, most practice management tools overreach: meaning, they can’t do everything well. They have one or two great workflows and the rest are adequate and most often, underutilized.
All-in-one practice management often falls short in other areas – like legal finances, billing, and document management. That’s why we’re recommending a 3-prong software solution.
- LeanLaw for your legal financial platform
- Epona for document management
- An open, modern accounting system, like QuickBooks Online
Integrated accounting systems tend to be closed, lack automation, and are limited as to who knows how to operate them. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Advanced are industry standards, have advanced reporting and budgeting, and a host of apps and integrations that make it more robust than a closed, integrated accounting tool.
LeanLaw remains true to best-in-breed software. Since we focus on the financial workflow, we excel in automated financial reporting, invoicing, and integration with QuickBooks Online.
We encourage the law firms we work with to integrate other best-in-breed software – we call it building a Tech Stack. Most new technology has the ability to integrate with other software, so why use something that’s not the best just because it comes in a bundle? There might be a little extra work to set up the integration, but you will have more success in the long run.
Toward that end, LeanLaw created a partnership with Epona, a document management software. In our experience, document management is the most important workflow outside of finance. We have other software applications that we can recommend, depending on your needs. Please ask about these solutions when you schedule a demo.
QuickBooks Online and the Law Firm
Is QuickBooks really the right software for a law firm?
QuickBooks Online by itself? No.
QuickBooks with the add-on of LeanLaw – for sure and let’s get into why and why LeanLaw turns QuickBooks Online into boutique software for law firms.
If you think of QuickBooks Online as a platform, like iTunes, where you shop around for apps for the functions and features you need, you’ll have a new perspective that you can use to your advantage. Intuit relies on best of breed apps to fill in the gaps as QuickBooks Online is not full-featured for all industries.
Intuit developed QuickBooks Online Advanced specifically targeted for midsize companies. The cherry on top is that LeanLaw customizes QuickBooks Online for law firms. LeanLaw plugs in legal-specific features to harness the power of the QuickBooks engine. With QuickBooks and LeanLaw, you can:
- Track billable hours by client, case, or employee to dial in billable time.
- Configure roles to delegate work to the right people.
- Unlock data transparency so your team can make informed decisions and focus on higher value work.
This means that law firms have boutique-like software for a fraction of the cost. And LeanLaw is super simple to use with must-have law firm features like trust accounting, attorney compensation reporting, and client/matter invoicing, just to name a few. The law firm users work in LeanLaw while the accounting folks work in QuickBooks — everyone looks at the same data in real time with QuickBooks as the source of truth.
Compensation Tracking and Reporting in LeanLaw
LeanLaw has automated reporting so that once it’s set up, you don’t have to ask someone else to get the data for you. It’s available in real time.
Three Ways to Track Attorney Compensation
- LeanLaw’s automated compensation report – live in real time, connected to QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payments
- Running your own custom reports using the underlying data and building them into your own Excel reports
- Building full P&Ls by partner or responsible attorney and using QuickBooks’ internal tools, custom form fields, and/or classing
LeanLaw extends QuickBooks Online reporting data, giving law firms a more accurate, real-time and accessible picture of the law practice:
- How much billed
- How much collected
- Trust balance
- Clients reports
- Timekeeper reports
- Attorney compensation reports
- Originating attorney hours and more
If you have additional questions about how to integrate LeanLaw software into your law practice, contact us or schedule a demo.
