Accounting
Xero cannot tell you which fee earner made money this month.
It was built for businesses that sell things. A law firm earns in units, spends on behalf of clients, holds other people’s money, and answers to a regulator for all three.
Why it is different
A law firm does not earn like a business that sells things.
You earn in units
Time, not invoices raised at the point of sale. Work in progress is an asset your general ledger should know about.
You spend on behalf of clients
Disbursements carry GST per line and have to be recovered against the right matter, not absorbed into overheads.
You hold other people’s money
Trust is not a bank account with a label on it. It is a regulated ledger that an auditor will read line by line.
Against the obvious alternative
Xero and MYOB were not built for law firms.
General ledger packages do a good job of general business. LAPM Accounting is built around how a law firm actually earns, spends and reports.
| LAPM Accounting | Xero or MYOB | |
|---|---|---|
| Per-line GST on disbursements and cost recovery | Built in | Manual workaround |
| P&L by fee earner, branch, marketing spend, area of law, seniority, departments and billing type | Built in, unlimited categories | Limited to two tracking categories only |
| A chart of accounts built for a law firm | Supplied, or import yours from Xero with its history | Build it yourself |
| Payroll on the Legal Services Award | Optional module | Generic award payroll |
| Three-way reconciliation of statement, journal and GL balance | Built in, with variance drill-down | Bank reconciliation only |
| Posted journals that cannot be deleted | Voiding leaves a reversal, so the ledger never breaks | Editable, subject to lock dates |
| Full audit trail and re-instatement | Re-instate anything | Removing is permanent, with no audit trail |
Already on Xero? Bring your chart of accounts across with its history, rather than starting again.
How it works
From bank statement to board report.
- Bring the data in
CSV import with column detection and duplicate protection, or import your existing Xero chart of accounts with its history.
- Reconcile three ways
Statement, journal and GL balance matched to the cent, with variance drill-down when they disagree.
- Bill and recover
Invoices, disbursements with per-line GST, and debtors tracked against the matter that incurred them.
- Report on it
P&L by fee earner, branch, area of law, seniority or billing type — unlimited categories, filtered and drilled into.
Pricing
$75 per user / month. Payroll optional at $20 per employee / month. No lock-in contract.
Bring us your trial balance.
We will show you the same numbers in LAPM Accounting, and what your current system is not telling you about where the money is made.