The trend for web-based applications is to be 'self-taught'. Although legal accounting, and especially trust accounting, can be complex, LawPracticeZA has, together with an intuitive interface, incorporated many controls and automation to make this process as simple and error-free as possible.
This interactive aid is provided to assist with achieving self-sufficiency as quickly and painlessly as possible. Accurate and up-to-date trust accounts are critical, but for a successful practice, Matter Management and Billing with integrated business and trust accounting is also extremely important. Good legal bookkeepers are in short supply, and LawPracticeZA is an application that encapsulates much of the expertise required.
LawPracticeZA is your 24/7 expert assistant in helping you run your law firm efficiently and effectively. This aid is based on a mind-map, where you can expand or collapse branches to expose your areas of interest. Move the mouse pointer over a heading to display brief help on the subject (like this), and click to load the module, or a YouTube video, where appropriate.
This is a living document that is updated as new features and functionality is added to LawPracticeZA. Visit often.
The most common method for adding a client is by clicking the icon in the LawPracticeZA header.
Every Matter is linked to a client, so a new client must be added before a new Matter for the client can be added. There can be multiple Matters linked to the same client.
The postal address on the client is the address used on Invoices and Statements to the Client.
The client can also be used to indicate a transaction. For example, in a property transfer, the 'client' would be the transaction (e.g. sale of EFT 123 Newlands by A to B), with two Matters linked, one for the Buyer and another for the Seller.
The most common method for adding a Matter is by clicking the icon in the LawPracticeZA header.
Every Matter is linked to a client, so a new client must be added before a new Matter for the client can be added. There can be multiple Matters linked to the same client.
The mandatory fields on a Matter are: -
Other important fields
When you login, the dashboard provides a convenient method to quickly access your most common and important functions and information.
The Pie Chart represents all Matters, grouped by due, overdue or due sometime in the future. Click on the appropriate segment to load a list of Matters. From the list, you can select a Matter by clicking on its name.
Fees recorded will show all the fees captured for the current and previous month (whether invoiced or not), by day in a graph, against your target (if set).
Held in Trust produces a client aged analysis. The relevance of providing this information is that monies in trust can have a significant impact on cash flow.
Unsent invoices produces a list of all invoices that have been generated but not emailed by the system (or emailed manually and marked as being sent). Click on the invoice number to load the invoice, where there are various options, including the option to email.
Draft Invoice items produces a summary of all your Matters that contain one or more unbilled fee and/or pending disbursement (WIP), with options to email proforma invoices and/or process and email invoices to all or selected matters displayed.
If your database still contains sample data from Getting Started, there is an option to clear this sample data. Once cleared, the option disappears.
Clients to receive Statements displays clients who have been marked to receive a statement, but a statement has not been emailed to them during the past month.
Provides links to user guides and news on LawPracticeZA
By default the calendar will show all your Matters diarised for the current month, in the Month view.
Each Matter is displayed in a coloured box; rest the mouse cursor on calendar note and the full details are displayed.
You can drag any Matter to a different date.
You can also mark an entry as complete by clicking the tick-sign (it becomes a double-click); click again to make it active again.
The time sheet reflects all fees captured during the day.
Time-based entries are displayed in the daily calendar at the appropriate time. For example, if you captured a fee at 14h00 with a duration of 90 minutes, the entry will fill the slot 14h00 to 15h30.
Any unitary fees are displayed at the top of the page.
Fees are normally captured by selecting the Matter, and capturing the fee.
This option has been provided to capture fees without first loading the Matter; you add a fee and complete the fields - filter and select the Matter, the posting code and complete the narration. If a time-based posting code
Click OK (tick) and the entry is recorded against the Matter (and as an unbilled entry can be modified or deleted). To cancel the entry, click the trash bin.
The option is provided for both Fee earners and Bookkeepers, and is used to record monies received by client, whether into trust or business.
Options are provided for different methods of payment (e.g. Cheques and Cash), although EFT is the predominant method of payment.
LawPracticZA provides a number of tariff bundles, for example, Magistrates Court Tariffs - Defended, High Court Tariffs and Legal Wise Labour matters, to name a few.
New bundles may periodically be added.
This option enables you to add a set of tariffs to your system.
Importantly, the bundle name corresponds to the Department on the Matter. Once a bundle has been added, the bundle name will appear in the Department drop-list on the Matter. Selecting a department will make the tariff items in the bundle available when capturing fees to the Matter.
There are several methods for finding a Matter, the most common being the magnifying-glass icon in the LawPracticeZA header.
Type part of the client name or matters description (or matter code) and a list of matters is displayed with matches or near matches, the most likely candidate at the top of the list.
Select the Matter you are looking for.
A selected Matter has the following sections: -
The client and matter details are displayed, with a number of options
Scroll down to capture time-based or unitary fees, or disbursements.
More detail below.
Scroll down further to view transactions, as well as process unbilled (WIP) fees and disbursements captured.
More details below.
After selecting a Matter, you can scroll down to Fee Capture to record an unbilled fee or pending disbursement against a Matter. Remember that a disbursement is both a 'purchase' and a 'sale'; we process the 'sale' here, the 'purchase' is processed by capturing the suppliers invoice.
If the Fee Level on the Matter has a time-based setting (e.g. Standard or High) the time-based posting codes will be available for selection. If the Fee level on the Matter is set to A (or B, C or D), the unitary setting will be the default, with the unitary set of posting codes available for selection under activity.
To capture a disbursement (e.g. an Advocates account) select Disbursement, and disbursement codes are displayed. The selected code becomes the narration default, which can be changed / extended.
Unitary fees and disbursements have a unit and rate. For example
If the Matters Department is set to a 'Tariff bundle', the related Posting Codes will be included in the list for selection. If a tariff / scale is applicable, this will be loaded automatically as the rate.
Matter can include multiple diary entries; a matter can be assign to self or another.
On a diary date, the Matter will appear as due in the assignee's diary (Pie Chart Due), It will also appear as due in the Assignor's diary.
When a diary entry is made, it must contain a note, which is displayed together with the diary entry.
For example, a lawyer could assign a diary entry to his or her secretary for Wednesday to collate documents for a court appearance on Friday, and a diary entry for self for the court appearance on Friday.
There are various places where a diary entry is highlighted and shown
When receiving a payment from a client, the receipt can be deposited into either the business or trust bank account, updating the Matters business or trust balance accordingly.
If the amount received from the client is larger than the Business Balance on the Matter (including if there is no business balance) then the full amount of the receipt must be deposited into a Trust Bank account.
If the receipt from the client is for work already done and invoiced (i.e. the business balance is equal to or larger than the amount received), the receipt should be deposited into the business bank account.
Whether the payment received is in the form of a Check or Cash, via a Credit Card or EFT, will influence how it is processed. See Banks and Payment Methods for a full explanation of this.
Where trust monies are paid to a third party on behalf of the client, a trust payment is posted against the matter.
Obviously the amount of the payment (or more) must be in credit on the clients Matter; if not, this will cause the clients Matter to go into trust debit and a negative transfer to take place.
There are rare occasions where a firm will make a business payment on behalf of a client, for example, in a property transactions were rates must be paid urgently and the money has not been received from the client. Another example may be at court, to pay for some photocopies on behalf of the client.
When a supplier provides a service, they submit an invoice, which is processed here.
Until the supplier is paid, the amount of the invoice will be included as accounts payable.
As VAT is derived from invoices, it is important to accurately record suppliers invoices where VAT is involved. This includes for supplies such as telephone accounts and rent, even bank charges, were traditionally these might be posted straight from the bank / cash book.
LawPracticeZA accommodates the above type of transaction by including an option 'Paid immediately' on the suppliers invoice posting, so that the correct transactions are posted, without double work. A 'Cash Creditor' can be used for these type of transactions.
Also note that invoices from Advocates and others that are disbursed, are a 'purchase' as well as a 'sale', so must be captured as a supplied, as well as be posted against the client as a disbursement.
Supplier invoices increase the amount owed to suppliers, whereas a payment to the supplier reduces the outstanding amount owing.
Business receipts are used to post receipts into the business bank where the account affected is a general ledger account.
An example is where a partner pays money into the firm, affecting his or her capital account.
Business payment are for payments from the Business Bank account where a supplier is not involved; for example, paying SARS for VAT or Tax, or a partner a share of profit (Capital account)
When an investment is made on behalf of a client and posted, LawPracticeZA automatically creates a Section 78(2A) account for the clients matter.
When an investment is made on behalf of a client, their trust funds are withdrawn and deposited into an individual Section 78(2A) account, in their name.
This module records the account transactions.
For investments, the information required is the Matter and from which trust bank the funds to invest are to be withdrawn.
LawPracticeZA automatically
When an investment is withdrawn, the opposite posting occurs (the Section 78(2A) account for the Matter obviously exists and is not created)
When interest is earned on a clients Section 78(2A) investment, the bank notifies the law firm and the interest is posted here (automatically updating the investment account and the clients investment balance).
For bank charges, post a negative amount (e.g. enter -35.60) and the same accounts are updated, in reverse.
An automatic trust transfer is where LawPracticeZA interrogates every matter to establish whether there are trust fund available on the account (trust less reserve trust) and where there is a business balance (the client has been invoiced for work done) on the Matter, making an amount identifiable and available to transfer.
Where there is a trust credit (which is not reserved) and a business debit, the program posts a credit to business and debit to trust for an amount equal to the lessor of the two, or the amount if equal.
All such transferable amounts are accumulated and update the system 'Trust Transfer Control Matter' with the total, as a credit in trust and a debit in business. This Matter acts as a proxy for the trust creditors and business debtors until the trust payment and business receipts are processed respectively.
A report is produced reflecting the transferable amounts, with the total that is available for transfer. The totals are split by trust bank (determined by which bank received the funds). If a Matter has multiple receipts, from different banks, these amounts will be reflected under 'Mixed'.
The transfer is completed by
The Bank Record lets you select a Bank and a period, then provides options for
With the first option, unreconciled entries in the selected bank will be displayed with a red block. Click to reconcile - changes to green.
With the second option, all items for the selected period are displayed; green block if reconciled, red if not. Click to toggle; i.e. you can change an item marked as reconciled (green) to unreconciled (red).
Note that Reconzilla (details below) provides the ability to import bank statements, where LawPracticeZA looks for and presents matches, making reconciliation very quick and easy.
Where the payment method for receipts is EFT / direct deposits, the bank is updated immediately, so there is no need for a bank transfer, as is necessary for Cheques and Cash or Credit Cards.
When cheques and cash are received, they are first stored in the office before being deposited at the bank.
Whether one or more payments are received, the deposit on the bank statement reflects as one amount.
For this reason, these type of receipts are posted to the Trust or Business In-house Bank, and when deposited, the total is transferred to the appropriate bank.
The Bank transfer is used to record the transfer of cash from the Business Bank to Petty Cash, which is also considered a 'Bank' in LawPracticeZA (and can be reconciled like any other bank).
When credit card payments are received, they are not immediately reflected in the Bank account, but only reflected when periodically posted in bulk by the bank.
For this reason, these type of receipts are posted to the Trust or Business Merchant Bank, and when transferred by the bank, the total is posted to the appropriate bank by a Bank Transfer, from the Merchant Bank (clearing the Merchant Bank) to the Bank account.
Journal entries can only be between Matters and Matters, Suppliers and Suppliers or General Ledger and General Ledger accounts.
For Matters, journal entries can only be between Business and Business, Trust and Trust or Investment and Investment.
Journals can debit one supplier and credit another.
General Ledger can be posted between business and business - all normal General Ledger accounts - or between Trust and Trust, typically Trust Bank accounts.
Auditors years-end adjustments are typically journals between assets and liabilities (Balance Dheet accounts).
Provides a list of all General Ledger accounts, with the option to add a new account, or update an account.
Although trust banks are not part the the firms General Ledger, they are included here to also enable maintenance of these accounts.
Suppliers are Advocates, Sheriffs and Expert witnesses (disbursements) as well as office suppliers, such as Walton's.
You can also create a Cash / COD supplier for immediate payments, such as the telephone accounts and bank charges (where a suppliers invoice is still required to be posted if VAT applies, but where immediate payment can be recorded at the time of posting the suppliers invoice).
Department can be used to assign Matters to a department, or assign expenses to a department.
Departments are most commonly used in Matters to assign tariff bundles (see below).
If a department selected is from a tariff bundle (e.g. 'Conveyancing' or 'Mag Court 2017 Defended' then, when capturing a Unitary Fee for the Matter, the posting codes included in the tariff bundle will be available for selection under Activity.
Posting codes can be time-based (Fee / time), Unitary (fee / qty) or Disbursements (disbursement / qty).
When capturing fees or disbursements, selecting Fee, Unitary or Disbursement will provide a list of the corresponding posting codes for selection.
If the Fee level on the Matter is set to Standard, High, Low or Subsidised, Fee Capture will default to time, else Unitary (A or B, C or D).
Generic codes are posting codes without a department.
Generic codes are included in all lists of posting codes, including where a tariff bundle has been selected for the matter under department.
Tariff bundles are groups of tariffs that are common to a specific type of matter; e.g. a Conveyancing matter, a Magistrates Court or a High Court Matter.
Selecting the tariff bundle as the Department causes these codes to be included in the posting codes available for selection; items will include the tariff / scale, if applicable. The Fee level determines the scale (if any): if only a singe tariff, A, else can be set to B, C or D for the appropriate scale.
Produces a list of clients, which can be filtered.
Options to Add a new Client or update and existing client: click the three vertical arrows next to the client and Update. If a client has no linked Matters, you can also delete a client.
View Expired for a list of clients that have been deleted.
Produces a list of Matters, which can be filtered.
Options to Add a new Matter or update and existing Matter: click the three vertical arrows next to the Matter and Update.
View Expired for a list of archived Matters. Note that to archive a Matter, click on the Matter and once loaded, the archive icon (top right on Matter).
To restore a Matter from archived, View Expired, click on the Matter and the Unarchive Matter icon in the top right corner.
Creating a Bank (Business or Trust) will automatically create a linked account in the General Ledger.
Apart from the regular bank accounts, an In-house Business and an In-house Trust account is used to store business and trust cheques and cash, respectively, before being deposited. Once deposited, the transaction is recorded by transferring the amount deposited from the in-house bank (reducing it to zero) to the Bank account.
Receipt methods link to bank accounts, and are displayed for selection (Business or Trust) when posting Receipts, etc.
Receipt methods include Cheques and Cash, EFT and Credit Cards.
Receipt Methods, in conjunction with Banks, allow for the various methods of managing different types of payment received; whether directly into the bank (EFT), stored in-house prior to deposit (Cheques and Cash) or recorded prior to transfer by the bank into the bank account (Credit Card receipts). The Bank Transfer module is used in conjunction with the latter (i.e. all except EFT, which are immediately debited to the bank).
Although there is a manual Bank Recon module, Reconzilla deals with imported bank statement, automatically matching against the firms corresponding Bank account, where possible.
As different banks have different formats, a Bank template is selected and the csv (or spreadsheet) file downloaded from the bank is selected.
Produces a list of all General Ledger accounts, with transactions, for the selected period.
Any transactions prior to the 'from' date in the selection are reflected as a Brought Forward balance.
The report can be exported to a PDF document or a Spreadsheet (Excel).
Everything posted to LawPracticeZA, whether automatically (accounting transactions when generating an invoice) or manually (a receipt or journal entry) is recorded in the audit trail.
The audit trail can be generated for a selected period, the default being from the 1st of the current month to the current date.
All transactions posted in LawPracticeZA are double-sided, so the running balance always returns to zero.
Various types of transactions can be viewed; by default, all accounting transactions are displayed.
A filter (search) option allows you to find transactions based on matches in the transactions, whether amount or type of transaction, or even a matter name.
The bank recon report provides a summary of the selected banks balance with unreconciled (to the bank statement) transactions, with a calculated balance that should reconcile with the bank statement for the selected period.
Client Statement will produce a financial statement for the client reflecting all Matters with a balance or movement for the selected period. If the 'to' date is left blank, it will be to the current date.
The statement can be for all or selected Matters.
A summary of the statement is shown, with options to create a PDF (with or without page breaks between Matters), Send (email as PDF attachment to Matter email address) Statements and hide reversals (e.g. if an error had been corrected by reversing the entry).
Statements show transactions in three sections; Business, Trust and Section 78(2A). This makes it clear for clients to see the movement and what they owe, what is held in trust on their behalf and what is invested on their behalf.
Produces a list of all Clients Matters transactions, for the selected period.
The report can be exported to a PDF document or a Spreadsheet (Excel).
Provides a report on all transactions for the selected Matter, Supplier or General Ledger account, for the selected period, with the sum of transactions preceeding the 'from' date shown as Brought Forward, and a graph of the movement and balances over the selected period.
Transactions for the selected Matter with running balance for Business, Trust and Investment for the selected period.
The different sections are only shown if there are corresponding transactions (i.e. business / trust / investment).
Transactions for the selected supplier with running balance for the selected period.
Transactions with running balance.
For every trust transfer with updating, a report is generated.
All reports are listed in chronological order, with the most recent first.
Click on the three vertical arrows to select PDF; the report can then be viewed, printed or emailed.
Produces either a PDF or Spreadsheet with three tabs; Matters, Trust Banks and 78(2A) investments.
The first tab includes a list of all Clients with Matters with either a Trust and/or Investment balance, with totals.
A list of Trust banks with balances and a total. The total equals the total of the trust column in the first tab; i.e. clients matters trust.
A list of each, individual trust investment. The total equals the total of the investment column in the first tab; i.e. clients matters investment total.
A list of all clients matters business balances, aged from current to 120 days.
Trust and investment balances are also shown.
A list of all suppliers with balances, aged from current to 120 days.
Click on the Supplier name and the statement details are loaded.
Where a billing target has been set for a fee earner, the fee earner is included in this report, showing, for the selected period, the monthly target, total unbillled, total billed and shortfall / excess.
Produces a report of ALL unbilled fees and disbursements, which can be exported to a PDF report or spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet export has been optimised for producing a Pivot table, to enable a firm to analyse there WIP in a variety of ways; by fees outstanding by Fee Earners, by month, by Client, by Matter, or in a variety of other ways - with drag and drop.
Produces a report of invoiced fees and disbursements for the selected period, which can be exported to a PDF report or spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet export has been optimised for producing a Pivot table, to enable a firm to analyse there invoices in a variety of ways; by fees invoiced by Fee Earners, by month, by Client, by Matter, or in a variety of other ways - with drag and drop.
Produces a VAT 201 report for the selected period (based on the firm settings of Odd or Even months), with all figures completed.
The download option generates a spreadsheet with all the detailed VAT transactions (In and Out), categorised and with totals that correspond with the 201 report.
Generates a spreadsheet with three tabs; Trial Balance, Income and Expense and Balance sheet.
Each account is assigned to one or more category, which is customisable.
List every General Ledger account (including Debtors Control with is a system account representing the Matter Ledger balances) and Creditors control which is s system account representing all suppliers balances.
Separate columns for Business, Trust and Investments, with totals for each column zero.
All income and expense accounts, with the total representing profit or loss.
All Assets and Liabilities (and Owners Equity, depending on how the account categories have been configured).
Categories are used to group like accounts in financial reports.
Examples of categories are Assets and Liabilities (Balance Sheet) and Income and Expense (Income and Expense report).
Categories can have sub categories - e.g. Current Assets is a sub category of Assets.
Categories can be added either at the top level (e.g. Assets) or as a sub-category (e.g. Current Assets).
Top level categories (Assets) have no parent, whereas a sub-category (Current Assets) have a parent, in this instance Assets. There can be multiple levels.
Categories also have a sequence to determine the order in which they should appear in a financial report.
A document is presented with General Ledger accounts in the current structure, with an explanation, for arranging the categories.
As explained in the document, accounts need to be indented 4 spaces under a category. Cut and paste can be used to move accounts around.
Note that the categories must exist (see adding new categories above) before they can be structured using this tool.
This option produces a list of all clients Matters where there are one or more unbilled fee and/or disbursement.
Clients and their Matters are selected where the option on the client for Send Statement has been selected.
Selections can be changed: if changed on the client, will change all the clients matters. Alternatively, selective matters can have their selection changed.
Click SEND PROFORMA to email proforma invoices as PDF attachments to all selected Matters, or SEND INVOICES to generate and email invoices as PDF attachments to all selected Matters.
The email address used is the Accounts email address in the Matter. If there is no valid address, Accounts Email Not Set will appear in the email address column
This option produces a list of all clients Matters with a balance or transactions recorded during the month.
Clients and their Matters are selected where the option on the client for Send Statement has been selected.
Selections can be changed: if changed on the client, will change all the clients matters. Alternatively, selective matters can have their selection changed.
Click SEND STATEMENT to email Statements as PDF attachments to all selected Matters.
The email address used is the Accounts email address in the Matter. If there is no valid address, Accounts Email Not Set will appear in the email address column
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LawPracticeZA does not roll balance (as in most traditional system) but maintains all transactions posted, forever.
Balances are calculated as required; period ends are achieved by simply setting a 'freeze' date, which takes a second.
The month-end freeze date would generally be set once all posting for the previous month have been concluded. The effect of this is to restrict further postings into a previous period (there is an 'Auditors' exception: see Set temporary freeze date below). Until the freeze date is set, you can post into the current or previous period.
A huge advantage is no month-end delay. Fee Earners proceed as usual, while the bookkeeper can post transactions in the new month that relate to the both the current and previous month (e.g. from the bank statement).
Administrators require special rights; usually there is only one administrator in a firms, as the administrator can do things like add or delete users, change passwords, etc.
Every user needs a login name and password.
The login name consists of the persons name or initials, a . or @, and the firms database name.
For example, andrew.abclaw or andrew@abclaw.
User can belong to different 'Zones' Everyone has General Access, whereas
Fee Earners are users, so linked to their login.
This option enables you to assigned a monthly target, which is displayed as a line on the Fees Captured graph on the dashboard, as well as in the Target report.
The fee levels are generally setup with the system, but can be expanded or modified here.
Time-based fee levels (Default unit: time) are typically Standard, High, Low, Subsidised (hourly rates).
Unitary fee levels (Default unit: qty) are typically A, B, C and D
The sequence determines the order in which they are presented for selection in the Matter Fee level drop-list.
Fee levels are used when capturing fees, to determine the appropriate rate or tariff scale to use.
Each Fee Earner can have one or more hourly rate, which are set here.
The Fee level (above) determines the number of hourly rates you wish to assign to a Fee Earner; for example, could be Standard, High, Low and Subsidised.
The Fee level can be set on a Matter. When a Fee earner captures a time-based fee on a Matter, the Fee level is the default rate for that Fee Earner for that Matter. In this way, if multiple Fee Earners work on the same Matter, their respective fee level hourly rates are consistently applied,
This is where you can add a new hourly rate for a fee earner.
If there are several hourly rates for the fee earner, each must be added; e.g. for Standard, High, etc.
Leave Fee blank and the rate will apply to all time-based fees (e.g. Taking instructions, Consultation).
Contains firm details, such as address, logo and other contact details, typically used on Invoices and Statements.
The notify email address is used when emailing clients invoices and statements automatically, as is the backup email for saving a copy of the emails sent. It is recommended a separate email address is created for this purpose, where all invoices and statements are then automatically stored.
The VAT number and flag (E for Even months, O for Odd months) determines VAT reporting.
Banking details will appear at the bottom of the invoice generated.
'Invoice show minutes' provides the option to show fraction of an hour for time based attendances, as opposed to the default, minutes (e.g. 0.2 rather than 8 minutes). Note that LawPracticeZA applies the standard for law firms; calculating time based on 6-minute (tenths of an hour) blocks, so 3 minutes and 6 minutes will both be 0.1, with a calculated charge of R150 for an hourly rate or R1,500. It is recommended that this is explained in a firms letter of engagement with their clients, together with their fee rates.
This option is only available to someone with 'Auditor' privileges.
When the final set of accounts is signed off by the auditor, often months after the financial year end, he or she will generally provide a number of journal adjustments to Balance Sheet accounts.
This option allows the temporary lifting of the 'freeze date' for an hour, i.e. to allow transactions to be posted into a previous financial period (which is normally not possible). If an hour proves insufficient, it can be reset. The reason for the 1 hour limitation is to prevent the freeze date from accidentally being left unset.
Allows you to import Matters from a spreadsheet, either for existing client/s, or where the import must also create the client. The import can also be with or without Matter balances (Business, Trust and Investment).
Instruction are included with the import module. Note
Allows you to import Suppliers from a spreadsheet, with or without balances.
Instruction are included with the import module.
Ensure that the spreadsheet headings are precisely the same are in the list. Heading with an * are mandatory, others are optional.
This branch explains concepts like trust accounting transactions, recording fee and billing clients, etc.
Trust funds refer to funds held by an attorney on behalf of a client: -
Importantly, this means that trust funds can only move between Clients (Matters) and a trust bank account, which in turn means that the sum of all monies held in trust per client must equal the sum of monies in the trust banks. LawPracticeZA includes accounting controls to ensure that this is always the case, and the Trust Commitment / Investment report can be generated at any time to provide the list of trust creditors and trust banks.
A special form of trust is Section 78(2A); where a clients trust funds are moved, on written request by the client, into an individual interest bearing account, for the clients benefit.
Matter Receipt - Trust. LawPracticeZA will
Captured fees and disbursements (WIP), when invoiced
The automatic transfers interrogates each Matter to establish whether there are funds to transfer; i.e. a business debit (typically the client has been invoiced) and available trust (a trust receipt from a client, taking into account any reserve, for payment to a third party).
If a Matter has a trust debit balance (trust money paid against the Matter where no trust was available) and/or a business credit (a payment received into business where there was no prior business debit, or a credit note generated where money was previous transferred as a result of the invoice), a negative transfer will be generated.
A list of Matters that qualify for a trust transfer is displayed, all selected by default. Processing a transfer will
The 'Trust Transfer Clearing account' is used for both the Matter Payment from the trust bank as well as the Business Receipt into the firms business bank.
Matter payment - Trust, paid against the 'Trust Transfer Clearing' Matter.
This will clear the Trust balance in the 'Trust Transfer Clearing' Matter.
Matter Receipt - Business, against the 'Trust Transfer Clearing' Matter.
This will clear the Business balance in the 'Trust Transfer Clearing' Matter.
To bill a client, you first need a Matter to bill, and a Matter must be linked to a Client.
So you will need to add a client account, and a Matter (instruction from the client), if they do not already exist. If a new matter for an existing client, add a matter linked to the existing client (a client can have one or more matters).
All fees and disbursements are initially captured as unbilled (WIP), and subsequently converted into an invoice.
Unbilled fees are not accounting transactions, and can therefore be modified or deleted.
Once converted to an invoice, an invoice cannot be modified or deleted, as an invoice is an accounting entry. If an invoice is in error (e.g. for the wrong client or matter) a credit note must be generated, which can be done automatically from the invoice, and which generates an accounting transaction, reversing all the invoiced accounting entries. All an invoices line items (from previous unbilled) can be returned as unbilled, with the option to move them to a different account (or modify or delete). As unbilled, they can be subsequently invoiced.
See Trust Transfers for the impact invoices have on trust transfers.
LawPracticeZA does not 'roll balances' like many legacy systems, but maintains all transactions and calculates balances as required, based on the transaction date.
LawPracticeZA uses a 'freeze' date to mark both month and year end.
The following illustrates how month-ends are managed in LawPracticeZA
Once the month-end postings have been completed and the month end 'freeze-date' set, if the last month in the financial year, the year-end 'freeze-date' is also set.
Setting Year-end identifies the financial year for report purposes, e.g. the Income and Expense report.
If there is a need to post into a previous financial period (i.e. after the freeze-date has been set), there is a setting that requires 'Auditor' privileges to temporally set the freeze date to enable back-dated posting. This is typically used for auditors adjustments, which general occur some months after the financial year end.
Many who decide to change to LawPracticeZA are operational Law Firms that have existing systems.
These systems come in a variety of formats. Consequently, we offers a variety of ways of implementing LawPracticeZA.
When we import data from a legacy system, we do not import historical transactions, only balances. So it is important to retain access (whether printed or online) to historical data, prior to the conversion to LawPracticeZA.
There are continuos and ongoing enhancements and additions to LawPracticeZA.
Being a hosted solution, all updates and enhancements are immediately available to all users.
This timeline will start recording enhancements and changes with effect from March 2018.
Pivot tables in spreadsheets provide an extremely flexible and powerful yet simple reporting tool.
Because reporting requirements vary between law firms, LawPracticeZA has optimised a number of reports for Pivot Tables.
The most common reports are the Unbilled Fees and Pending Disbursements and Invoiced Fees and Disbursements.
In both the above, fees can be analysed by Client, Matter, Fee Earner and period with a simple drag and drop.
LawPracticeZA exports these (and other) reports in a spreadsheet format, that can be opened with either Microsoft Excel or the open source Libre Office.
A link to a YouTube tutorial is included. This will demonstrate how easy it is to create a pivot table.
A link to a YouTube video that demonstrates LawPracticeZA unbilled fees and disbursements analysed using a Pivot table in Libre Office Calc is included.
As open source software, Libre Office can be downloaded free of charge. Libre Office is similar to Microsoft Office, and compatible with Microsoft office, and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Mistakes do happen.
LawPracticeZA provides the option to reverse entries; i.e. LawPracticeZA will post accounting transactions opposite to the original entry, thereby reversing the entry.
Accounting entries cannot simply be modified to correct a mistake. To protect the accounting data integrity, an adjusting accounting transaction is required, which will appear on the audit trail. This is why it is also advisable to include a clear explanation for the reversal - one that both the client (on the Client Statement) can understand, as well as the auditor - perhaps six months after the reversal.
Note that unbilled fees and pending disbursements can be amended or even deleted. This is because they are not accounting entries. When invoiced, they are converted.
(Tax) invoices, when reversed, generate a (Tax) Credit Note. When you click on the invoice number in the Matters Accounting Entries, the invoice details are loaded, with a number of options available (hover over icons in top right corner). A feature of LawPracticeZA is that the invoice line-items can be returned to their unbilled state on the Matter, from where they can be moved to a different matter, modified or deleted.