5.0 out of 5 based on 41 reviews
Law Firm Bookkeeping and Accounting
Law firm accounting services built around the trust account, from CPAs who reconcile it three ways every month.
★★★★★“Since adding Alex with Stronghold Accounting for our bookkeeping, it has truly been a Godsend for our business. Alex cleaned up a difficult QuickBooks transition and became a game changer for our month-to-month bookkeeping.”Patty LeslieTampa
★★★★★“I like that you're helping me strategize, not just giving me numbers. There were still blind spots that you've been able to uncover for me. I didn't think that was possible.”JoelService-business owner
★★★★★“Alex and his team helped bring the books current and continue to provide monthly support while helping plan for growth.”Dr. MaloneLake Mary
★★★★★“Alex is sharp, detail-oriented, and genuinely passionate about his work. He explains the numbers clearly and helps business owners gain more control over their finances.”Baxter McCoyOrlando
★★★★★“Since adding Alex with Stronghold Accounting for our bookkeeping, it has truly been a Godsend for our business. Alex cleaned up a difficult QuickBooks transition and became a game changer for our month-to-month bookkeeping.”Patty LeslieTampa
★★★★★“I like that you're helping me strategize, not just giving me numbers. There were still blind spots that you've been able to uncover for me. I didn't think that was possible.”JoelService-business owner
★★★★★“Alex and his team helped bring the books current and continue to provide monthly support while helping plan for growth.”Dr. MaloneLake Mary
★★★★★“Alex is sharp, detail-oriented, and genuinely passionate about his work. He explains the numbers clearly and helps business owners gain more control over their finances.”Baxter McCoyOrlando
★★★★★“Since adding Alex with Stronghold Accounting for our bookkeeping, it has truly been a Godsend for our business. Alex cleaned up a difficult QuickBooks transition and became a game changer for our month-to-month bookkeeping.”Patty LeslieTampa
★★★★★“I like that you're helping me strategize, not just giving me numbers. There were still blind spots that you've been able to uncover for me. I didn't think that was possible.”JoelService-business owner
★★★★★“Alex and his team helped bring the books current and continue to provide monthly support while helping plan for growth.”Dr. MaloneLake Mary
★★★★★“Alex is sharp, detail-oriented, and genuinely passionate about his work. He explains the numbers clearly and helps business owners gain more control over their finances.”Baxter McCoyOrlando
What makes law firm bookkeeping different
One thing: the trust account. Every other business records money it owns. A law firm also holds money it does not own, in an IOLTA account, under rules that require per-client ledgers, monthly reconciliation and six years of records. Get it wrong and it is a Bar matter, not an accounting error.
IOLTA trust accountingBookkeeping services for law firms are not a specialism most providers genuinely have. The test is simple: ask whether they reconcile the client ledgers to the reconciled bank balance, or only the bank.
The problems that only happen at law firms
01The three-way reconciliation nobody is doingUnder Chapter 5 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, the bank balance plus outstanding deposits minus outstanding checks must equal the journal balance, and the total of the individual client ledger cards must match that reconciled bank balance. Three figures, reconciled monthly. Most small firms reconcile the bank and stop there, which means a client ledger can go negative for months without anyone seeing it.
02A client ledger going negativeThis is the one that ends careers. If one client’s ledger balance drops below zero, that firm has spent another client’s money, whether or not anyone intended to. The account as a whole still looks fine, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed without per-client ledgers.
03Earned fees left sitting in trustMoney stays in IOLTA until it is earned. Leave earned fees there and the trust balance is overstated. Move them early and you have taken unearned funds. Both are violations, and the boundary is invoice by invoice.
04Costs advanced and never recoveredFiling fees, court reporters, expert witnesses, paid on behalf of a client and coded as firm expense instead of a client cost advance. The firm quietly funds its clients and the P&L understates real profitability.
05Cash accounting on a contingency practiceA firm can look flat for eight months and then book a year of revenue in one week. Without work-in-progress visibility, no owner can make a hiring decision on those numbers.
06Records that do not go back six yearsThe Florida Bar requires trust records to be retained for at least six years. Firms that switch software, or switch bookkeepers, routinely lose the trail.
What we handle for law firms
The problem
What we do
Trust compliance
Three-way trust reconciliation, monthly. Bank, journal and the sum of client ledgers, all tied out and documented.
Client ledgers
Per-client ledger maintenance, with a standing check that no ledger has gone negative.
Trust transfers
Trust-to-operating transfers tied to actual invoices, so earned fees move when they are earned and not before.
Advanced costs
Client cost advances tracked as receivables, not buried in firm expense.
Account close
Separate IOLTA and operating account close, because they are two different sets of books that happen to belong to one firm.
Record retention
Six-year record retention structured so it survives a software change.
Profitability
Matter-level and practice-area profitability, so you can see which work actually pays.
Owner pay
Owner and partner distribution tracking, including guaranteed payments where the firm is a partnership.
CPA analysis
CPA analysis of the trust reconciliation every month.
Law firm benchmarks
55-70%+Target gross margin
20-30%+Target net margin
90%+Target realization
95%+Target collection
MonthlyThree-way trust reconciliation, no unexplained variance
Software we work in
How it works
Step 1Trust account audit first. Before anything else, we reconcile the IOLTA account three ways and tell you where it stands. If there is a problem, you need to know in week one, not month three.
Step 2Operating account review. Cost advances, unbilled work, owner draws.
Step 3Foundation Buildout, if the trust ledgers need rebuilding. The typical timeline is 2-4 weeks.
Step 4Monthly close, with the three-way reconciliation delivered as a document you could hand to the Bar.
Proof
$120KNet-income discrepancy corrected, solo-attorney firm
4 weeksTo monthly reporting and three-way trust reconciliation
What it costs
Pricing is custom and flat-rate. The quote reflects company size, industry, headcount, bank and credit-card accounts, locations, entity count, transaction volume, and any cleanup required.See pricing →For a solo-attorney Florida law firm with about $415,000 in annual revenue, Stronghold rebuilt two years of activity, addressed a trust-account discrepancy, corrected a net-income discrepancy of about $120,000, and established monthly reporting and three-way trust reconciliation in about four weeks.Solo-attorney Florida law firm
Services law firms usually need
See more services for law firms
Common questions
Law firm questions
Can you reconcile our IOLTA account?
Yes, three ways, monthly: bank balance, journal, and the sum of the individual client ledgers. You get the reconciliation as a document, retained for the six years the Florida Bar requires.
What happens if a client ledger has gone negative?
We tell you immediately and show you which matter and which month it started. Restoring the shortfall is your decision and your Bar obligation, and you are better off finding it yourself than having it found for you.
Do you know Florida Bar trust accounting rules specifically?
Chapter 5 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar governs it: required records, monthly reconciliation, and a six-year retention minimum. Stronghold is a Florida-based, CPA-led accounting team with offices in Tampa and Lake Mary.
Can you work with our Clio data?
Yes. Making Clio and QuickBooks agree is one of the most common things we fix.
Do you handle contingency-fee accounting?
Yes, including tracking costs advanced against future recovery so your P&L is not distorted by cases still in flight.
Do you prepare our firm’s tax return?
Stronghold handles proactive tax planning and works with an integrated tax-preparation partner for filing. We coordinate the year-end handoff so the books, planning, and return preparation stay connected.
Do we need a law firm accountant, or will a general bookkeeper do?
A general bookkeeper can record the operating account competently. The trust account is where it breaks down, because the obligation is not accounting practice, it is a Bar rule with per-client ledgers behind it. An accountant for law firms should be able to explain three-way reconciliation without looking it up.
We’re a solo practice. Is this overkill?
A solo with an IOLTA account has the same reconciliation obligation as a fifty-attorney firm. Volume differs, the rule does not.