Request A Quote for Law Firm Bookkeeping

"*" indicates required fields

This form takes about 10 minutes to fill in. We do need all these details to give you an accurate quote. This page is for law firms. If you are not a law firm please visit this page.

Name*

First Last

Daytime Phone*

Email*

Law Firm Name*

The legal name of your firm.

Company Website

The website of the company above, if you have one, with http:// or https:// in front.

How many lawyers are in your practice?*

How old is your firm?*

In years.

How many lawyers or legal clerks are active in your practice management software?*

What type of law does your firm practice?*

Which provinces are you active in?

Why are you looking for a bookkeeping service?

Please select all that apply.

Please explain why you are looking for a new bookkeeper?

Which of these services do you want?

General bookkeeping includes account reconciliations, categorization, sales tax management and filing, producing financial statements and year end preparation and handover to your tax accountant.

When is your fiscal year end?

Enter the date of your upcoming fiscal year end.

How many legal entities are involved?*

Another way to ask this is how many tax returns do you file with the CRA?

Multiple legal entity details

Please list the companies by name and clarify which are operating companies with many monthly transactions vs holding companies with few monthly transactions. For the later questions about transactions volumes, provide amounts for all your companies combined.

How many law society audits have you had in the past 7 years?*

Related to this firm only, not other firms you have worked for in the past. If you have never been audited by your law society then put 0.

When was your last law society audit?

Service Level

What level of service do you need? How often and how fast do you need your financial reports?*

Monthly bookkeeping - Standard timing (30 days)

Monthly bookkeeping - Fast turnaround (approx 10 days)

Quarterly bookkeeping

Semi annual bookkeeping (every 6 months)

Annual bookkeeping

Fast turnaround adds 25% to your total monthly cost and the delivery is dependent on when your monthly statements and key data are available to us or the agreements we make around how to handle a cut off date.

Are quarterly review meetings with your bookkeeper good, or do you want monthly?*

Quarterly review meetings

Monthly review meetings

General bookkeeping

Do you have any billing commission payment or profit share agreements with any of the lawyers at your firm?*

Yes

i.e, you take 20% of their billings as a commission.

Do you want us to calculate your billing commission or profit sharing payments based on rules you provide us?*

Yes

If yes, please explain how it works and the number of lawyers involved.

Are you currently using the Profit First method of bookkeeping?*

Yes

If you don't know what the Profit First Method is, then choose no.

Do you accept cash as payment for invoices or retainers on a regular monthly basis?*

Yes

If it's just once or twice a year, select no.

Software

What is your current accounting software?*

Clio is practise management software only, not full cycle accounting. If you use Clio, you need to also use accounting software like Xero or Quickbooks Online. So if you use Clio, don't enter it here.

How long have you been using your current accounting software?

In years.

Where do you currently store your client documents?

i.e. Harddrive, internal server, OneDrive, NetDocuments, Google Docs.

Where do you currently store your internal or accounting documents?

i.e. Harddrive, internal server, OneDrive, NetDocuments, Google Docs.

Are you open to switching to one of our recommended cloud based legal software systems (Clio, LEAP or Soluno)?*

Yes

Do you have a strong preference regarding which legal practice software you use going forward?

We use one of Clio, LEAP or Soluno for practise management and then sometimes pair it with Xero or Quickbooks Online accounting software. We will work with you to find the best solution for your situation.

Are Your Books Up To Date?

Do you need us to help you get caught up on your bookkeeping or are you up to date? Please answer the following questions to let us know.

How many months of historical data do we need to import, categorize and reconcile? Enter 0 for none.*

If your books are up to date in your accounting software and we don't need to reconcile any historical data enter 0. If you have 9 months of bookkeeping data you need us to enter or import and reconcile then enter the number 9.

Are the number of trust, bank and credit card transactions per month for the catch-up period similar to what you expect in the future or do you expect there to be a change?*

The past and the future are going to be pretty much the same

The future will be different from the past

I only need our books brought up to date. I don't need ongoing bookkeeping.

If, in the past, you had 200 transactions per month, but you just added a new line of business and going forward you will have 300 then select that the past and future will be different.

You've given an unexpected response. Because you didn't select "General bookkeeping" or "Trust bookkeeping" under "Which of these services do you want?" you are not seeing necessary questions about your future transactions below. Either change your answer to the previous question to "I only need our books brought up to date" or go back to "Which of these services do you want?" and select one or both of "General bookkeeping" or "Trust bookkeeping". You may also have selected only "Catchup or cleanup bookkeeping, accounting" under services and then put 0 months of catchup in the field above, in which case you'll need to change either service selection of the # of months.

Past Trust Transaction Volumes

How many trust accounts do you need us to reconcile?*

What is the average # of transactions per month across all trust accounts for the catch up period?*

Approx. how much money has flowed through your trust accounts per month, on average?

Past General Account & Credit Card Transaction Volumes

The following questions pertain to the past, to the catch-up period. We will ask you about the future afterward.

How many general (non-trust) bank accounts do you need us to reconcile?*

What is the average # of transactions per month across all general (non-trust) bank accounts for the catch up period?*

How many of the above general (non-trust) transactions per month for the catch up period can be batch processed because the source or description is the same?

For example, if you have 100 transactions per month and 30 of them come from Stripe, then enter 30 here.

How many of the above general (non-trust) transactions per month for the catch up period need to be split across multiple accounts or categories?

For example, if you have 100 transactions per month and 10 of them require splitting, then enter 10 here. This is sometimes needed when a single deposit transaction contains several cheques that need to categorized differently, or when a single payment is made that needs to be split across several expense accounts.

How many credit card accounts do you need us to reconcile?*

What is the average # of transactions per month across all credit card accounts for the catch up period?*

Are there business expenses on any personal cards for the catch up period?

Yes

How many business expenses on personal cards per month on average for the catch up period?

Present & Future Trust Account Volumes

How many trust accounts do you need us to reconcile?*

What is the average # of transactions per month across all trust accounts?*

Approx. how much money flows through your trust account each month?

In Canadian dollars.

Present & Future General Account & Credit Card Transaction Volumes

The following questions pertain to your expectations of the present and future.

How many general (non-trust) bank accounts do you need us to reconcile?*

What is the average # of transactions per month across all general (non-trust) bank accounts you expect for the coming year?*

How many of the above general (non-trust) bank transactions per month can be batch processed because the source or description is the same?

For example, if you have 100 transactions per month and 30 of them come from Stripe, then enter 30 here.

How many of the above general (non-trust) bank transactions per month need to be split across multiple accounts or categories?

How many credit card accounts do you need us to reconcile?*

What is the average # of transactions per month across all credit card accounts you expect for the coming year?*

Will there business expenses on any personal cards going forward?

Yes

We strongly discourage this as it adds extra complexity and therefore bookkeeping time. To work with us we insist you use dedicated business accounts with no personal mixed in.

How many business expenses on personal cards per month on average going forward?

Payroll

Are you and your staff currently set up on a web-based payroll system?

Yes

Like Wagepoint, Knit, PayWorks, Payment Evolution, Quickbooks Payroll etc.

Which payroll system are you currently using?

How many employees are on your payroll?

How many employees do you have on salary (with a fixed pay every month)?

How many employees have pay that varies every pay period?

This includes hourly employees and employees who receive commissions or tips.

How will you send the variable pay information to us?

A time tracking app like Quickbooks Time is the most efficient if you have many staff. Other options: spreadsheet by email, Google Sheet. The least preferred option is a photo of a paper hours tracking sheet (this is the most prone to errors).

How frequent is your payroll?

How many times per month do you pay your staff?

Do you need us to manage any of these payroll deductions?

WSIB / Workers Compensation

If you need us to manage WSIB / Workers Compensation deductions, please enter the number of applicable employees in the field above. If none enter 0 or leave blank.

Unionized Employees

If you have unionized employees who need union dues deducted and managed, please enter the number of unionized employees in the field above. If none enter 0 or leave blank.

Employee Health Tax (EHT)

If you need us to manage EHT deductions, please enter the number of applicable employees in the field above. If none enter 0 or leave blank.

RSPs, Pension

If you need us to manage RSP or pension deductions, please enter the number of applicable employees in the field above. If none enter 0 or leave blank.

Employee expense reimbursement

How many employees regularly submit expenses? By regularly we mean for 6 or more months of the year.

Sales Tax

How often do you file and remit GST or HST installments?

How often do you file and remit PST or RST installments?

Do you want us to calculate and file your sales tax returns?

Yes

You will need to pay the sales tax instalments but we can do the calculations and filing if you want us to.

Accounts Payable

Do you want us to manage your accounts payable (to vendors who invoice you) using Plooto?

Yes

I'm not sure. I'd like more information.

Plooto is a powerful and secure payment app that allow us to import your payables (the ones that are not pre-authorized) and pay them electronically in batches which you can approve. It's a replacement for e-transfers but we setup the payment details to save you having to. It's faster and easier than cutting cheques, but for vendors who insist on being paid by cheque Plooto will print and mail cheques for you. Because it has a monthly fee of $25/mo, it makes sense for firms with more than 10 manual payments per month.

On average, how many bill payments do you expect to make per month for the coming year?

Bill payments should include all the cheques you currently write (many of which we will try to switch to Plooto) and all the electronic payments you make that are not on a credit card or PayPal, so Interac email transfer, wire transfers etc.

How many cheques will you need cut per month?

We try to avoid cheques because they are an inefficient way to pay bills today. We will try to get all of your vendors set up in Plooto with ACH payments so they can be paid electronically. However, sometimes you might have vendors or people who require a cheque cut. Plooto can do this. If you know you will need to cut some cheques, please estimate how many of the above bill payments per month will need to be paid by cheque.

Staff Training

How many staff do you want trained?

Please specify the current abilities of your staff and the desired outcomes or capabilities?

You're Almost Done

Is there anything else we would need to know to give you an accurate estimate?

Is there anything you want to add that has not been covered by our questions above?

Thanks so much for persevering through all those questions! That's it - you have made it. Just click on Submit below and wait for the confirmation to appear. We'll get back to you with an estimate within 24 hours (unless it's a stat holiday).