Top 5 Benefits of Legal Accounting Software for UK Law Firms
Legal accounting in the UK is governed by stringent regulations, including compliance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) rules, VAT filing requirements, and trust account management. These obligations can be overwhelming for law firms, particularly those relying on outdated or manual accounting processes.
That’s where legal accounting software comes in.
Legal accounting software – like Klyant – is designed to address these types of challenges faced by law firms. The software provides tailored solutions to help firms save time, reduce errors and enhance operational efficiency.
In this article, we’ll summarise 5 key benefits legal accounting software can offer law firms in the UK. As a leading provider of online accounting software, we have witnessed first-hand the countless benefits legal organisations have gained.
But before we jump into the benefits, first let us explain what legal accounting software is.
What is Legal Accounting Software?
Legal accounting software is a digital toolset to help to streamline the management of your law firm. It encompasses features for handling finances, bookkeeping and timelines, enabling you to record and leverage data with greater speed and precision.
From client money accounting and firm business accounting to disbursement management, bank reconciliation and data driven reporting, the software allows firms to better manage their financials and client’s money.
Now, let’s take a deeper look into some of its benefits:
Benefits of Legal Accounting Software
Improved Financial Transparency
One of the biggest perks of utilising legal accounting software is the enhanced financial transparency it offers to clients. Client portals are a vital feature of legal accounting software because they give clients live access to their billing and financial information.
This increased transparency can build not only confidence but also satisfaction and trust for the client. It gives clients the freedom to view their billing history and account status at will, which is something traditional accounting methods are simply unable to offer.
Streamlined VAT Filing & Tax Compliance
Another draw of legal accounting software is how it simplifies and considerably reduces the time it takes to complete complex tasks like VAT filing. In addition to tracking transactions and ensuring that all VAT-related expenses and income are recorded correctly, it works with different VAT schemes and calculates owed or reclaimable VAT.
What makes legal accounting software particularly great is that most solutions integrate directly with HMRC which means you can often file your VAT return within minutes. Easy-to-use interfaces and the automation of repetitive tasks saves businesses time, stress and money.
Simplified Trust Account Management
The management of trust accounts are also made simpler with legal accounting software. The software ensures adherence to all the relevant rules and regulations surrounding trust funds and provides thorough record keeping, organising records of all transactions and maintaining a comprehensive audit trail.
Similarly, the reconciliation process is much smoother with legal accounting software. The automated process is designed to quickly determine any discrepancies between account balances and bank statements.
Find out more about how bank reconciliation software can boost efficiency >
Real-Time Reporting & Insights
Real-time reporting is crucial for enabling businesses to facilitate informed decisions and respond to changing circumstances quickly. Legal accounting software provides just this.
Continuous data synchronisation means your legal firm’s financial information is never out-of-date. Insights into your revenue, expenses and other metrics are always at your fingertips, allowing you to monitor your financial health and ensure you are on the right track whenever or wherever you are. If required, the software can be tailored to send notifications when specific financial thresholds are reached/nearly reached.
Moreover, all reports can be easily downloaded and exported in line with your company’s branding.
Check out our article on using legal reporting to make better decisions >
Enhanced Data Security for UK Law Firms
Legal accounting software solutions are very sophisticated and offer greater data security than other offline accounting methods. This is extremely important for organisations that manage and deal with sensitive financial information.
Digital files are generally more secure than paper ones and this is certainly the case with legal accounting software. All files are encrypted to ensure only authorised personnel have access and this can be further tightened with the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). It is also possible for businesses to provide different levels of access to individuals – permissions can be set to limit who can view, edit or delete data.
All data is also regularly backed up automatically to prevent data loss from hardware failure, human error and natural disaster.
Enhance Your Law Firm’s Operations with Klyant’s Legal Accounting Software
Legal accounting software offers law firms a whole host of advantages. By utilising an innovative solution, such as Klyant, your business will reap all the benefits discussed in this article. From improved financial transparency to streamlined VAT filing and enhanced data security, legal accounting software is an indispensable tool for improving financial management and client trust for small practices and larger firms alike. If you’d like to find out more information about Klyant’s cutting-edge software or would like to schedule a demo, please don’t hesitate to get in touch today. We’ll be more than happy to talk through our system, its features and how it can be used to progress your firm. We understand the intricacies and requirements of law firms and can tailor a solution to satisfy your exact needs.
Learn more about Klyant and its features >
Discover how legal accounting software can boost collaboration and teamwork >
