Bookkeeping, trust accounting, and Profit Strategy for law firms
Law Firm Bookkeeping: You win cases. Your bank account keeps losing.
We keep your books and trust accounts clean, compliant, and in your inbox by the 15th. You get the clarity to run the firm like the business it is.
Built inside law firms. Trust accounts reconciled to the penny.
Lawyers are the only people who will bill $400 an hour and still not know if they can afford a paralegal.
Here's what we see from the inside: in a healthy firm, roughly a quarter of revenue ends up in the owner's pocket. Team, marketing, and overhead take the rest, and when any one of them runs hot, it comes straight out of yours. Seven-figure revenue doesn't mean seven-figure anything if the money walks out the door first. And if your trust account isn't reconciled three ways every month, it's not just a profit problem. It's a license problem.
Let's fix that.
Sound familiar?
Revenue looks great. The bank account didn't get the memo.
You're not 100% sure your trust account is reconciled, and that thought visits you at 2 a.m.
Your reports show up late, if at all, and nobody explains them.
You don't know which case types actually make money and which ones just keep you busy.
Tax season arrives like an opposing counsel you forgot to prep for.
The equation, and where your firm leaks
Every firm runs on the same math: Money Made − Money Spent = Money Kept. Profit leaks out in the same five places. Here's what they look like in a law firm:
Getting clients: marketing spend with no idea which cases it actually signed.
Bringing them in: retainers not collected upfront and fee agreements that leave money on the table.
Doing the work: unbilled hours, write-downs, and "I'll invoice that later." (You won't.)
What happens after: no reviews, no referral system, no follow-up with past clients.
Tax time: surprise bills and no plan for contingency fee swings.
Your variables: the numbers we watch for your law firm
The numbers we watch for you, every month:
Trust account balance, reconciled three ways
Revenue by case type
Collection rate (billed vs actually collected)
Cost to sign a new client
Team cost as a share of revenue
What you actually pay yourself
How we fix it: law firm bookkeeping and Profit Strategy
Foundation: Clean books. Catch-up bookkeeping if you're behind (6 months or 6 years, we've seen it all), monthly bookkeeping, 3-way trust reconciliation, payroll, and tax. You stop guessing. Your bar compliance stops being a mystery.
Framework: Profit Strategy. We build your firm's financial Framework with you: cash flow, profit protection, and a plan built around your actual goals. Learn it, fast-track it, or partner with us on it.
Flywheel: Lead the firm. We keep your Framework running with you through monthly reviews and quarterly planning, so you never make a big decision without data.
You Stop Asking
Did that retainer hit the right account?
Why is cash so tight this month?
What do I owe in taxes?
Where did the money go?
You Start Asking
Which practice area should we grow?
Can we hire an associate, and when?
How much can I pay myself without hurting the firm?
How do we plug the profit leaks for good?
Real attorneys. Real numbers. Real "why didn't I do this sooner?"
'My books were an absolute mess and I was terrified to show them to anyone. I had been losing sleep for weeks, and I was dreading the conversation. After our meeting, I finally got 7 hours of solid sleep for the first time in weeks. You cannot put a price on that kind of peace of mind.'
- Alexis Litle
'I'm not so much of an avoidant CFO in my own company anymore. This program does a great job of motivating people and de-stigmatizing the fear around it. If you're on the fence about it, I don't think any law firm owner would regret doing this.'
- Catherine Medina
'Before working with CSG, I had a vast amount of reports and meaningless data. PK allowed me to fully understand what story my numbers are telling me - and make better decisions because of it.'
- Jay McAllister
'It's not enough for her to just do the work and provide the reports. She wants to help you understand the financial engine that powers your firm.'
- Emery Wagner
This is for you if...
You're a law firm owner who wants to understand your numbers and delegate them with confidence. You see clean financials as an investment in your firm, not a cost to cut.
This is NOT for you if...
You want the cheapest bookkeeper on the internet, or you plan to never look at a report. We can organize the numbers. We can't make you care about them. (But we'll try.)
Law firm bookkeeping questions
Do you understand trust accounting and IOLTA reconciliation?
Yes. It's where we started. We reconcile trust accounts three ways every month and know what keeps a bar auditor happy.
My law firm's books are a mess. Is that a problem?
No. That's Tuesday for us. Catch-up bookkeeping gets you current before anything else happens.
Is this a fractional CFO for law firms?
That's what the industry calls it. We call it Profit Strategy, because you shouldn't need a finance degree to know what you're buying.