Accountants for Lawyers.

Trust accounts must comply with strict Law Society regulations. Monthly reconciliations are mandatory. Trust funds can only be used for specific purposes. Documentation requirements are extensive. Audits examine every aspect of trust handling. Many practices maintain trust accounts adequately but not to the standard required to pass audits without findings.

Walker Hill maintains trust accounts to full compliance standards. We reconcile monthly, prepare three-way reconciliations between ledger, bank, and trust liability, ensure proper authorisations for trust payments, maintain documentation auditors expect, and identify any issues before external audits occur. Your trust accounts will be audit-ready continuously, not just when audits are due.

Legal practices accumulate significant WIP between billing events. Time isn’t recorded promptly, disbursements aren’t entered, matters don’t bill when they should, and WIP balloons. High WIP levels indicate revenue being delayed, cash flow being constrained, and potential write-offs building. Converting WIP to billed fees requires systems and discipline many practices lack.

Walker Hill implements systems that track WIP by matter and solicitor, report WIP aging regularly, identify matters ready for billing, calculate expected fees based on recorded time and disbursements, and provide reporting that prompts timely billing. You’ll convert WIP to revenue more efficiently, improving cash flow and reducing write-offs.

Legal practices often have high debtor levels. Clients delay paying, matters settle but invoices remain outstanding, collection efforts are sporadic, and aged debtors grow. Some firms bill regularly but collect poorly, creating cash flow problems despite strong revenue. Without proper debtor management, cash gets tied up for months after work is complete.

Walker Hill maintains aged debtor reporting, tracks collection rates by solicitor and client type, identifies problem debtors early, provides reporting that supports collection efforts, and helps you understand which clients pay promptly versus which ones create cash flow problems. You’ll improve collections without spending your time chasing invoices.

Most law firms know total revenue but don’t understand profitability by matter type, client, or practice area. Fixed-fee matters might lose money if time exceeds expectations. Hourly billing matters might be unprofitable if rates don’t cover costs plus margin. Litigation might look profitable until you factor in all the non-billable time.

Walker Hill implements matter profitability tracking that allocates all costs (solicitor time, overhead, disbursements, support costs) to matters, compares costs to fees, identifies which matter types are profitable, which clients are worthwhile, and which practice areas subsidise others. You’ll make informed decisions about which work to pursue based on actual profitability, not just revenue.

Law firms carry significant overhead: office rent, technology, library subscriptions, insurance, administrative staff, professional development, marketing costs. This overhead must be recovered through fee income, but many practices don’t allocate overhead to matters or solicitors. Without allocation, you don’t know whether individual lawyers or practice areas are covering their share of overhead.

Walker Hill allocates overhead appropriately across solicitors, practice areas, or matters based on relevant drivers (headcount, floor space, direct costs). This shows true profitability once all costs are included, identifies where overhead recovery is insufficient, and supports decisions about practice structure, pricing, and resource allocation.

Partnership accounting in law firms creates complexity. Partners might receive salary components, profit share percentages, separate returns on capital invested, or combinations. Calculating distributions requires tracking partnership profits, determining what’s available for distribution, allocating based on partnership agreement terms, and handling tax implications correctly.

Walker Hill manages partnership accounting based on your partnership agreement, calculates distributions according to agreed formulae, advises on tax-effective timing of distributions, prepares partner distribution statements, and coordinates with individual partner tax obligations. Partnership accounting will be transparent, documented, and compliant with both the partnership agreement and tax requirements.

Practices operating across multiple offices or locations need consolidated reporting while maintaining visibility over each office’s performance. Costs might be shared or allocated. Some offices might be profitable while others aren’t. Without proper multi-office accounting, you can’t identify underperforming locations or allocate resources effectively.

Walker Hill provides consolidated financial reporting across all locations while maintaining individual office reporting. You’ll see total practice performance and individual office results, understand which locations are profitable, identify opportunities to improve underperforming offices, and make strategic direction decisions about expansion or consolidation based on financial health data.

Eventually you’ll want to reduce hours, sell the practice, or transition to retirement. Law firm values depend on sustainable fee income, client relationships, matter pipeline, staff quality, and systems. Poor financial management reduces practice value. Planning succession requires years, not months, to maximise value and ensure smooth transition.

Walker Hill helps you build practice value through strong financial management from the start, advises on what affects law firm valuations, models succession options (internal succession to juniors versus external sale), plans transitions that minimise tax, and ensures your financial processes support maximum practice value when you’re ready to exit.