For law firms

SwiftlyBooks for Lawyers

SwiftlyBooks for Lawyers keeps client money apart from the firm's own, as the law asks: every receipt and payment against a matter and its client, payments from trust approved by a second person, the three-way agreement each month, and the year's figures for your accountant. Time and disbursements become fee notes, settled from trust on the client's authority.

  • Matters with their clients and parties, and a conflict check before each is opened.
  • Client money in trust: receipts numbered with no gaps, and payments to a named payee with the client's authority, approved by a second person and never above what the matter holds.
  • The three-way agreement of the bank, the cash book and the clients' ledgers, and each month's list of client balances to sign.
  • Trust investments, with their interest to the client or the Compensation Fund, and the year's figures for your accountant.
  • Time in 6-minute units at each fee earner's rate, timed on the phone app at court or a meeting, fixed fees by stage, and disbursements.
  • Fee notes from unbilled work, fiscalised as any invoice, and settled from trust on the client's authority.
  • Statements of account for each client, as a PDF or by email.
  • A diary of hearings, filing deadlines and prescription, with reminders to each fee earner.
  • Reports: client balances, unbilled work, fee notes owed by how late, each fee earner's time, and what each matter earned.

Partners, associates and clerks whose time you record. Everyone else is free.

$69 a month, all in

Growth plan $39 + 3 fee earners at $10

In Zambia K1,400 a month

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Common questions

How is it priced?

Legal practice costs $10.00 a fee earner a month, at least $20.00, added to the plan your fee notes and receipts need. Staff who do not record time are free. The free trial includes it.

Which rules does it keep?

Zimbabwe's Legal Practitioners Act and the Law Society's By-laws 70A to 70J, and Zambia's Legal Practitioners Act, Part VIII, with its accountant's certificate regulations: client money in its own account, no client below nothing, the month's list of client balances, and the year's figures for the accountant.

Are disbursements charged with VAT?

Paid as your client's agent, they go on a disbursements note of their own, outside VAT and not fiscalised. The firm's own costs charged on are part of its fee, with VAT.

Can fees come out of trust by themselves?

Only with the client's authority: on each fee note, or under the matter's engagement letter where it allows. A second person approves every payment from trust.