Bookkeeping for law firms & attorneys
Your books should be as precise as your pleadings.
We keep attorneys’ financials clean, current and defensible — including the trust accounting most bookkeepers quietly get wrong.
Three-way trust reconciliation on every engagement, every month.
- In the books
- 19yrs
- Law firms only
- 100%
- Google rating
- 5.0
- Built for
- IOLTA · case costs · contingency · matter-level reporting
Why a law-firm-only bookkeeper
Three things generalists get wrong in a legal practice.
None of these are exotic. They are the everyday mechanics of how a law firm handles money — and they are exactly where books kept by a general bookkeeper quietly stop being reliable.
Trust accounting
Trust deposits booked as revenue.
A retainer is a liability until you earn it. We hold it that way, keep a ledger for every client, and reconcile all three legs — bank, book, and the sum of client ledgers — every single month.
Advanced case costs
Filing fees and expert retainers coded as firm expenses.
Money you front on a client’s behalf is a receivable, tied to a matter. Coded correctly it stays visible and billable. Coded as an expense it becomes invisible, and firms simply never bill it back.
Revenue timing
A P&L that assumes you get paid when the work is done.
Contingency matters can run two years before a dollar arrives. Hourly work bills in one month and collects in another. Reporting that ignores that gap tells you almost nothing about whether the firm is healthy.
What we do
Eight services, one industry.
From the monthly close to the cleanup nobody wants to start, built around how a legal practice actually handles money.
- Core Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping
Monthly books closed on schedule and reconciled to the penny.
Learn more - Core Bookkeeping
Historical Cleanups
Months or years of backlog brought current and tax-ready.
Learn more - Core Bookkeeping
Diagnostic Reviews
A full read of your current books before you commit to anything.
Learn more - Money Movement
Accounts Receivable
Invoices out, retainers tracked, collections that stop stalling.
Learn more - Money Movement
Accounts Payable
Vendors, case costs and disbursements paid on time, coded right.
Learn more - Systems & Strategy
Advisory
Read your numbers, plan the quarter, price your work properly.
Learn more - Systems & Strategy
QBO Setup & Implementation
QuickBooks Online configured for trust accounting from day one.
Learn more - Systems & Strategy
Software Setup & Integration
Clio, MyCase, LawPay and QBO finally talking to each other.
Learn more
Who you'll be working with
I’m Michelle Murphy, and I’ve spent nineteen years in other people’s books.
I started Twenty Two Business Services because too many good businesses were being let down by bookkeeping that was late, vague, or quietly wrong. Law firms turned out to be where I could do the most good — and where the stakes for getting it wrong are highest.
Trust accounting is not a feature we added. It is the reason this practice is separate from our general business work. When your client ledgers have to agree with your trust bank balance to the penny, you want someone who reconciles them every month by habit, not someone learning the rules on your file.
- Three-way trust reconciliation on every engagement, every month
- A real person who answers the phone, not a ticket queue
- Straight answers, including when the answer is “that is your CPA’s call”
What clients say
Attorneys who stopped worrying about their books.
I was introduced to Michelle and her company through a trusted referral, and it's been one of the best professional connections I have made.
For the past several years, I have had the pleasure of working with Michelle, and I could not be more satisfied with the quality of her bookkeeping services. She is reliable, detail-oriented, and consistently delivers accurate financials that give me peace of mind. I highly recommend Michelle to any business owner looking for a dependable and knowledgeable bookkeeper.
Michelle cleaned up years of problems for me and set me up for future success by not just cleaning up my books and continuing proper maintenance of them but also arming me with an understanding of my books. She is refreshingly responsive and proactive. She takes on your business like it is her own. She is invaluable and anyone who finds her is lucky to have her!
Michelle is absolutely amazing! She's been handling our bookkeeping for several years. She's incredibly reliable, quick to respond, and she genuinely cares about making things run better. She's always sharing recommendations and process improvements when she sees the opportunity. We couldn't ask for more.
I have been working with Michelle and her team for a few years now and she has been absolutely wonderful to work with. I have recommended her to several of my colleagues and they have also had an excellent experience working with her..
Michelle and her team are phenomenal! I have an estate planning and elder law firm. I have been working with her for over two years now. Best investment in the last two years.
This company is amazing. They untangled my mess and continue to be a phenomenal asset to our team! I highly recommend!
Free tools
Run the numbers on your own firm.
Eight calculators built for legal practices. No email required, no sign-up, nothing saved — the arithmetic happens in your browser.
- Hourly Rate CalculatorWhat you actually need to bill to hit your target income.
- Realization & UtilizationHow much of your worked time turns into collected cash.
- IOLTA Three-Way ReconciliationCheck bank, book and client ledgers agree — the way the bar expects.
- Cash Flow RunwayHow many months your firm can operate on what is in the bank.
Common questions
The things attorneys ask us first.
Do you only work with law firms?
Law Books by 22 works exclusively with law firms, solo attorneys and legal practices. Our parent firm, Twenty Two Business Services, handles bookkeeping for businesses in every other industry — so if you have a second business outside your practice, that is covered too.
Do you handle IOLTA and trust accounting?
Yes, on every engagement. That includes maintaining individual client ledgers and performing a documented three-way reconciliation each month between the trust bank balance, the trust ledger in your books, and the total of all client ledgers. We handle the accounting; questions of trust-account ethics and bar reporting obligations remain with you and your ethics counsel.
Are you a CPA firm?
No. We are bookkeepers, and we are deliberate about the distinction. We keep your books accurate and current, produce your financial statements, and hand your CPA a clean year-end package. We do not prepare tax returns, provide tax or legal advice, or perform audits.
What does it cost?
Ongoing bookkeeping is a flat monthly fee, quoted after a short call and a look at your books — because a published price would be wrong for most firms reading it. Transaction volume, trust account count, matter count and any existing backlog all change the number. There is more detail on the pricing page.
What if my books are badly behind?
Extremely common, and not a problem. Cleanup is a separate fixed-fee engagement that happens before ongoing work starts — there is no point closing this month cleanly on top of two bad years. A Diagnostic Review tells us how far back it goes and what it will take.
More questions on the pricing page, or just ask us directly.
Ready when you are
Find out what shape your books are actually in.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether we are the right fit for your firm — and you will leave it knowing more about your own numbers either way.
- No obligation, no sales script
- Straight answer on whether we fit
- Talk to the person who does the work