The Premier Legal Bookkeeper Serving Attorneys in the Tampa Bay Area

Keeping your law firm running smoothly requires a lot of work, whether that takes the form of managing client intake, conducting research, attending meetings and depositions, or managing documentation. In such a fast-paced environment, handling bookkeeping for your law firm can fall to the wayside until poor record-keeping and accounting practices snowball into a major problem. Why not bypass this headache by partnering with a professional legal bookkeeper now? A&W Associates provides legal bookkeeping services for firms in Wesley Chapel, Florida, and throughout the Tampa Bay area. We would be happy to maintain detailed and accurate financial records for your practice so that you can focus on providing your clients with the high-caliber service they expect.

What Is Included in Our Legal Bookkeeping Services?

Many lawyers find reliable bookkeeping services crucial for preserving the financial wellbeing of their firm as a whole. That’s because a legal bookkeeper maintains precise records of money as it moves through a firm, whether to payroll or in and out of highly regulated IOLTA accounts. Not only do these records give you an accurate understanding of the financial health of your firm, but they also keep you out of legal trouble yourself.

We offer comprehensive legal bookkeeping services that include tracking and managing:

• Accounts receivable
• Accounts payable
• Work-in-progress (WIP)
• Retainers and IOLTA accounts
• Receipt management
• Monthly reconciliations
• Payroll management
• Tax-ready records, which we coordinate with your tax accountant

Additionally, A&W Associates can provide you with real-time financial information, budgeting assistance, and advisory services, all of which give you the tools you need to grow your firm responsibly.

Why A&W Associates?

Skill and experience are both important qualities to look for in a legal bookkeeper. Fortunately, the A&W Associates team possesses both. With over 25 years of financial and accounting experience and special training in legal finance, we have what it takes to keep your firm running smoothly. And since our team requires no lengthy onboarding period, we’ll provide custom bookkeeping solutions for your law firm immediately and create detailed and accurate records that prepare you for any financial eventuality.

Let A&W Associates serve as your legal bookkeeper so that you can focus on helping your clients succeed. Contact us today to learn more about what we can offer your Tampa Bay area firm from our Wesley Chapel, FL, office.

Law Firm Bookkeeping by Practice Area

Every area of law has its own way of earning fees and moving client money. A contingency practice advances costs for years and then pays out one large settlement. A family law practice draws down retainers month by month. A real estate practice may push dozens of closings through escrow. Choose your practice area to see how we handle the bookkeeping that comes with it.

Contingency-Fee and Litigation Practices

• Personal Injury: case cost advances, settlement disbursements, medical liens, and referral fee splits.
• Medical Malpractice: large case investments, litigation financing records, and fee calculations under state fee schedules.
• Workers’ Compensation: approved-fee records, settlement payouts, and high-volume claim tracking.
• Employment Law: settlement allocations, class action distributions, and fee awards.

Practices Serving Individuals and Families

• Family Law: retainer draws, evergreen retainers, collections, and fee records for fee disputes and awards.
• Criminal Defense: flat fees, third-party payments, large cash payments, and court-appointed billing.
• Immigration: payment plans, government filing fees, and employer-paid matters.
• Estate Planning & Probate: estate receipts and distributions, records for court accountings, and fiduciary funds held in trust.

Business, Transactional, and Financial Practices

• Real Estate Law: escrow and closing disbursements, title-related revenue, and high-volume trust reconciliation.
• Business & Corporate Law: hourly billing and WIP, monthly retainers, and deal escrow.
• Intellectual Property: USPTO and official fee advances, foreign associate invoices, and litigation costs.
• Bankruptcy: pre-petition retainers, Chapter 13 trustee payments, and fee application support.
• Tax Law: controversy retainers, seasonal cash flow, and tax-ready books for your CPA.

By Firm Size

• Solo & Small Law Firms: trust accounting, books setup and cleanup, billing, and payroll without a full-time hire.

Services Every Law Firm Client Receives

Whatever your practice area, our core legal bookkeeping includes IOLTA and trust account reconciliation, work-in-progress (WIP) accounting, payroll coordination, bank and credit card reconciliation, and tax-ready records coordinated with your CPA.

Where We Work

We work with law firms throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and New Mexico, and remotely with firms in California, Texas, Illinois, and New York, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, and New York City. See our full service area. For practical guidance, start with our articles on three-way reconciliation and preparing for a Florida Bar trust account audit.