Small Business Bookkeeping and Tax Blog

I have been talking to a lot of law firm owners recently that have MAJOR problems with their trust account. For many, it’s a situation where they are doing the right thing generally, meaning they aren’t stealing or anything like that, but they also aren’t formally reconciling their trust account like they are supposed to. And what usually happens is, that underlying stress starts to eat away at you. No one wants trouble with the bar, especially trouble with the…

Happy Sunday! I think pretty much every lawyer, and for sure, law firm owner, has heard that quote from the famed jurist Learned Hand that goes something like: Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes…

Happy Sunday from sunny and rainy Austin, Texas! We had a great mastermind meeting this week and talked about everything from AI (in fact everyone built at least one agent on-site) to accounting and taxes, to therapy (there’s nothing off limits). I wanted to talk about one of the things we talked about because I think it reaches across all of these different topics, and that is procrastination. One of the people in the group, kind of playfully, was talking…

Happy Sunday! And, happy birthday USA! Hopefully you had a great time eating hotdogs, enjoying some sunshine, and celebrating the best country on the planet this weekend. Today, though, I wanted to talk to you about how to have a great time next weekend, and write it off. Whenever I travel anywhere I always look for a business reason to make the trip. Conference. Networking. Business meeting. Quarterly planning session (at this time of year). As long as I can…

Happy Sunday! And, if you’re a dad, Happy Father’s Day! I grew up with two dads. My biological dad, and my step-dad. Both were in my life, but in very different ways. And both shaped me for the better I’d like to think. Now that I’m a dad, it amazes me how much influence one has over their kids, and how much they can make you feel like they don’t care about you at the same time. 🙂 One thing…

Today I thought it would be fun to talk about ghost balances on your IOLTA account. Never heard of a ghost balance? Don’t worry, by the time we’re done you’ll know what it is and how to fix it if you end up with one. First, what the heck is a ghost balance? Basically, a ghost balance shows up when you’ve got money in your trust account but you’re not sure who it belongs to or how it got there….

What happens when you’re 6 months behind on IOLTA reconciliation… There are only a few ways to lose your license without meaning to. Messing up your trust account is one of them. Today’s confession is about a firm that was six months behind on reconciliation and didn’t realize they were sitting on a time bomb. Quick disclaimer: the names, firms, and exact numbers have been changed to protect the innocent – and the stressed. But the IOLTA nightmares are very…