Brief Accounting

Brief Accounting is a fully integrated modular accounting program, designed specifically for the legal industry. This product has flexibility and the ease-of-use unmatched by any other legal accounting system. Brief Accounting is meant to satisfy the needs of any sized legal practice; and each module is customizable to meet your needs. This software includes the following modules:

• Time and Billing, including Pre-Bill and Invoicing
• Trust Accounting
• General Office Accounting
• Accounts Receivable (with invoicing capabilities)
• Accounts Payable
• General Ledger

Accounts Payable

The accounts payable module gives you everything you need to manage your payables. You can print purchase orders, create and monitor invoices and view a statement of accounts. Additionally, you can easily apply payments to invoices, and print the accounts payables journal and A/P reports. All invoices can be drilled down to see the payment detail.

Accounts Receivable

In Brief Accounting you can invoice in both the Time & Billing module or the Accounts Receivable module. Either way, once an invoice is created it is tracked in the Accounts Receivable module. All invoices in the Accounts Receivables module can be drilled down to view the details that make up every dollar of every invoice. This module allows you to view or print a Statement of Accounts, showing a complete credit history and outstanding balance.

Additionally, you can add interest to overdue accounts; and apply payments to invoices using a receipt or funds in trust. With this module you are able to print accounts receivables journals and aged accounts receivable reports. All invoice formats can be saved as a template for use in the future; saving time in your invoicing processes. From start to finish you can make your invoicing process more efficient and less time consuming.

General Ledger

The General Ledger module tracks all transactions that have been posted. The G/L can then display all transactions in detail; and report all transactions through financial statements. The General ledger is based on a chart of accounts that includes seven main categories: assets, liabilities, revenue, disbursements, expenses and suspense. The general ledger will update continuously so your bookkeeping is always current. For auditing purposes, you are given the ability to print out any and all transactions that affect the chart of accounts. Additionally, Brief Accounting will automate the printing of a hard copy record of every posted transaction. The general ledger is completely customizable and allows you to:

• Modify the chart of accounts
• Create and post adjusting journal entries
• Monitor activity and view accounting detail for each general journal entry
• Monitor activity and view accounting detail using a blank account journal.
• Print the trial balance
• Print a balance sheet, with the option of including work-in-progress
• Print the income statement, including the work-in-progress
• Print general ledger cards

Office Accounting

To help you concentrate on more pressing legal issues, Brief Accounting includes the Office Accounting module which automates many of the bookkeeping procedures as you run your practice. Since this product automates your bookkeeping records, your records are always up to date, giving you access to the most recent information. Additionally, there are no month-end bookkeeping procedures other than bank reconciliation. This package also tracks the sales tax you owe. The Office Accounting module will:

• Print checks and receipts in three parts
• Automatically post to the general ledger as your business dictates
• Print checks or receipts
• Incorporate vendor lists to speed the process of writing checks
• Provide you with a 1099 report
• Allocate your expenses to the time & billing accounts
• Automate tax tracking and check writing
• Allow you to post individually or in batches
• Perform bank reconciliation and track bank errors
• Provide you with a constantly updated bank balance
• Support multiple banks and accounts

Time & Billing

This program is able to fully handle all time & billing functions vital to running your law practice. All time activities and disbursements can be directly entered from within the T&B module. They can also be imported from the Brief EnCounter Timekeeper or from other cost recovery systems. Additionally, you can allocate time and disburse it automatically while writing checks out of the general office account. This module allows you to create individual time slips, and edit them individually or as a batch. Pre-bills allow you to preview time and billing detail amounts, enabling you to check for errors or omissions before billing.

Additionally, you can print supporting documents to attach to the statement; and all time and billing can be consolidated for billing purposes. Once pre-bills are approved you can print invoices, post them and send them to a client. When you sign off on an invoice brief accounting automatically purges and exports the original entry slips; creates an invoice in accounts receivable, and updates the general ledger. With the functions of the Time & Billing module you will be able to automate many of the functions associated with billing.

Pricing

Brief Accounting starts at $49.95/month for a single timekeeper. Additional timekeepers are $24.95/timekeeper/month.

Medium to large businesses can get custom prices for Brief Accounting Pro for firms with multiple bookkeepers and office administrators.