Xero is an alternative to Quickbooks that provides cloud-based accounting and invoicing software to over 700,000 small businesses around the world. When paired with law practice management software Clio, Xero gives lawyers a seamless accounting option with attorney-specific invoicing.
Details
There’s no question that attorney invoices are highly detailed. Attorneys need to account for a sizable client base, a number of different hourly billing rates, and variable expenses. Xero’s integration with Clio allows attorneys to drastically simplify recording revenue and client-related expenses in several ways.
Xero’s integration with Clio improves upon the traditional attorney invoicing process from start to finish. First, when an attorney creates an invoice for a new client in Clio, that client’s contact information will sync to Xero, eliminating the possibility of errors resulting from manually entering the same information twice. Next, when an attorney notes time and expense in Clio, that information will automatically be reflected on the invoice over at Xero – there is no need to enter the information again. Finally, authorizing Clio to sync to Xero means that when a payment is applied in Clio, it will also automatically sync to Xero. This is especially helpful when a client has multiple invoices (normally deposited separately.) From there, an attorney would need to figure out how to properly apply each payment, but with Xero and Clio, the process is automatic.
How to Get It
Xero has a full-featured 30-day free trial that does not require a credit card.
Xero has three pricing tiers —starter, standard, and premium. The standard and premium tiers include unlimited invoicing. Normally, prices range from $9/month for the starter to $70/month for the premium, but Xero currently has a promotion that allows users to get the first six months at 30% off.
If you ever need help with your books, feel free to reach out to Xero advisor Kahuna Accounting for a consultation.
Xero can’t print deposit slips. (Their customer service evidently has responded to complaints for years by suggesting you take their batch deposit report to the bank, ignoring the fact that that’s not acceptable to US banks.) So do Xero users just hand write all deposit slips? It seems like a bizarre shortcoming that Xero can’t print onto the Quickbooks-formatted deposit slip forms, like it can onto QB-formatted check forms.