Professional Services
Your billable rate is high. We track WIP, reimbursables, and project profitability so you stop leaving money on the table.
Time is the Product
Professional services firms sell expertise by the hour or by the project. The work itself demands precision. A legal brief with the wrong citation fails. Structural calculations with a decimal error collapse. Survey coordinates off by inches create boundary disputes. You apply that precision to client work because that is the standard.
But the business side often runs on approximation. Unbilled hours pile up. Reimbursable expenses get forgotten or absorbed into overhead. Project profitability is a rough guess based on gut feel. You charge clients for meticulous work, then let your own financial records slide because there are always more pressing deadlines.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Law firms, architecture practices, engineering consultancies, and surveying companies across MetroWest and Greater Boston. Any professional services firm where expertise is the product and time is how you measure the work.
The Friction
The Friction
Your billable rate is high. Every hour spent on administrative tasks is an hour not billed to clients. But the bookkeeping still needs doing, and doing it poorly creates bigger problems at tax time, during partner discussions, or when you need a loan.
Tracking What Matters
Work in progress is the hidden balance sheet item in professional services. Those unbilled hours represent real value, but only if they eventually become invoices. We track WIP by client and matter so nothing ages past the point where clients will pay without complaint. Same with reimbursable expenses like travel, filing fees, and printing costs that should be billed back but often disappear.
For law firms handling client funds, trust account reconciliation is not optional. Massachusetts bar rules require strict separation of client money from operating funds. We reconcile IOLTA accounts monthly and ensure your three-way reconciliation stays clean. No commingling, no errors, no compliance problems with the Board of Bar Overseers.
Matter and Project Tracking
Matter and Project Tracking
Every hour and every expense tied to the client or project it belongs to. This lets you see profitability by engagement, identify matters that consume more resources than they generate, and make informed decisions about pricing and which clients are worth pursuing.
Retainer and Trust Accounting
Retainer and Trust Accounting
Client retainers need proper treatment. They are not income until earned. For law firms, trust funds require separate tracking and regular reconciliation. We maintain the discipline these accounts require so you stay compliant with ethical obligations.
Where Money Disappears
The most common problem is unbilled time that never becomes revenue. A partner works fifteen hours on a matter but only bills ten because they lost track or rounded down out of habit. Multiply that across a year and across multiple professionals, and you are leaving tens of thousands on the table. The work was done, the value was delivered, but the money never came in.
Project profitability is the other blind spot. A client seems profitable based on total billings, but when you factor in the associate time, the administrative support, and the slow payments that stretch your receivables to 90 days, the margin evaporates. Without tracking costs against revenue by matter, you cannot tell which clients are actually worth keeping.
Reimbursables That Vanish
Reimbursables That Vanish
Filing fees, overnight shipping, travel expenses, printing costs. These should be billed back to clients, but without a system to capture them when they occur, they get absorbed into general overhead. Over a year this adds up to real money you worked for but never collected.
Partner Production Mysteries
Partner Production Mysteries
In a multi-partner firm, compensation often depends on individual production. If the books do not clearly track revenue and collections by originating attorney or responsible engineer, disputes about contribution become inevitable. Everyone thinks they brought in more than the numbers show.
What Changes
You gain visibility into the actual economics of your practice. Which clients are profitable after accounting for all the time and expenses they consume. Which matters are sitting unbilled past 60 or 90 days. Where your pricing is too low relative to the work required. The data exists to answer these questions once someone is tracking it properly.
Tax preparation becomes straightforward. Your CPA receives organized records showing income, expenses, and work in progress by category. Partner allocations are documented. Quarterly estimates reflect actual cash flow patterns instead of rough guesses. The year-end scramble disappears and tax season becomes a handoff rather than a crisis.
Pricing Confidence
Pricing Confidence
Historical project data shows what work actually costs to deliver. This informs proposals, helps you scope engagements accurately, and gives you the information to have honest conversations when scope creep threatens margins. You stop guessing and start knowing.
Clean Partner Books
Clean Partner Books
Production tracked by individual. Collections attributed correctly. Expenses allocated fairly. When compensation discussions happen, everyone is looking at the same verified numbers instead of arguing about whose memory is correct. The partnership runs smoother when the finances are clear.
Greater Boston's Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
We'll ask a few questions, figure out what you need, and give you a straightforward quote.