How to track and understand your firm’s financial health with Firm Central

By: Terry Rheault
Published: May 14, 2018

You wouldn’t defend a case purely on gut instinct and present it to a judge without any evidence. So why would you run your firm that way?

Intelligent decisions are based on data – in the courtroom and in the business world.

Now, the financial performance data you need to manage your firm and make informed business decisions has never been easier to obtain and understand thanks to Firm Central law practice management software. Just go to the reporting dashboard within Firm Central to see everything you must know to keep your firm moving in the most profitable direction.

Have you ever spent restless nights wondering why cash flow is drying up even though you are working more hours than ever? How much money did you make last month or what could you expect to make in the current month? Or, what clients have yet to pay and how much of that is past due?

These questions can easily be answered with the Firm Central financial performance dashboard. It presents a real-time view of key financial metrics in easy-to-digest charts including:

• Year-to-date revenue, work in progress, billings, and collections
• Aging accounts receivable – what invoices are overdue and by how long
• Top clients by revenue and the clients with the most outstanding bills
• Revenue by practice area year to date

This allows you to easily keep a pulse on the profitability of your firm with a click at any time, from anywhere saving you time and giving you the financial details you need to make effective law firm management decisions.

If you want to get to more specific details you can easily run reports and edit them within Firm Central. You can stop spending hours extracting data and splicing together spreadsheets.

The reports will let you see detailed time entries by matter, client or user, trust account details and balances, and collection realization by matter or client, to name a few.

Furthermore, your reports will look professional with little effort on your part. New Firm Central reporting features allow you to easily expand, shrink, or hide columns, and sort and select data. For instance, if you only want to see past-due invoices of more than $2,000, a quick click will take care of it. You can even format your reports to look exactly how you want – change font colors, styles, and sizes.

Best of all, any changes will be reflected in the document you export without further cutting, pasting or design. Your firm’s logo and address will appear at the top for a professional presentation, and you can export it into a variety of formats including Word, Excel®, PowerPoint®, and PDF.

In minutes, your report can go from your computer to a meeting where you can strategically and intelligently discuss bonuses, marketing investment, and other issues that affect your firm’s future. You’ll have all the data you need – laid out perfectly – to make the best decisions.

Understanding the financial health of your law firm has never been easier.