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Empowering Your Practice With Billing and Trust Accounting Software
May 22, 2025
Billing is the lifeblood of law practice, but many of us have no idea what we are doing when it comes to invoicing
and collecting payments.
Similarly, we know we have to adhere to rules regarding trust accounts,* but how do we as attorneys actually accomplish three-way reconciliation? Law school did not prepare us to strike out on our own, and many of us find ourselves hampered by tedious administrative tasks when we should be more focused on working our cases.
This is where legal technology comes into play. Attorneys can log their hours, send out invoices, collect payments, and reconcile their trust account with a few clicks of a button. And, the D.C. Bar just made life a lot easier for District of Columbia practitioners by partnering with Smokeball, which offers billing and trust accounting software to Bar members for free.
Billing Doesn’t Have to Be Terrible
One of the pain points of law firm life — as too many of us are aware — is inputting our time. I hated it. Detested it. And, I was lazy about it. But we don’t get paid unless we bill for our time. Using a software that has this feature built in is life-changing.
Now, attorneys can seamlessly go from logging their time to producing draft invoices. Prebills are now available within the same software ecosystem. And, when it’s time to finalize and send bills, they can be sent out all at once with the click of one button. The software will automatically deduct trust funds from these balances if desired. Payments are integrated right into the invoice itself, which means attorneys can collect money faster and with far less hassle. Now we can work smarter, not harder, when it comes to billing.
Trust Accounting Does Not Have to Give Us Nightmares
We are all aware that we need to protect and account for client funds, including figuring out how to perform a three-way trust account reconciliation. What does that even mean? Simply put, an attorney has to match up the balances from the individual client ledgers and the main trust ledger with that of the bank account statement. Legal technology can help with all of that.
Smokeball’s trust accounting software (again, offered for FREE to D.C. Bar members) allows you to plug in your monthly bank statement balance and compare that with the trust ledger. This helps ensure that all of the balances match up every month.
More About Smokeball Bill and the D.C. Bar
Smokeball, an industry leader in legal practice management software, has an exclusive partnership with the D.C. Bar, providing all Bar members with free access to Smokeball Bill, Smokeball’s trust accounting and billing software solution for law firms. This tool will help solo and small firm practitioners effectively and efficiently manage their client trust accounts for improved client service.
Jordan Turk is an attorney and director of education at Smokeball.
*Use of Smokeball Bill does not ensure compliance with trust accounting rules or cover operating account management. The D.C. Bar offers discounts on affinity partner products as a membership benefit. The D.C. Bar does not endorse or make warranties about such products or services and disclaims liability for their use. Attorneys should assess the risks, benefits, and limitations of any product or service. The D.C. Bar may earn revenue from member purchases of affinity partner products.
