Law firms and advocates
Accounting software for law firms and advocates
Let fee notes, receipts, chamber expenses and payroll write their own journals, post the TDS your clients deduct with one entry, and hand your CA a trial balance that already agrees.
In short
SimpleERP is accounting software for law firms and advocates in India. Fee notes, receipts, expenses and payroll post their own balanced journals, client advances wait on account, and TDS deducted by clients is posted with a short journal.
Illustration: saving invoice INV-2026-27-0213 moves stock, posts the customer ledger, records CGST and SGST and updates the dashboard in one step.
An accounting day at Rangan and Iyer Advocates
On the fifth of every month the accountant who comes in twice a week sits down with the partners of Rangan and Iyer Advocates. Her checklist is short but slow: match the bank statement, list the clients who owe money, work out the TDS that corporate clients deducted under section 194J, and split the cash spent between client costs and the chamber's own rent, power and typing charges.
Last month one company paid ₹90,000 against two fee notes after deducting ₹10,000 of TDS, another paid an advance for an arbitration that has not started, and the senior clerk spent ₹18,400 in cash on court fees, of which ₹16,900 is to be billed back.
With SimpleERP most of that is already done when she arrives. Each document wrote its journal when it was posted, the advance shows as money on account against that client, and her job shrinks to the TDS journal, the bank tick-off and a look at the reports.
Ledger
Which accounts does a chamber actually use?
Fewer than a trading business. The seeded chart of accounts covers them, and the documents you post choose the account, so the partners rarely see a ledger name unless they look.
- Fee income from every posted fee note, split by service if you add income accounts.
- Receivables per client, with advances shown as a credit until allocated.
- Chamber expenses by category: rent, power, typing, travel and subscriptions.
| What happened | Debit | Credit | Posted by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee note to a company, ₹1,00,000 | Accounts receivable | Fee income | The fee note |
| Company pays ₹90,000 after TDS | Bank | Accounts receivable | The receipt |
| TDS of ₹10,000 under 194J | TDS receivable | Accounts receivable | A journal you post |
| Court fee paid in cash for a client | Expense or receivable, as your CA prefers | Cash | The expense |
| Chamber rent for October | Rent | Bank | The expense |
Client advances
Where does a client's advance sit until the work is done?
On account, inside that client's receivable, as a receipt not yet allocated. The client's statement shows it as a credit, and when you raise the fee note you allocate the receipt to it. It is not a trust or escrow account, so a chamber that must keep client money separate should keep a separate bank account for it.
- Money on account visible on the client, so an old advance is not forgotten.
- Allocation you can change before posting, oldest fee note first by default.
- Client statement with opening balance, running balance and ageing.
Illustration of a journal entry where debits and credits differ by ₹1,000, refused, and a posting into a locked month, refused with the lock date.
Month-end
What does month-end look like for the accountant?
A few checks instead of a rebuild. The bank register is reconciled by ticking the lines that cleared, the TDS from clients is matched with Form 26AS outside the product, and the lock date closes the month so nobody posts into it by mistake.
- Bank reconciliation by entering the statement balance and ticking cleared lines.
- Trial balance, P&L and balance sheet for any date, exported to CSV.
- Lock date with any reopening approved and logged.
- Accountant role that sees the books without the partners' passwords.
One system
Where the books get their entries
Fee notes, receipts, expenses and payroll write the journals; the accountant adds only what no document covers.
Law firms and advocates
Fee notes under SAC 9982, client advances on account, court fees at cost and payroll for clerks.
See howGST billing for advocates
Fee notes with SAC 9982 codes, a reverse charge or exempt note, and court fees recovered at cost.
See howPayroll for law firms
Monthly salaries for clerks, typists and salaried associates, with PF, PT, advances and payslips on the phone.
See howAccounting
A double-entry ledger with journals, bank registers, statements and a lock date.
See how
Honest limits
Limits for a law firm's books
- No bank feeds: bank entries are recorded and reconciled by hand
- No multi-currency; every document is in rupees
- GST return filing and e-invoicing are not done inside the product
- No client trust or escrow accounting; advances are ordinary receipts on account
- TDS deducted by clients is not computed; post it with a journal
Getting started
Start with accounting
Sign up with your phone
Name, phone number and a password. No card for the seven-day trial, and email is optional.
Tell us about the business
Type your GSTIN and the state fills itself. Accounts, GST rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for you.
Enter opening balances
Enter bank and cash balances, what each client owes or has paid in advance, and the law library at its book value, all as at your start date.
Run the trial balance
Every posted document is already in the ledger; the trial balance and P&L are ready on any date.
FAQ
Questions, answered
How do partners' drawings get recorded?
With a journal from the bank to each partner's drawings or capital account. It is one of the few entries a chamber posts by hand, and the database refuses it if the two sides differ.
Can the court fees we pay for clients be kept apart from our own expenses?
Yes. Give client costs their own expense category, or post them to a recoverable account if your CA prefers. Either way the fee note that bills them back shows the client what was spent.
Can we see income per partner or per practice area?
Not as a report by partner or matter. You can split income by adding separate income accounts for areas such as litigation and advisory and mapping each saved service to one, which the P&L then shows apart.
Our CA uses Tally for the tax audit. Can she still work from SimpleERP?
Give her the Accountant role. She can read the ledgers and statements in SimpleERP and export the trial balance and registers to CSV for her own files.
Related
Keep reading
Law firms and advocates
Fee notes under SAC 9982, client advances on account, court fees at cost and payroll for clerks.
Read moreGST billing for advocates
Fee notes with SAC 9982 codes, a reverse charge or exempt note, and court fees recovered at cost.
Read morePayroll for law firms
Monthly salaries for clerks, typists and salaried associates, with PF, PT, advances and payslips on the phone.
Read more
See how accounting works in SimpleERP for law firms and advocates
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