Accounting is an essential function of any business, and law firms are no exception.
However, law firms have unique needs when it comes to accounting. Most law firms need:
- General / Business Accounting
- Trust / IOLTA Accounting
- Cash Basis (vs. Accrual)
- Multiple Billing Types (Hourly, Fixed Fee, Contingency)
- Law Firm-Centric Financial Reporting
- Financial Reporting by Matter
A common point of confusion are the different types of law firm accounting software. The term “law firm accounting” tends to be thrown around pretty liberally, and is often (inaccurately, in our view) used to describe billing and trust features, but lac the core/traditional accounting software fundamentals (like a Chart of Accounts, P&L, Balance Sheet).
In addition, there is general-purpose accounting software (that is: accounting software meant to be used by any type of business, but does not necessarily include the law-firm-specific functions that you may need.)
Juris is dedicated legal accounting. It provides sophisticated, end-to-end legal billing and all accounting functions that a law firm needs.
Accounting vs. Practice Management Software
Law Practice Management, Billing, and Accounting are three related, but discreet functions. And each can be managed with different software (or, all in one software suite). This is where the fuzzy terminology makes understanding what any given software package does confusing.
Broadly speaking, Law Practice Management software manages a firm’s clients, contacts, calendars, cases, time and expense tracking, billing and other “front-office” functionality.
Some Practice Management applications include complete accounting (including everything you see above), and some practice management applications provide time tracking, billing, and expense tracking… but leave the actual accounting to separate software (which it may integrate with).
Law Practice Management applications like Clio, Practice Panther and Time Matters do provide time tracking, billing and even reporting on billings… but they do not provide the “rest of accounting,” and instead integrate with applications like QuickBooks to complete the picture.
This is not to say one method is better than the other; rather it makes defining and understanding the classes of law firm accounting software important.
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Introduction to Juris
Juris is dedicated legal accounting software by LexisNexis. Juris is server/desktop-based software, which means it can run on-premise, on your firm’s in-house servers or hosted in a Uptime Cloud.
Juris comes in three primary modules:
- Juris (Sometimes called “Juris Core”) – the core/base legal accounting software
- Juris Suite – An add-on module that provides additional functionality
- Juris Go – The mobile app for Juris (Android and IOS)
A Good Fit for Firms That…
Juris is often a good fit for law firms of 5 or more attorneys (especially law firms of 10 attorneys or more). Juris is especially useful for law firms that need sophisticated legal accounting, and find the accounting capabilities of general-purpose law practice management (or generic accounting software) lacking.
Juris is generally not well-suited for solo and very small law practices.
The Company
Juris is a product of LexisNexis, the same company that owns Time Matters and PCLaw software, also well-known for it’s legal research service.
See Juris in Use
Juris in practice is a near-perfect blend of matter management, legal billing and law-firm-centric accounting software.
Screenshots
Juris Hints & Tips Video
Juris Modules & Complete Feature List
Juris comes in two primary modules, Juris (sometimes called “Juris Core”), and Juris Suite.
Juris (Core)
Juris Suite (Add-On)
User Feedback
We’ve aggregated and curated feedback from Juris users. This feedback is made up of feedback from our clients, legal technology consultants and online user feedback.
“Our law firm uses Juris and Juris Suite for our Work Comp Defense firm. I like that it is very user friendly when adding new contacts/employers/ etc. It also alerts you in the screen pop up if the matter is already in use or if you forgot to fill out a pertinent cell.”
“LexisNexis Juris is a simplified account manager, which acts as accounts payable, receivable, charges, and expenses. If integrated throughout the entire system, the application will automatically update the account so that you do not have to through different interfaces. We like the software, though found it expensive.”
“I like Juris, it’s organized, meaning you can usually find what you are looking for as long as you know where to look. I don’t like the lack of inline storage; I wanted to be able to link documents and store them within Juris and it’s not possible with our version.”
“I like the timer function to ensure both accuracy and to prevent a moment from being wasted. Stopping, starting and pausing the timer allow me to fill my day most productively and allow me to document my productivity accurately. I like the ability to print daily and weekly juris reports for supervisory review – not only am I being self-accountable, but my superiors can review my time entries to see what projects are taking up most of my time.”
Juris Software Pricing
Pricing information provided is made up of intel from customers, consultants, and in some cases the software publisher.
- Juris can be purchased with its Core module only, or with the extended Juris Suite.
- Pricing for Juris varies by firm size, number of timekeepers, and modules purchased.
- Please contact the software publisher directly for pricing information for your law firm.
Juris in the Cloud
Juris is desktop/server-based software, which means you can run it on your firm’s in-house, on-premise servers, or hosted in a Private Cloud.
Juris Suite, in particular, is robust software, and as a results needs a significant amount of server resources (processing power, RAM) to function optimally. Hosting Juris in the cloud should be done only with capable, experienced cloud providers.
Running Juris in secure Private Cloud, via a Virtual Desktop platform, gives your law firm the advantages of the cloud, without having to maintain servers and deal with IT headaches.
Advantages of Juris in the Cloud
IT Support for Law Firms:
Understanding your options for support is essential to knowing what to expect when something hits the fan — or better yet, before something does.
Ready to Get Juris in the Cloud?
At Uptime Legal, we host Juris and other legal software for hundreds of law firms across North America.
Get in touch with our team to learn more about Juris in the cloud for your law firm.
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