LAW FIRM CPA SERVICES

Accounting, Tax & CFO Services for Law Firms

From IOLTA trust compliance to partner compensation, we handle the numbers so you can focus on your clients and cases.

Serving Seattle-area law firms since 1971 · Licensed WA CPAs

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Accounting Built Around How Law Firms Operate

Greenwood Ohlund provides law firm accounting for solo practices, litigation and contingency-fee firms, and multi-partner practices across the Seattle area. We handle law firm bookkeeping, trust reconciliation, and partnership tax together, so what the firm has done and what the firm has collected are both visible, and your realization rate is a number you can trust.

Client trust accounting is the part with the least room for error: trust funds stay segregated from the firm’s money, and the three-way reconciliation between your trust ledger, client ledgers, and bank statement has to agree every month. We run that reconciliation on a monthly close rather than at year-end, when a discrepancy is months old and harder to trace.

Attorneys reviewing law firm financial statements in a Seattle law office

OUR CLIENTS

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The Challenges Law Firms Face and How We Help

Cash basis is simpler and defers tax until you collect, but it also means your books show nothing until the money arrives. So we keep the cash-basis books for filing and give you the accrual picture alongside it, so you can see what the firm has earned as well as what it has banked.

We track WIP from recorded time through billing to collection, so you see where the pipeline leaks: time that never gets billed, bills that never get collected, or discounts given at invoicing.

Advanced costs in a contingency matter are generally treated as loans to the client rather than firm expenses, which changes when you can deduct them. We track them by matter so they’re recoverable at settlement and treated correctly at filing.

We administer draws and capital accounts against your partnership agreement, then prepare the K-1s from the same records, timed so partners can meet their own estimates.

WHAT WE DO

How We Support Law Firms

Tax Services

Partnership returns, partner K-1s, and the PTET election, planned during the year rather than at filing.

Audit & Assurance

Assurance work and trust-account reporting support when a bank, a client, or the bar asks for it.

Accounting & CFO Services

Law firm bookkeeping, monthly trust reconciliation, realization and profitability reporting, and a fractional CFO who reads the numbers by practice area.

What Makes Law Firm Accounting Different

Client trust accounting is governed by the Washington State Bar, and the discipline it requires is specific: trust funds segregated from firm funds, no commingling, and a three-way reconciliation that ties your trust ledger, individual client ledgers, and bank statement to each other. Those are the rules we keep your books against. A trust account that’s merely balanced isn’t the same as one that reconciles three ways.

The tax side has its own mechanics. Most firms file on cash basis, which defers income until collection but leaves earned work invisible in the books. Partner compensation splits between guaranteed payments under §707(c) and distributive share, taxed differently. Client cost advances in contingency matters are generally loans rather than deductible expenses, so the timing of the deduction moves. Washington’s B&O tax applies to legal services at the entity level on gross receipts, separate from how partners are taxed, and the PTET election can shift state tax to the firm where it helps.

Client trust ledger, bank statement and calculator during a three-way trust reconciliation

We serve firms like yours

Firms Like Yours

We work with a wide range of law firms, including:

nonprofit accounting services
nonprofit accounting services

Solo and small law firms

nonprofit accounting services
nonprofit accounting services

Litigation and contingency-fee firms

nonprofit accounting services
nonprofit accounting services

Personal-injury firms

nonprofit accounting services
nonprofit accounting services

Transactional and corporate firms

nonprofit accounting services
nonprofit accounting services

Multi-partner law firms

nonprofit accounting services
nonprofit accounting services

Boutique practice groups

Why Law Firms Choose Greenwood Ohlund

Decades serving professional service firms

We’ve been doing this since 1971.

Tax, audit, accounting, and CFO expertise, one firm

Most firms our size don’t offer all four under one roof. You get a tax team, an audit team, and a CFO-level advisory team who already talk to each other, instead of coordinating three separate vendors yourself.

Seattle-rooted, with clients across Washington and beyond

We’re based in Seattle and built around the Pacific Northwest, with clients in other states when the relationship calls for it.

A relationship that runs all year, not just tax season

We’re recognized as a Peak Firm and a PSBJ Washington’s Best Workplaces honoree, and that same culture shows up in how we work with clients: regular conversations and actual availability, not a firm you hear from once a year.

EXPERIENCE THE GO DIFFERENCE

Your Law Firms Team

Claire Chow

TAX SERVICES

Claire Chow, CPA

Partner

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Matt Smith

AUDIT & ASSURANCE

Matt Smith, CPA

Partner

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Jason Mallon, CPA

CFO & ACCOUNTING SERVICES

Jason Mallon, CPA

Partner

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MEET THE TEAM
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FAQ

Law Firms Accounting FAQs

IOLTA accounts hold client funds separately from the firm’s own money: retainers, settlement proceeds, and advances that aren’t yours until earned. The accounting discipline is segregation, no commingling, and a monthly three-way reconciliation. We maintain the trust ledger and run that reconciliation on a monthly close.

Three balances have to agree: your trust bank statement, your trust ledger, and the total of every individual client ledger. If any two match but the third doesn’t, the error is in the client-level detail. We reconcile all three monthly so a discrepancy surfaces while it’s still traceable.

Most firms use cash basis, which defers income until you collect and keeps tax aligned with cash. The tradeoff is that earned, unbilled work doesn’t appear in your books. We file on cash basis and give you the accrual picture alongside it.

Compensation splits between guaranteed payments under §707(c), which are taxed as income when paid, and distributive share, which follows the partnership agreement. Both have to tie back to the agreement and the capital accounts. We administer draws and capital accounts and prepare the K-1s from the same records.

Costs you advance in a contingency matter are generally treated as loans to the client rather than firm expenses, which moves the deduction to when the case resolves without recovery. We track advances by matter so they’re recoverable at settlement and correctly treated at filing.

It depends on your firm’s size, the volume running through your trust account, and how clean the existing books are. As a law firm accounting Seattle practice, we start with a conversation and build a proposal around what your firm needs.

CONTACT US

Let’s Strengthen the Financial Side of Your Firm

IOLTA trust reconciliation, partner compensation, or law firm tax planning: we can take it from here. Reach out and we’ll start with a conversation about your firm.