Menu
Search
Home Law Firm CFO Services

Law Firm CFO Services

Make Changes Today that Affect Profitability Tomorrow.®
Blindfolded statue holding up a scale.

How well does your law firm operate … financially?

If you’re a managing partner of a small to mid-size law firm, you may personally be responsible for everything from monthly accounting and financial management tasks to dealing with profitability pressures like these:

  • Understanding and predicting cash flow / Accounts Receivable receipts
  • Bringing down and controlling operating costs and expenses
  • Planning investments in firm infrastructure needs

Then there are the operational issues you’re likely also handling — important aspects of running the practice like:

  • IT
  • HR
  • Strategic planning
  • Business insurance
  • Reporting
  • Internal controls
  • Compliance

You might be the partner spending your otherwise billable hours doing ALL of this work, or you’re overseeing an office manager or bookkeeper’s efforts.

But what if the one person you rely on leaves … and even if they are still in place, are you and your partners certain about how thorough their processes are?

Does anyone else in the firm know how to ‘do’ all that’s required (from payroll and reconciling your account, to partner distributions and proactively managing the 401K)?

We are ... THE LAWYER’S CFO

YOU’RE FOCUSED ON THE LAW

AND YOUR CLIENTS’ CASES. ON GROWTH, ADDING PARTNERS AND STAFFING NEEDS.

You may not even know what’s missing operationally — or where improvements can make a substantive difference.

GET RELIEF!

BRING IN THE SKILLS AND OVERSIGHT TO BETTER MANAGE YOUR PRACTICE

PLUS FULL MONTHLY BOOKKEEPING SERVICES!

If you feel overwhelmed with all these responsibilities, we understand. It’s hard work to interpret and connect the right dots into a useful fiscal and operational strategy to grow and manage your practice … the right way.

A fractional CFO from CFO Simplified offers a solution. We bring deeper expertise to your current financial processes — going far beyond the basic reports you’re likely currently producing — along with insights you won’t get with less experienced in-house staff.

Plus, as your part-time CFO, we address and improve your operations, encompassing everything from organizational efficiencies to detailed KPIs. In short, we help with every aspect of operations that affects your income, expenses and ultimately, your profitability.

Because everything in your practice builds your firm’s financial strength.

The results of retaining a fractional CFO? A positive impact on your bottom-line, and peace of mind for all the partners about how your practice is managed overall.

INTERESTED IN RELIABLE BOOKKEEPING?

We provide a full range of QuickBooks services, including:

  • Payroll processing
  • Properly maintain / integrate IOLTA accounts
  • QuickBooks set-up and file conversions
  • Complete bookkeeping including day-to-day accounting work and month-end close financial statements
  • Quickbooks needs analysis, conversion, add-on recommendations

LEARN ABOUT YOUR FINANCES

“I have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Why do I need a CFO?”
Understand the difference

“Managing a law firm’s finances is more than just tracking revenue and expenses. It’s strategizing and planning that helps you better manage the business.”

– A. Grais, former Law Firm Managing Partner

EXCELLENCE IN FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL STRATEGY

IT’S POSSIBLE WITH CFO SIMPLIFIED

Person smiling presenting.

Just as is the case for attorneys, true expertise makes for a winning strategy.

A true CFO does significantly more than just preparing financial statements and handing them to the managing partner.

A true CFO focuses on driving strategic goals and objectives, providing the organizational plan you might be missing, and solving long-standing control problems, whether your firm wants to safeguard its money, ensure protections against adversity, or simply enjoy strong and secure growth over time.

More than deep CFO expertise, CFO Simplified’s team also brings COO experience to your firm, guiding you through a range of common concerns:

  • Revenue per lawyer
  • Profit margin per client
  • Practice area comparisons and analysis
  • Pricing strategy
  • Staff compensation
  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Tax burden
  • Partner profit distributions
  • 401K management
  • Internal operational efficiency
  • Procedural and internal controls
  • Scaling and growth planning
  • Succession planning
  • Operational security

It’s time to get serious about your strategy — and with CFO Simplified, you don’t have to do it alone.

“Our Firm hired CFO Simplified to help us navigate during a critical juncture. From the outset, their team exhibited a solid understanding of our unique needs and the urgency of the situation.

They were able to jump in with both feet and helped overcome some of our immediate challenges, demonstrating a commitment to our success and working collaboratively with our leadership team and internal staff.”

– Sandi Cohen, Human Resource Director, Harrison, LLP

SAVE TIME AND MONEY, GAIN CONFIDENCE AND PEACE OF MIND

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT EXPERTISE, EXACTLY WHEN YOU NEED IT

Two people talking while looking at tablet.

CFO Simplified provides the expertise of an internal CFO and COO without the expensive full-time salaries and benefits.

Unlike CPAs concerned with taxes and bookkeepers handling ledgers, your firm’s fractional CFO provides unbiased, valuable guidance on all things finance, operations and strategic planning.

Your CFO works on-site with you through our Deep Dive Strategic Analysis to identify shortcomings and create a realistic strategy to correct them — and a plan to get your firm where it needs to be to reach the next level.

Clients typically engage with us for six months to two years, and benefit from:

  • More than 100 years of operationally based executive experience
  • Our successes and experience gained from serving 100+ clients since 2009

Bottom-line: it pays to bring in CFO Simplified.

Read more About Us and Meet Our Team

“Thank you for helping our firm through tough times — and getting us on the right path. We really appreciate it and we’re happy to provide referrals to CFO Simplified.”

– Partner and Executive Committee Member, Chicago Law Firm

THE RESULTS YOU WANT, WITH NO HEADACHES FOR PARTNERS

When Does the CFO Order Office Supplies?

Mid-sized law firm | 15 partners | 30 attorneys

The short answer is “never”. Read more about what happens when a back-office administrative function lacks accountability and structure.

Who’s in Charge Here?

Mid-sized law firm | 37 partners, 100 attorneys, multi-state operations

What would happen if your firm’s office manager just up and resigned and refused further communication? We describe what we did to bring order to financial chaos.

Picture of arm with pen writing on paper.

"We had just retained CFO Simplified to conduct its analysis of the operation and financial systems for our multi-state law practice when our Office Manager left unexpectedly. On top of immediate operational needs, including payroll and routine accounting issues, we needed to coordinate a year-end reconciliation and determine upcoming partner payments — all with immediate deadlines.

CFO Simplified jumped in immediately and pivoted from the scheduled “Deep Dive” on our systems to handling day-to-day financial matters as an interim CFO. Very quickly, CFO Simplified was able to get a handle on our somewhat antiquated systems and assist us to complete the time-sensitive matters and put us on track for smoother financial operations.

We were very impressed by their proficiency and willingness to roll up their sleeves and do what was needed on such short notice.

We now have significant confidence in our financial systems, and our partners have the comfort of knowing that everything is being managed. Hiring CFO Simplified was a very good decision for us, and we look forward to additional positive results as we continue to work with CFO Simplified.”

– Managing Partner, Mid-size Chicago Law Firm

MAKE CHANGES TODAY THAT AFFECT PROFITABILITY TOMORROW®

Picture of Larry Chester

Clients hire you because you know the law. Partner with us for financial and operational expertise that brings you stability, control and certainty.

Contact Lawrence Chester to explore how CFO Simplified can make a difference for your firm. Schedule your 10-minute discovery call now:

Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

Each month we provide key insights, resources and tips for building a better business. Get the latest blog posts, business hints, accounting tips and a personal note from Larry.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Get Clarity On Your
Company’s Performance

Our people are unique CFOs. They are all operationally
based financial executives.

Call Now Button