Core accounting is still the gold standard

Why accounting dominates

Accounting is where the system touches money, regulation and every fee earner's month end at once. A clumsy workflow is an irritation; a billing process that cannot handle your fee arrangements, a transfer that needs a manual workaround, or a reconciliation that will not balance is a cost every single month, and sometimes a regulatory problem.

Where the change requests come from

• Billing: fixed, staged and capped fees, split billing, third-party payers, write-offs and uplifts, and bill layouts clients will accept.
• Disbursements and VAT: the treatment of each type, recharges and corrections.
• Client account: transfers, payments, interest, residual balances and the five-weekly three-way reconciliation the COFA signs off.
• Office accounts and integration: nominal structure, month end, and the link to any separate accounts system.
• Reporting: work in progress, lock-up, debtors and profitability that finance and partners trust.

Put accounting first in the selection

1. Write the accounting requirements with your cashiers, finance team and COFA, in their language.
2. Demonstrate end-to-end scenarios with your own examples: open a matter, take money on account, incur a disbursement, bill, receive payment, transfer costs, reconcile, run month end and produce the VAT return.
3. Include your awkward cases: the fee arrangements and corrections that cause problems today.
4. Give accounting the largest weight in scoring, and do not let impressive features elsewhere outweigh a weak ledger.

AI and workflow matter. But a system that cannot run your accounts the way your firm and your regulator need will generate change requests for as long as you use it.