Law Firm Financials with Ryan Kimler

In this episode, Alay and Ryan discuss:  CFO versus accountant versus bookkeeper.  Trust fund collection procedures and utilization. The importance of regular meetings on your law firm’s financials.  Addressing new metrics and financial problems as you clear up the primary issues.  Key Takeaways:  When trying to figure out where you’re having a cash flow problem in your business, go through your financials, learn the numbers, and start there. Bringing in a third party can also give you a different perspective on what is and isn’t working.  Bookkeepers do the day-to-day work (like a junior associate), and accountants look at the financials more deeply and make adjustments as needed (like a senior attorney). Then the CFO takes those numbers and looks at the big picture, does the analysis of strengths and weaknesses, future tracking, and proposes corrective actions to the owner when needed.  Analysis allows you to put numbers on the same page to compare and see trends that having separate reports does not always allow for.  There is no wrong way to utilize trust collection as long as you are actually using it and not solely focusing on tracking clients down for payments. Tweetable Moments: “We’re going to take the final numbers, and we’re going to analyze where are the strengths of the business and where are the weaknesses of the business. What are the numbers that are really holding the business back from being more successful?” —  Ryan Kimler “If you want to think about growing your business, you’re forecasting into the future. That’s not something your bookkeeper or accountant can necessarily help you with.” —  Alay Yajnik “The big key is to make sure, especially when we’re doing hourly billing, that we have the funds available to bill against, and that we’re utilizing trust funds at a very, very high rate, and so that way the money’s there and we’re not running people down for collections.” —  Ryan Kimler “We continue to move forward and address new problems. After we took care of the accounts receivable problem, the next problem that we really dove into was payroll and utilization.” —  Ryan Kimler    About Ryan Kimler:  Ryan is the Founder of Net Profit CFO. A Financial Services Firm bringing clients clarity and guidance, giving them one clear path to having a growing, more successful, and more profitable business. We provide business owners with an Outside CFO guide to help them understand what is working in their business and what is not. We give owners the tools they need to take corrective actions to meet their goals and objectives. Ryan double majored in Accounting and Finance at Illinois State University. After College Ryan worked at a CPA firm with a wide range of small business clients. Ryan has since started his own firm and has specialized in working with attorneys for over 6 years and has helped more than 200 law firms. Working with attorneys is my passion. I have found that attorneys seem to be really underserved by the accounting and finance community. Most accountants waste Attorney’s valuable time by explaining and reviewing, Profit and Loss or Income Statements, and Tax Returns. Instead, attorneys need clarity – clarity to move their business forward, make informed financial decisions, meet their goals, and improve profits.   Connect with Ryan Kimler:  Website: https://www.netprofitcfo.com/ & financialclarityllc.com  Email: [email protected]  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryankfinancialclarityllc    Connect with Alay Yajnik:  Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/  One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik