Brief Accounting vs LeanLaw
Brief Accounting
brieflegal.com
LeanLaw
leanlaw.coSide by side
| Figure | Brief Accounting | LeanLaw |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $55/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Trust Accounting Software | 8.7 (#6) | 8.9 (#3) |
| Spec score · Law Firm Accounting Software | 8.6 (#5) | 8.8 (#3) |
| Company founded | LinkedIn lists Brief Legal Software Inc. as founded in 2002. | Stanford CodeX lists LeanLaw as founded in 2014. |
| Headquarters | The maker identifies Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as its location and lists a Vancouver contact address. | Boise, Idaho, United States |
| Purpose | Brief Accounting combines legal billing, trust accounting and office accounting for law firms. | LeanLaw provides law firms with timekeeping, billing, trust accounting, payments, and financial reporting built around QuickBooks Online. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.0 out of 5 from 1 review | 4.7 out of 5 from 92 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4 out of 5 from 1 review | 4.5 out of 5 from 1 review |
| Reporting | Reports include timekeeper, work-in-progress, payment-allocation, general-ledger detail, trial-balance, balance-sheet, and income-statement reports, with Excel export. | Lean Insights provides real-time realization, collection-rate, days-to-collect and lockup reporting from live ledger data. |
| Support | Subscriptions include unlimited telephone and email support, and users can access an online knowledge base and training materials. | LeanLaw lists phone support at 888.882.3017 and says it typically replies to email within one business day. |
| Trust accounting | Trust functions cover receipts, cheques, applying trust to invoices, multiple banks, reconciliations, trust journals, liability reports, and client trust histories. | The platform includes IOLTA workflows with three-way reconciliation, trust-to-operating transfers, sub-ledgers and audit-ready reports. |
| What it does | Brief Accounting combines legal time and billing, trust accounting, and office accounting in one system. | LeanLaw is cloud legal billing and financial-operations software for law firms, built around QuickBooks Online. |
Plans
Brief Accounting
- BasicC$24.95 a month
- Brief Office Accounting add-on$30 a month
- Brief Accounting ProPriced on request
- Brief Accounting subscription for small and medium sized firmsPriced on request
LeanLaw
- Core$55 a month
- Pro$75 a month
- ContingencyPriced on request
- ElitePriced on request
In their own words
Brief Accounting
Brief Accounting has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
LeanLaw
LeanLaw provides law firms with timekeeping, billing, trust accounting, payments and financial reporting built around QuickBooks Online. It supports hourly, flat-fee and contingency billing. Trust tools include three-way reconciliation, automated transfers from trust to operating accounts, sub-ledger management and IOLTA reporting. The Core plan costs $55 a month per user and includes time and expense tracking, e-payments, reporting, trust accounting, professional invoices and two-way QuickBooks Online sync. Pro costs $75 a month per user and adds custom invoice templates, LEDES files, user permissions and matter-based accounting. Contingency and Elite pricing is custom. An active QuickBooks Online subscription is required; QuickBooks Desktop is not supported. LeanLaw offers a 14-day trial without requiring a credit card, though migration and QuickStart onboarding begin with a paid subscription. The mobile app shows matter details but cannot create or edit matters. The public REST API supports programmatic access to clients, matters, time entries, expenses, invoices, users and codes.