Brief Accounting vs LegalClaw
Brief Accounting
brieflegal.com
LegalClaw
erpclaw.aiSide by side
| Figure | Brief Accounting | LegalClaw |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 2 |
| Spec score · Trust Accounting Software | 8.7 (#6) | 8.6 (#9) |
| Billing | Brief Billing supports slip entry, prebills, invoice processing, accounts receivable and batch receipts. | Billing supports retainers, contingency, hourly, and flat-fee arrangements, with billable hours tracked by matter and attorney. |
| Founded | 1985 | 2014 |
| Intended users | The maker describes Brief Accounting as suitable for solo practitioners and firms of varying sizes, with Brief Accounting Pro for larger teams needing simultaneous access. | The legal page names solo practitioners, small firms with 3–10 attorneys, and boutique litigation firms as example users. |
| Purpose | Brief Accounting combines legal billing, trust accounting and office accounting for law firms. | LegalClaw is ERPClaw’s legal vertical for matter management, time billing, trust accounting, and law-firm operations. |
| Support | Subscriptions include unlimited telephone and email support, and users can access an online knowledge base and training materials. | Self-hosted pricing includes community support via GitHub, while managed hosting includes priority email support; paid implementation and ongoing support are also offered. |
| Time and billing | The billing module supports time-slip entry, prebills, final invoices, batch editing, consolidated billing, split billing, and LEDES or task-based billing. | Billing supports six-minute time entries, expenses, invoice generation, payment recording and accounts-receivable aging. |
| Trust accounting | Trust functions cover receipts, cheques, applying trust to invoices, multiple banks, reconciliations, trust journals, liability reports, and client trust histories. | The module supports IOLTA and escrow accounts, deposits, disbursements, transfers, reconciliation and interest distribution. |
| What it does | Brief Accounting combines legal time and billing, trust accounting, and office accounting in one system. | LegalClaw is ERPClaw’s legal-practice module for matters, billing, documents, trust accounting, court calendars, conflicts and bar/CLE compliance. |
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
In their own words
Brief Accounting
Brief Accounting has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
LegalClaw
LegalClaw is ERPClaw’s legal vertical for matter management, time billing, trust accounting, and law-firm operations. Its legal feature set lists 69 law-firm-specific actions across trust accounting, billing, documents, and reporting. Billing handles retainer, contingency, hourly, and flat-fee arrangements, with billable hours tracked by matter and attorney. Matter documents include version control and retention policies; reports cover realization, collection, and attorney productivity. The small-firm offering describes conflict screening against client and party history, as well as court-date and statute-of-limitations tracking. Trust tools include individual client subledgers, three-way reconciliation, separation of trust funds, and an immutable ledger with a chain-hashed audit trail. LegalClaw is self-hosted and supports SQLite or PostgreSQL; installation requires Python 3.10 or newer and git. The Self-Hosted plan is free, with every module, unlimited users and companies, and community support via GitHub. Managed hosting is priced at onboarding by request. The listed platform options include API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, and web.