Billing, business and trust accounting for South African attorneys.
Business and trust accounting in one place, with your trust reconciliation a click away at any time.
How Bill works for attorneys
Log time by message or voice note
Message Bill in the app or on WhatsApp, by text or voice note. Log time, check what is unbilled on a matter and draft the invoice, all in one conversation.
Bill’s chat: 48 minutes logged on Amina Patel’s lease renewal by message and approved with a tap, the unbilled total checked, and the invoice drafted with another tap.
Time and expenses drafted from your inbox
Connect Gmail or Outlook. Bill finds the client emails you’d bill for, suggests the matter and drafts the time for you to approve. Supplier invoices that arrive by email become draft expenses.
The inbox inside Bill: Amina Patel’s email about the landlord’s redlines with its suggested matter saved and its drafted time approved, then the Sheriff’s emailed invoice turned into a draft expense on the same matter.
Time drafted from your calendar
Connect Google or Outlook Calendar. Meetings with clients are matched to the right matter and drafted as time, using the length of the meeting. Internal meetings are left alone.
The calendar inside Bill: a client consultation matched to its matter beside an internal meeting left alone, drafted as time from the meeting’s length, then approved.
Expenses and disbursements
Drop a supplier invoice into the chat, the app or WhatsApp. Bill reads it, creates the draft expense and sums up what it found, ready for you to check and approve.
Bill’s chat: a Drakensberg Legal Costs Consultants fee note dropped in and sent, Bill reading it, its summary of the draft expense, and the draft opened from it.
Clients and matters
Every client has a page with their matters, your work in progress and what they owe. Their statement is one click away, for any period, ready to download or email.
Amina Patel’s client page with her matters, work in progress and what she owes, then her statement, then the statement ready to email with her invoices attached.
Send invoices and get paid
Approve the invoice and send it from Bill, or send a pro forma first. Each payment is matched to its invoice as it arrives. Need your invoices in your own layout? We set up your format in Word, ready to download.
The invoice to Amina Patel drafted from the chat, approved and sent, then paid, with the payment matched to it from the bank.
Administered estates
Run the books of a deceased or insolvent estate on its own ledger, inside the same practice. Its cashbook is kept as you go, ready to export with its vouchers.
The Estate Late Nomsa Khumalo’s client page, then its own books opened inside the practice, and the estate’s cashbook of receipts and payments with its export options.
Bank statement suggestions
Your bank statement comes in line by line, and Bill suggests what each one is: the invoice it paid, the expense it settled, a transfer between your own accounts. Approve the suggestion and the double entry posts.
The practice’s bank accounts, then the business account’s suggested lines: Amina Patel’s EFT matched to her invoice, a payment to the Sheriff matched to its expense, a transfer to savings and the bank fee split with its VAT. Two suggestions are approved and leave the list.
Trust accounting
Trust money is kept apart, with a trust ledger for every client, as the Legal Practice Act and the LPC Rules require. Each trust deposit is allocated to the client it belongs to, and a client in debit is immediately flagged. Our team reconciles your trust account monthly and prepares your records for the annual trust audit.
Amina Patel’s deposit on the trust account, suggested to her trust ledger and approved, then the trust reconciliation: trust assets, the trust creditors with her among them, and the other trust liabilities, tying to the cent. Last, her trust statement with the deposit on it.
Know where your practice stands
Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, trial balance, and who owes you and whom you owe by age. For any period or date, ready to download as PDF or a spreadsheet. Our team also sends you monthly management accounts, so you always know how your practice is doing.
The income statement switched to this financial year, then the balance sheet, then the debtors age analysis with its export menu open: PDF or spreadsheet.
VAT201
Every invoice and expense carries its VAT to your VAT control account as it’s captured, so when the period closes the figures for your VAT201 are already in your books. Our team, led by a registered tax practitioner, prepares the return and files it on time.
The trial balance, then the VAT control account it opens, set to the July – August VAT period: the output VAT on each invoice and the input VAT on each expense, with the running balance.
Provisional and income tax
Your provisional (IRP6) and annual income tax returns are prepared from the same books as your income statement, so there’s nothing to gather when a deadline comes round. We work out what’s due and file on time.
The income statement, set to 1 March – 31 August 2026, the first provisional tax period of the year.
Everything else, done for you
Every firm is different. Our team can act as your outsourced finance department, taking the rest of your compliance off your hands so your firm runs more efficiently.
What our team does for you beyond the screens: PAYE submissions and reconciliations, the CIPC annual return, and preparing your trust records for the auditor.
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PAYE
Monthly EMP201 submissions and the EMP501 reconciliations for your staff.
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CIPC annual return
Filed each year so your company or close corporation stays in good standing.
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Trust audit preparation
Your trust records made ready for the auditor, with the reconciliations and creditor listings they ask for.
Do you help with trust audits?
Yes. We facilitate your trust audit and gather everything your auditor asks for. If your books have been on Bill through the year, the trust reconciliations and records are already in place and the audit is a straightforward exercise rather than a scramble.
How is Bill different from Xero, QuickBooks or GhostPractice?
Xero, QuickBooks and Sage are generic accounting software, while GhostPractice and AJS are specialist South African legal software. Regardless of what you use, somebody still has to type in all the work, gather the paperwork, and reconcile the bank statements. Bill starts a step earlier and ends a step later; it captures your work and data at source – in your calendar, email, or WhatsApp – and we reconcile your books, ready for you to review.
Does anything go to a client without my say-so?
No. Bill drafts your time entries and expenses from your email, calendar and WhatsApp, and you approve them. Nothing is billed or sent to a client until you say so.
Which email and calendar accounts can I connect?
Gmail and Google Calendar, Outlook and Microsoft 365 mail and calendar, and most other email accounts through IMAP. You can connect more than one, and disconnect any of them at any time from your settings.
Can you move my existing records across?
Yes, and we do the moving. Send us whatever you have – a spreadsheet, an export from another practice management system, a folder of PDF invoices, or your bank statements – we’ll load your clients, matters, rates and unpaid invoices before you start.
Try Bill free for 14 days.
Create your account, connect your apps and start drafting time and expenses in minutes.
- No card required
- Up to two users during the trial
- After 14 days, from R799 per fee earner per month, excl. VAT