This article compares the legacy software esiLaw to Unity® Accounting.
Comparing esiLaw & Unity Accounting
Below is a comparison between esiLaw Legacy & Unity® Accounting, outlining the following:
- The different advantages of esiLaw Legacy to Unity® Accounting
- esiLaw Legacy & Unity® Accounting functionality and feature changes
- New Features in Unity® Accounting
Billing
| esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
| Users can mark down disbursements at the time of billing. | Users can create a credit disbursement.
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| When creating bills and there are funds available in trust to pay the bills the trust payment amount auto populates for the user. | In Unity® Accounting the software waits for the direction of the user to indicate that the trust funds will be used to pay the bill.
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Multiple Originating lawyers can be added to the client/matter for referral commission distribution (customization)
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Split billing to multiple parties
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| Create $0.00 balance bills | |
Lawyer Fee Allocation: Fee allocations can be edited on both the bills and the bill payments.
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Any bill on a client/matter that has been paid/partially paid/overpaid can be refunded.
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| e-payments can be received through WorldPay credit card interaction | |
| Contingency Billing is available | |
| Administration fee is auto generated at the time of billing | |
| Flat fee billing |
Banking
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
| Users can enter a general receipt that has a negative value (equivalent to a cheque). | In Unity® Accounting you would simply post a general cheque.
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When a Request general cheque feature is complete an option is available to email notification to user that request has been initiated.
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| Memorized General Cheque | |
| Journal Entries can be processed into bank accounts. | Unity® Accounting allows for journal entries to be processed adjusting the closing GL Bank balance which creates imbalances. Therefore, journal entries posted to the banks should be prohibited.
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| Reference in a Journal Entry allows 15 chars | Only allows 8 chars |
| NSF can be entered on any receipt | |
Credit cards can be categorized as a Bank and reconciled – Payments made to the Credit Card Bank from the General Account, will not show on the Credit Card Bank Reconciliation if posted directly to the Credit Card Bank. Please use a Credit Card Clearing GL to post the General Payment and Credit Card Receipt which will offset against each other.
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Bank reconciliation reports include Outstanding deposit list.
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Transfer trust between Trust bank accounts
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| Clear cheque by amount | |
Trust transfer to pay bills automatically posts the general receipts to the selected general bank account when the transfer cheque is finalized.
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Payment Disbursements
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
| A general cheque or vendor invoice that has been posted as a client disbursement and billed can be reversed. | |
A credit disbursement is created on the client’s ledger
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Anticipated disbursement allows custom/alternative general ledger account. Credit disbursements are created.
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Time Entry
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
| Allows to set an optional rate which $0.00 in client file |
Statements & Reminders
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
| Option to print off 3 statements per page. | Unity® Accounting prints off one statement per page.
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When multiple pre-bill summaries are created, you can choose to View/Print and a separate document is created for each individual file.
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Reverse interest as a batch
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Vendors
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
Vendor credits are available
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Memorized Vendor Payment
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Contacts
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
| Wider range for contact types and contact roles | |
| Customize definitions for contact types and roles | |
| Linked people can be added |
Econveyance
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
Data exchange available to import fees, disbursements and trust transactions from Econvey to client/matter ledger.
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Unity Practice Management
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
Import fees and disbursements from UPM to Unity® Accounting client/matter ledger.
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Financials
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
Transactions can be posted in following financial year.
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Reports
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
Financial Status report.
| Note this report no longer is available |
| Audits can be printed together in one PDF document | Unity® Accounting has a limit of 10 per page |
Other Features & Functionality
esiLaw | Unity® Accounting |
Close clients/matters as a batch
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| ALERT feature displays all unposted transactions | |
| FIND feature is extensive and includes searching for every type of transaction | |
| FIND feature: show general cheque posted in Client/GL/Vendor number | |
| SNAPSHOT report available for lawyers/timekeepers as short cut to report | |
| Conflict search report: show the selected field list | |
| Auto create a subfolder for client documents when opening a new file | |
| Cloud based software that is accessible from any computer with UA desktop application | |
| Rebuilding index is no longer required | |
| Database file corruption no longer occurs | |
| Auto backup does not require software to be in single user mode. | |
Auto backup can be performed at any scheduled time as per customer preference
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