In this guide 6 sections
Buy a ready practice tool for the standard spine: matters, conflict searches, deadline diaries, time entries, invoices and client ledgers. Build only where your firm differs, usually a client portal or an intake workflow tied to your own conflict rules. Client money rules differ by jurisdiction and bar, so check them first.
What a ready practice tool already covers
Most firms should buy before they build. A mature product already holds the matter file, the contact record, the document folder and the time entry screen. Those problems are solved, and the vendor has years of fixes behind them. Your fee earners already know how a timer works.
Test the shelf against your own week. Does it split a matter into phases, with task templates for a conveyance, a divorce petition or a tribunal appeal? Can it file an email straight into the right folder? Can a secretary pull a work in progress report without calling the vendor?
A tool that does these well saves a year of build effort. Do not rebuild what works. Buy it.
- Matter file with client, opposing party and fee earner
- Document folders with version history and email filing
- Time entry from a timer, a phone or a diary
- Task templates by matter type
- Reports on unbilled time and work in progress
Intake and conflict checks rarely fit a ready tool
A ready tool checks conflicts by searching the names you have already typed in. That works for one office with plain surnames. It struggles when you act for group companies, related parties and former clients whose files were closed years ago.
Write down how your firm really clears a new matter. Who checks the name, against which lists, and who signs off a hit? A partner may need to approve a waiver before any work starts. Many firms run this on a shared sheet and an email chain. It leaks.
That sequence suits a small custom intake form. It captures the enquiry, searches every party and related entity, and routes a hit to the right partner. The result stays on the matter for any later audit. A new associate can see who cleared the name and when.
Who owns the hearing and deadline calendar?
A missed limitation date or filing deadline is the costliest error a firm can make. Ready tools usually carry court rules for a few jurisdictions and let you add your own. They seldom know the tribunal you appear before every month.
Keep one calendar, not one per lawyer. Each hearing, filing date and limitation date should hang off the matter, name a responsible lawyer and a backup, and remind both. Diary entries in personal calendars vanish when someone leaves or falls ill. A missed hearing then reaches the partner as a phone call from the court.
Ask the vendor how a date is calculated from a trigger event, such as service of a notice, and who updates the rule when the court changes it.
- Trigger event and the rule applied
- Responsible lawyer and a named backup
- Reminders at set intervals
- Court, room and judge
- Link to the matter and the document due
From time entry to invoice to the client money ledger
Billing is where ready tools earn their price. Leave it alone. A time entry becomes a line on a draft bill, the partner edits it, and the invoice leaves with the firm’s numbering and tax lines. Rebuilding this is rarely wise. Fixed fee matters, retainers and disbursement recovery are already handled by most products.
Client money is different. Caution matters here. Rules on holding, recording and reconciling client funds differ by jurisdiction and by bar or law society. Some demand a separate ledger for each matter, a monthly three-way reconciliation and specific approved bank accounts.
Check that the tool you buy matches your regulator before you sign. A custom build must meet the same rules, and the firm stays responsible, not the software. Ask your bar, law society and accountant, not the brochure.
Build the portal and the intake, buy the rest
The usual split is simple. Buy the engine for matters, time, billing and the client ledger. Build the parts that clients and prospects touch, because that is where your firm looks different from the next one.
A client portal might show matter status in plain words, hold a secure document exchange, list what the firm is waiting for and take signed engagement letters. It reads from the practice tool through an export or interface, so nothing is typed twice.
Before any build, ask the vendor which fields their interface exposes and which export formats they support. Then mark each step of your intake on one page as keep, buy or build.
- Buy: matters, time, billing, client ledger
- Extend: document templates and reports
- Build: intake with conflict routing
- Build: client portal with status and uploads
Build or buy worksheet
Printed on a single page, this worksheet gives each function its own row: intake, conflict check, deadline diary, time entry, billing, client money, document filing and client portal. Columns record whether the ready tool covers it fully, partly or not at all, the gap in plain words, the decision, the owner and the regulator rule to check.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can one tool run client money and billing together?
Many do, with a client ledger beside the office ledger. Check that it keeps a separate balance for every client and matter, blocks overdrawing, and prints the reconciliation your regulator expects.
Does a small firm need a custom portal?
Often not at first. A shared secure folder and email do the job for a few clients. A portal pays off when clients keep phoning for status or sending documents by chat.
What happens to our data if we change tool?
Ask for a full export of matters, contacts, time entries and ledgers in a plain format such as CSV before signing. A tool that cannot give you this holds your records hostage.
Who should make the decision?
The managing partner, with the practice manager and whoever runs accounts. Fee earners should test the shortlisted tool on one real matter before anything is signed.