Closing a matter in every system that still holds it
Closed means different things in four systems. Clio flips a status, the workspace in NetDocuments should stop accepting new documents, remaining calendar entries need clearing and the ledger has to reach zero with any balance returned. The conflicts record works the other way and has to stay searchable forever, because a closed matter is still a conflict. Two things need deciding once rather than per matter: where the retention clock starts and which originals never go in a destruction batch, since wills and recorded instruments are not copies of anything.
The same client name is typed into the conflicts database, the practice management system, the document management system and the ledger, and a conflict is only found later if two people spelled it the same way.
A firm organises everything by matter, and the matter record is created by hand from an intake form. That single re-keying step seeds four systems, and because there is no shared identifier between them, every later reconciliation is a name match against human typing.
- Clio
- NetDocuments
- QuickBooks Online
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if matters close in a way that is already ceremonial, with one person doing one checklist a week. This is worth building where files close in volume and the risk is the matter that reads closed while money or documents are still sitting in it.
The constraint that shapes it
The conduct rules decide what may be automated here, and they are adopted state by state rather than nationally, so specifics have to be checked against your own jurisdiction. More on how this sector works.
One change of state, written everywhere it belongs, once. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Keeping a status change from being typed four times
- Retiring old equipment from every record naming it
- Writing one client change into every system that holds it
- Writing one staffing change into every system that grants access
- Keeping an endorsement change from being typed twice
- Writing an approved change order into every system
- What has to happen before a matter can be marked closed?
- How long does a law firm keep a closed client file?
- Can a closed matter still show a trust balance?
- Should closed matters stay in the conflicts database?
- Which original documents should never be destroyed with the file?
Back to law firms, or see how this is priced and scoped.