Firm Dashboard for a Legal Practice
Practice management dashboard with matter tracking, billing, document management and team workload visibility. Replaced manual tracking and disconnected systems.
Mid-tier commercial law firm — 8 partners and 22 staff
A Perth commercial law firm with practices in property, commercial, employment and litigation. Eight partners managed 300+ active matters at any time, with staff across four practice areas.
Matter tracking lived in a legacy practice management system that had been installed 12 years ago. It handled basic time recording and invoicing but the interface was slow, reporting was limited, and nobody used it for matter management. Partners tracked their own matters in Outlook, spreadsheets and paper diaries.
What needed to change
No single view of firm performance. Partners could not see workload distribution, matter pipeline, or billing status without manually pulling reports from multiple sources. Monthly partner meetings relied on spreadsheets that took 2 days to prepare.
Time leakage was significant. Lawyers recorded time at the end of the day (or end of the week) from memory. Research time, phone calls and email work were routinely under-recorded. The firm estimated 15–20% of billable time was not captured.
Matter management was fragmented. Key dates, deadlines, document status and client communications lived in different places for different lawyers. When a partner was away, nobody could pick up their matters without a briefing.
What we built
A firm management dashboard providing real-time matter tracking, time recording, billing status, document management and workload visibility across all practice areas.
Matter Dashboard
All active matters in one view — status, key dates, assigned staff, recent activity and billing position. Filter by partner, practice area, client or status.
Smart Time Recording
Timer-based time recording that runs alongside work. One-click timers for calls, research and drafting. Calendar integration captures meetings automatically. Reduces end-of-day time entry guesswork.
Billing & WIP Tracking
Real-time WIP visibility by matter, lawyer and client. Draft invoices generated from recorded time with one click. Aged WIP and debtor reports update automatically.
Document Management
Matter-centric document storage with version control, templates and search. Documents linked to matters, not buried in shared drives.
How it works
Lawyer opens the dashboard
Sees their active matters with status indicators — overdue tasks, approaching deadlines, unbilled WIP. Partner view shows the full firm picture.
Starts a timer on a task
One click to start recording time against a matter. Timer runs in the background. When the task is done, time is recorded with the matter reference and description.
Updates matter status
Key milestones, document versions, client communications and next steps are logged against the matter. Anyone picking up the file can see current status instantly.
Partner reviews billing position
WIP, invoiced and collected amounts visible by matter and by lawyer. Draft invoices generated from recorded time — ready for partner review and customisation.
Monthly reporting auto-generates
Partner dashboard shows firm-wide metrics — revenue, WIP, utilisation, matter mix, debtor age. No more 2-day spreadsheet exercise before partner meetings.
Measurable outcomes
We were losing billable hours every day because lawyers were recording time from memory at 6pm. The timer solved that — and the dashboard finally gave us visibility we have never had across the firm.
How we delivered it
Practice Analysis
2 weeksInterviewed partners and lawyers across all 4 practice areas. Mapped matter workflows, time recording habits, billing processes and reporting needs. Audited the legacy PMS to determine migration scope.
Dashboard & Backend
6 weeksBuilt the matter dashboard, time recording system, billing module and document management. Migrated active matter data from the legacy system.
Calendar & Email Integration
2 weeksIntegrated with Microsoft 365 for calendar-based time capture and email filing to matters. Built Outlook add-in for one-click email filing.
Testing & Rollout
2 weeksPiloted with 2 practice areas for 3 weeks. Refined time recording workflow and partner dashboard based on real usage. Rolled out firm-wide with training sessions for each practice area.
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