Liam Killingback
7 September 2026
A conveyancing client needs eight updates between contract and settlement: contract received, cooling-off expiry, conditions due, deposit received, settlement booked, figures confirmed, settled, and post-settlement documents. Send each at a fixed trigger, not on request. MatterFirst, a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, publishes them to a branded client portal.
Most complaints about conveyancing are not about the conveyancing. The file settles on time, the figures are right, the transfer registers, and the client still finishes the matter feeling ignored. What they experienced was silence broken only by answers they had to extract themselves.
The fix is not more contact. It is scheduled contact, tied to events that already exist on the file, written once and sent the same way every time.
The update points that actually reduce inbound calls
A residential purchase has a small number of moments where the client's understanding changes. Those are the only moments that need a proactive update. Everything else is noise.
| Update point | Trigger on the file | What the client has to be told | Written by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract received | Contract filed on the matter | We have it, here is the purchase price, deposit and settlement date as they appear in the contract, tell us now if any of it is wrong | Template with merge fields |
| Cooling-off | Contract date recorded | The date and time your right to withdraw ends, and what withdrawing would cost you | Template plus jurisdiction rule |
| Conditions due | Finance and inspection dates diarised | Each condition, its due date, and who has to do something to satisfy it | Template with a date table |
| Deposit and trust | Funds received into trust | We hold your deposit, here is the receipt, here is what happens to it at settlement | Receipt plus short note |
| Settlement booked | Settlement date agreed | The date, the time, what you need to have done before it, what you do not need to attend | Template |
| Figures confirmed | Settlement statement finalised | The exact amount to bring, the account, the deadline for cleared funds | Statement plus covering note |
| Settled | Settlement completed | It is done, when you get keys, what is still outstanding | Template |
| After settlement | Registration confirmed, file closing | Documents you should keep, the rates and land tax position, what we are doing with your file | Template plus document pack |
Two of those are the ones clients ring about: the cooling-off deadline and the funds figure. Both are also the two most expensive to get wrong. If a firm automates nothing else, it should automate the notification that those numbers exist and where to find them.
Cooling-off is the tightest deadline you will communicate
The cooling-off rules differ by state, and the differences are the kind a client will not know unless told. The three largest property markets alone run on different clocks, different start points and different penalties.
| Jurisdiction | Cooling-off period | Runs from | If the buyer withdraws | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | 5 business days, ending 5pm on the fifth business day after the day of exchange. 10 business days off the plan | Exchange of contracts | 0.25% of the purchase price, being $250 for every $100,000 | NSW Government |
| VIC | 3 clear business days | The date the buyer signs the contract, not the date the seller signs | The greater of $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price | Consumer Affairs Victoria |
| QLD | 5 business days, with notice to be given by 5pm on the fifth day | The day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties | Up to 0.25% of the purchase price, deducted from the deposit | Queensland Government |
There are exclusions in each state that matter more to the client than the period itself. In NSW no cooling-off period applies to a purchase at auction, or where contracts are exchanged on the same day as an auction after the property is passed in. In Victoria it does not apply to a purchase at a public auction or within three clear business days before or after one, nor where the buyer is an estate agent or a corporate body. In Queensland the buyer can waive or shorten the period in writing.
That is a communication problem, not a legal one. The client who bid at auction on Saturday often believes they have a cooling-off period, because they read a general article about buying a house. The update that says "you do not have one, and here is why" is worth sending on the day of exchange, every time.
The cooling-off date should not be typed. It should be calculated from the contract date and the jurisdiction, sit on the matter as a key date, appear in the calendar, and be the trigger for the client update rather than something a person remembers to look up.
Write the update once, then stop writing it
The reason firms fall back to ad hoc updates is that each one feels like it needs drafting. It does not. Almost every sentence in a conveyancing update is the same sentence with different values in it.
Split the content three ways before you build anything:
Deterministic. Names, addresses, the purchase price, the deposit, the settlement date, the balance due, the trust receipt number, the responsible solicitor. These are merge fields and matter data. They should never be retyped and never be produced by a model, because a model that paraphrases a settlement figure has introduced a risk that no amount of review time is worth.
Selected. Clause library entries chosen by matter type or jurisdiction: the cooling-off explanation for NSW versus Victoria, the off-the-plan variant, the first home buyer duty note. This is a choice from a fixed set, not free composition.
Genuinely written. The paragraph about the specific problem on this file. A special condition that has not been satisfied, an unusual title issue, a settlement that has to be extended. This is where a person writes, or where an assistant drafts and a person edits and approves before anything is sent.
Most firms discover the ratio is roughly ninety to ten. The ninety should be produced the same way every time, and the ten is what the fee earner is actually for.
What should be automatic, and what must not be
The line worth holding is between notification and advice.
Safe to send automatically:
- Status changes on the file, such as contract received, deposit received, settlement booked, settled
- A key date being set, changed or approaching
- A document being filed and made visible to the client
- An invoice becoming available
- A request for something the client has to supply, with the deadline
Never automatic:
- A condition that has not been satisfied and its consequences
- Anything that changes the client's rights or obligations
- Bad news about settlement, including a delay or a failure to settle
- A request for authority or instructions
- Anything involving money leaving trust
A useful test: if the client could reply "what should I do?", a person should have written it. If the only reasonable reply is "thanks", automate it.
How MatterFirst handles client communication
MatterFirst is a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built by North Cape Technology in Melbourne. Client communication runs through the client portal and the automations engine rather than through a mailbox.
The portal carries the firm's branding, not MatterFirst's. It shows real-time matter status and milestone tracking, with key dates visible to the client on the matter. Clients upload documents and those file automatically against the matter, message the firm on a matter-threaded conversation with notification alerts, and view invoice history with line-item detail. Visibility is controlled per client, per matter and per document, and privileged documents are excluded by default. For a one-off document request a client can be sent a signed link without creating an account. The portal is included on every paid plan with no per-client charge.
Automations are trigger, condition and action rules, and generating a document can be one of the actions. So "contract filed on a purchase matter" can set the cooling-off date, publish it to the portal and generate the client letter in one rule. Limitation and key date rules calculate dates and cite the governing statute, for example the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW) s 14(1), which means the date on the file has a stated basis rather than being a typed guess.
Documents are built in a document generation builder from sections that are deterministic by default: merge fields, matter data projections, clause library entries and signature blocks, with AI used only where a section genuinely calls for synthesis. Output is branded PDF and Word using the firm's letterhead, colours and typography. Generated documents file on the matter and can be emailed, shared to the portal or routed for e-signature. Trust accounting is built for Australian jurisdictions, with a compliance review workflow covering NSW, VIC, QLD and WA. Data and AI processing run in the AWS region the firm chooses, Sydney by default.
How the products compare on client communication
Verified from each vendor's own public pages this session. "Not stated on the page checked" means exactly that, and is not a claim the product lacks the feature.
| Product | Client-facing portal | Client messaging | Client document upload | Invoices in the portal | Source checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MatterFirst | Branded portal, milestone and key date visibility, included on all paid plans | Matter-threaded messaging with notification alerts | Yes, with automatic filing to the matter | Invoice history with line-item detail, card payment via Stripe when enabled | matterfirst.com |
| LEAP | Client portal through LEAP's integration with LawConnect | Not stated on the page checked | Not stated on the page checked | "Securely share documents, view invoices, and access statements" | leaplegalsoftware.com |
| Smokeball | "One secure place to collaborate with clients", with a shared calendar and intake forms | "Send a text without leaving Smokeball. Clients reply by SMS or in the portal" | Files and folders shared as a fixed copy or a live link | "Invoices clients can view and pay" | smokeball.com.au |
| Actionstep | Client portal for matter updates and document collaboration | Secure real-time encrypted chat | Yes, with per-folder permissions including upload only | Not stated on the page checked | actionstep.com |
| Clio | Clio for Clients, on mobile app or web browser | Secure chat with anyone at the firm | Scan and share documents from a phone | Not stated on the page checked | clio.com |
Every product in that table can tell a client what is happening. The differences that matter to a property firm are narrower than the marketing suggests: whether the update can be produced by a rule rather than a person, whether the date the update is built on was calculated or typed, and whether the client can act in the same place they were told.
Who this suits, and who it does not
MatterFirst suits Australian firms of roughly two to twenty fee earners doing volume conveyancing or mixed practice, that want onshore hosting, state-based trust accounting and updates generated by workflow rather than by memory. It is priced from $199 per month per workspace with users included, not per user, so a firm with a large support team relative to its fee earners is not penalised for putting everyone in the system.
It is a weaker fit in three cases. If your workflow depends on connecting to PEXA or InfoTrack today, MatterFirst lists both as coming soon and does not connect to them now: the integrations available self-serve are Xero, Stripe, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, with a documented REST API and webhooks for everything else. If you need a trust compliance review workflow in SA, TAS, ACT or NT, that workflow covers NSW, VIC, QLD and WA, although matters can be recorded in all eight jurisdictions. And if you are a single practitioner doing a handful of matters a year, a per workspace price is unlikely to beat the cheapest per user offer in the market.
Frequently asked questions
Does MatterFirst have a client portal for conveyancing clients? Yes. It is branded to the firm, shows matter status, milestones and key dates, accepts client document uploads that file automatically to the matter, carries matter-threaded messaging, and shows invoice history with line-item detail. It is included on every paid plan with no per-client charge.
How often should I update a conveyancing client? Frequency is the wrong unit. Update on events: contract received, cooling-off expiry, conditions due, deposit received, settlement booked, figures confirmed, settled, and post-settlement. A client who receives those eight on time rarely rings in between.
Can I automate client updates without a bad update going out? Yes, if you split the content. Automate notifications that are true by construction, such as a date being set or a document being filed. Keep advice, bad news and anything asking for instructions in human hands. In MatterFirst the automation rules are trigger, condition and action, so you decide exactly which events send anything at all.
Does MatterFirst connect to PEXA? No. PEXA is listed as coming soon, as are InfoTrack, MYOB, QuickBooks Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Dropbox, Teams, Slack, Zapier, Make, Salesforce, HubSpot, DocuSign and iManage. The connectable integrations today are Xero, Stripe, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Anything else is built against the REST API and webhooks.
Does the AI cost extra when I use it to draft a client update? Drafting, summarising, chat and key date extraction are included under fair use limits and do not draw down your AI balance. Metered work draws on a monthly balance in Australian dollars, from A$100 a month on Solo to A$1,200 on Enterprise, with published rates such as 60c to open a document plus 9c per page for document processing. Generating a document from deterministic sections uses no AI and draws down nothing. The detail is on the AI pricing page.
Does MatterFirst handle Victorian trust accounting? Yes. Trust accounting is built for Australian jurisdictions and the compliance review workflow covers NSW, VIC, QLD and WA.
The short version
Conveyancing clients do not want more contact, they want to stop wondering. Fix the eight update points, calculate the dates rather than typing them, write each update once as a template, automate only what cannot be wrong, and give the client one place to read it and act. The evaluation checklist is a reasonable place to start putting these questions to any vendor, including this one.
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