Client portal

A better experience for your clients.
Less admin for your team.

The Harborline Legal branded client portal dashboard, welcoming Sarah Mitchell with her conveyancing matter at 71% through Settlement

Clients track progress, upload documents, pay invoices and message your team from a branded portal. Fewer phone calls, fewer "just checking in" emails, and more time for work that needs a lawyer.

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Encrypted in transit Documents and AI in Australia No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

Last reviewed

What is a legal client portal?

A secure area where a client sees the progress of their own matter, uploads what the firm asked for, approves and pays invoices, and messages the firm without ringing. MatterFirst includes it on every plan with no per-client charge, and privileged documents stay out of it by default.

The client portal, showing a matter progress timeline, documents and messages
The portal from the client side. Progress, documents, messages and invoices, under your firm's branding rather than ours.

Matter visibility

Clients see progress, without calling you

A branded, mobile-friendly portal shows clients their matter status, upcoming dates and completed milestones. Configurable per matter type, share as much or as little as you choose.

  • Real-time matter status and milestone tracking
  • Key dates visible to the client on the matter
  • Per-client, per-matter access: view documents, upload, message, pay, each on its own switch
  • Mobile-responsive design, works on any device

Capability 1 of 4

Progress visible without a phone call.

Document sharing

Upload, download and sign, all in one place

Clients upload documents directly to their matter folder. Share completed documents for download. Request signatures. No more email attachments lost in threads.

  • Client document upload with automatic matter filing
  • Secure document sharing, one document at a time, nothing visible by default
  • Document requests sent as a signed link that needs no account
  • Per-document visibility, with privileged documents excluded outright

Capability 2 of 4

Documents in the matter, not lost in email.

Billing & payments

View invoices. Pay how your firm prefers.

Clients view their invoice history and outstanding balances in the portal. Firms that connect Stripe can switch on card payment so clients pay without leaving it; firms that bank by transfer keep their remittance details on the invoice instead.

  • Invoice history with line-item detail
  • Optional online card payment via Stripe, off by default
  • Card payments recorded against the invoice, net of the Stripe fee
  • Total and outstanding balance shown on every invoice

Capability 3 of 4

Invoices your clients can see, and pay the way you get paid.

Communication

Secure messaging, inside the matter

Portal messages are threaded to the matter, visible to the assigned team, and stored in the audit log. No more hunting through personal inboxes for client replies.

  • Matter-threaded messaging with notification alerts
  • File attachments on messages
  • Team visibility, any assigned member can respond
  • Full message history in matter timeline and audit log

Capability 4 of 4

Every message threaded to the matter.

MatterFirst is an AI-native legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built for small and boutique practices by NorthCape Technology.

This suits firms whose clients ring to ask where things are, which in conveyancing and family law is most of them. It works best where matters run over weeks rather than hours. It is worth less to a firm whose clients are corporate counsel who would rather have an email than another login, and a portal nobody opens is worse than no portal.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is the portal charged per client?
No. It is included on every plan and there is no per-client or per-invitation charge. Pricing is per workspace, so inviting more clients does not change what you pay.
Can a client see documents they should not?
No. Nothing appears in the portal unless it is shared, and documents can be marked privileged to keep them out of it entirely. Access is provisioned by the role a contact holds on the matter.
Can we brand it as our firm?
Yes. The portal carries your firm's branding rather than ours, because a client should experience it as your firm's service.
Do clients have to create an account?
They are invited to the specific matter and set a password. Document requests and forms can also be sent as a signed link that does not need an account, which is the usual approach when you need one document from someone who will never come back.
Where is my data stored?
The application runs on Fly.io in Sydney. Database and backups are hosted on Fly.io Managed high-availability PostgreSQL clusters in Sydney. Documents are stored in Amazon Web Services S3 in Sydney. Document extraction and matter questions run on Amazon Web Services Bedrock in Australia, and reading a scanned document runs in Microsoft Azure's Australia East region. These locations describe the application, document storage, database, backups and document AI services. The trust evidence page at /trust records the scope and dated evidence for each published control.
How much does MatterFirst cost?
Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $199 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly AI balance in Australian dollars, the client portal and automations. Extra users are billed only past the included seats. Full plan inclusions are on the pricing page.
Can I get my data out if I leave?
Yes. Your matters, contacts, documents and time records are exportable on request, and there is no lock-in contract. We would rather you were able to leave and chose not to.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, a 14 day guided trial on Solo, Practice or Firm. It is guided rather than self-serve because a practice management system tells you very little until it has your real matters in it, and we would rather help you load them than leave you looking at an empty workspace.
Who builds MatterFirst?
NorthCape Technology, a Melbourne-based software company. MatterFirst is built in Australia for Australian legal practice, with trust accounting and Xero as first-class capabilities. Available through coordinated setup: PEXA, InfoTrack. Coordinated manual setup is arranged with MatterFirst and the provider.
Is MatterFirst suitable for a firm of my size?
It is designed for solo practitioners up to firms of roughly twenty seats. Below that, Solo carries the full platform for one user. Above it, the platform works but you should expect to talk to us about migration and rollout rather than signing up online.

Reviewed by Nick Hallam

Co-founder and Operations Director, NorthCape Technology

Aerospace engineer with a background in mission-critical software and complex systems integration, and the one who talks to firms about how they actually run. Keeps MatterFirst grounded in how firms operate, and reviews the practice-area and workflow pages on this site.

Last reviewed

Ready to give clients their own portal?

Book a demo and we will show you the portal from the client's side as well as yours, which is the side that decides whether they use it.

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