Finance and reporting

Track time. Invoice clients. Get paid.
See everything.

The MatterFirst billing dashboard with outstanding, overdue, paid and draft totals across the firm's invoices

MatterFirst handles the full financial cycle: time capture, invoice generation, trust, payment collection and live dashboards. No separate billing system, and no rekeying between two of them.

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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 should law firm billing software do for an Australian firm?

Capture time against the matter, turn it into an invoice with GST calculated correctly, run the trust ledger to Australian rules, take payment, and reconcile with the firm's accounting system. MatterFirst does all of that in the same place as the matters, and syncs invoices and payments both ways with Xero.

An invoice in MatterFirst with time entries, disbursements and GST calculated on the taxable subtotal
An invoice built from the matter's own time and disbursements, with GST calculated on the taxable lines.

Automatic time capture: sources and review controls Trust accounting: capabilities, jurisdiction coverage and sign-off

Time tracking

Track time where the work happens

Start timers from tasks, matters, or the global bar. Log entries manually or let MatterFirst suggest entries from your activity. Review activity sources and estimated durations before accepting a suggestion; mark non-billable work appropriately.

  • One-click timer start from a matter
  • Manual time entry with matter, task and activity linking
  • Automatic suggestions from matter-linked meetings, emails, documents and file notes
  • Draft, approved, invoiced and written off states on every entry

Capability 1 of 4

Review the source and duration before acceptance.

Invoicing

Generate invoices in seconds, not hours

Select time entries and disbursements, choose a template, and generate a professional invoice. Send it to the client portal or email. Payment links included automatically.

  • Batch invoice generation across multiple matters
  • Customisable invoice templates, reviewed and approved before one goes live
  • Automatic line items from time entries and disbursements
  • Trust account deductions applied against the invoice

Capability 2 of 4

From tracked time to sent invoice in seconds.

Payment collection

Clients pay online. You get paid faster.

Bank transfer by default, with your remittance details on every invoice. Firms that want it can switch on Stripe card payment from the client portal, and payments recorded either way mark the invoice paid.

  • Bank details on every invoice, no integration required
  • Optional card payment via Stripe, off by default
  • Payment links embedded in invoice emails when card is enabled
  • Overdue payment reminders sent automatically

Capability 3 of 4

Paid the way your firm already gets paid.

Dashboards

Real-time financial visibility, for every role

Partners see firm-wide revenue. Managers see team utilisation. Fee earners see their own recorded and billed time. Every role gets the financial view they need.

  • Revenue and unbilled WIP dashboards, by period
  • Team utilisation per fee earner, billable against recorded
  • Matter type distribution and staff workload
  • Aged debtors in 30, 60, 90 and 90-plus day buckets, and payment trends

Capability 4 of 4

The financial view each role needs, in real time.

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 billing time and disbursements across repeatable matters, and firms currently rekeying between a practice system and a separate billing package. It will not satisfy a firm that needs deep, configurable financial reporting of the kind a larger practice expects, which is a fair reason to look at a platform built for that.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does MatterFirst have automatic time capture?
Automatic time capture generates reviewable suggestions from matter-linked meetings, sent and received emails, added documents and file notes. Meetings use calendar durations; other activities produce estimated durations for review. Time entries are created only after acceptance.
Can I correct or reject captured time?
Review the source, adjust the duration, mark work non-billable, and accept or reject each suggestion. Capture runs overnight; use Look again for a manual refresh. Firm and personal controls let you turn capture off.
Does it monitor my desktop activity?
MatterFirst uses matter-linked activity in the platform, not desktop monitoring of time spent in Word or Outlook. It complements manual entries and timers.
Is time capture powered by an AI model?
Time suggestions use calendar durations and activity-based estimates rather than an AI model. Review the duration against the work you actually performed before accepting.
Which plans include automatic time capture?
Automatic time capture for review is included on Solo, Practice, Firm and Enterprise. Plan user limits and extra-seat charges still apply.
Does MatterFirst handle Australian trust accounting?
MatterFirst includes per-matter trust ledgers, receipts, withdrawals, reconciliation and disbursement records. The trust compliance review workflow covers New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia. Jurisdiction-specific external legal or compliance sign-off is recorded separately; workflow coverage is not regulatory certification.
Can we bring our trust ledger history across when we switch?
The importer handles contacts, matters, documents, time entries, invoices, billing codes and leads. Trust ledger history imports at transaction level, with a reconciliation report you can hand an external examiner. You need to keep trust records for seven years under s147 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law regardless of where you move, so plan for the old system staying readable for the retention period either way.
How is GST handled?
Line amounts are GST-exclusive and GST is calculated on the subtotal of the taxable lines at your organisation's rate, which is standard Australian practice. Disbursements can be marked non-taxable individually.
Does it work with Xero?
Yes. Invoices push to Xero, the contact goes with the invoice, and Xero tells us back when one is paid, so the ledger and the matter agree without anyone rekeying. It is not a standalone contact sync: contacts travel on invoices rather than being reconciled both ways on their own.
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 take control of your finances?

Book a demo and we will walk through time capture, invoicing and the dashboards against your own rates and matter types.

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