Referral partners

Turn referral relationships into a
repeatable growth channel.

A referral partner's page in MatterFirst showing referral performance: 4 referrals, 3 matters created, 75% conversion and $900 accrued

Real estate agents, accountants and brokers submit leads straight into your pipeline, every lead is attributed to its source, and commissions calculate themselves. MatterFirst replaces the spreadsheet with a proper referral engine.

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Encrypted at rest and in transit Australian data residency Hosted on AWS No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

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How do Australian law firms manage referral partners?

Most do it in a spreadsheet, which loses attribution and makes commissions an argument. MatterFirst gives each partner a credentialled way to send work through, records the source on every matter that results, and calculates what is owed from the matters themselves rather than from anyone's memory.

Channel modes

Inbound, outbound, or both, one system

Configure referral channels for incoming leads from real estate agents, accountants and brokers, or manage outbound referrals to specialists. Every referral is tracked from first handshake to final invoice.

  • Inbound referral intake, by API credential or public intake form
  • Outbound referral tracking, with a tokenised handoff page and acknowledgement
  • Bi-directional partnerships: rules are set per direction
  • Fee rules per partner contract, versioned

Capability 1 of 4

Inbound, outbound or both, tracked end to end.

How partners send you work

No logins for you to manage

A partner sends leads through a credentialled submission endpoint or a public intake form, and gets their period report by email. There is no partner login and no partner portal to administer: that is deliberate, and it is also the honest description of what exists today.

  • Per-contract API credential, with a test endpoint and a published payload spec
  • Public intake forms for partners who would rather not integrate
  • Period reports emailed to the partner, with their referrals and accrued fees
  • A tokenised handoff page for work you send out to counsel

Capability 2 of 4

Partners send work in without you managing accounts.

Billing & accruals

Commissions calculated and accrued automatically

Define commission rules per partner contract: flat fee, percentage, milestone or a hybrid of them. MatterFirst calculates accruals and generates partner invoices.

  • Flat-fee, percentage, milestone and hybrid commission models
  • Automatic accrual on lead created, matter created, matter completed or referral dispatched
  • Batch partner invoicing per period, with payments recorded against the invoice
  • Accounting export as CSV, for your bookkeeper to pay from

Capability 3 of 4

Commissions calculated the moment they're earned.

Reporting

See which partnerships actually drive revenue

Attribution reports show which partners produce the highest-value matters, how far each referral got, and what is owed on it.

  • Referral funnel: how many referrals reached matter, and how many billed
  • Per-partner overview stats, so you can see what a partnership has produced
  • Inbound, outbound and per-period partner reports
  • Exportable as CSV for partner review meetings

Capability 4 of 4

Know which partnerships pay their way.

MatterFirst is a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built by NorthCape Technology, covering matters, documents, trust accounting, billing and a client portal, with data hosted in the AWS region the firm chooses.

This suits firms whose work arrives through agents, accountants, brokers or other firms, which in conveyancing and property is most of them. It suits firms paying commissions and reconciling them by hand. It is of little use to a practice whose work comes directly from clients, and it is not worth choosing a platform over.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does a referral partner actually see?
A period report, emailed to them: the referrals they sent, where each has got to and what has accrued. There is no partner login today. They never see the file, the documents or anything belonging to another partner.
How are commissions calculated?
From the matters themselves, on the terms recorded against that partner, accruing as the work is billed rather than being worked out at the end of the quarter. The calculation is visible to you and to them, which is what stops the conversation.
Can we track outbound referrals as well?
Yes. Work you send to counsel or another firm is tracked the same way, including the handoff and what came back.
Does commission handling meet Australian requirements?
The system records and calculates what you configure and keeps an audit trail of it. Whether a particular referral arrangement is permissible in your jurisdiction is a question for your professional obligations, not for us, and we will not pretend the software settles it.
Where is my data stored?
In the AWS region your firm chooses. Sydney (ap-southeast-2) is the default for Australian firms. Matter data, documents, extraction and matter questions all stay in that region. The one exception is the first step of Document AI, reading the document itself, which runs on Azure AI Document Intelligence in Azure's Australia East region. Both regions are in Australia.
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, which is why trust accounting and Xero are first-class rather than regional add-ons, and why PEXA and InfoTrack are on the roadmap rather than absent from it.
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 by background, and the one who talks to firms about how they actually run. Reviews the pages that describe how a practice works day to day.

Last reviewed

Ready to grow through referrals?

Book a demo and we will show you partner relationships, commissions and attribution end to end, including what a partner sees.

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