FilePro migration guide

FilePro is closing.
Here is what to do about it.

Actionstep acquired FilePro in 2023 and the product is reported to close on 31 December 2026. This guide covers what stops working, what you need out of the system before it does, and the questions worth asking every vendor you talk to. We sell a competing product, so we have put our sources and our own gaps on the page.

FilePro closes 31 December 2026: 155 days from today Owned by Actionstep since 31 August 2023

Last reviewed

When is FilePro shutting down, and what do Australian firms need to do?

FilePro is reported to close on 31 December 2026. From that date compliance updates stop and the Electronic File Purchase portal closes permanently. Every FilePro firm needs to choose a replacement, extract its matter, document and trust records, and confirm the date with Actionstep in writing before planning around it.

What we know, and how we know it

Where these facts come from.

We are a competitor of Actionstep, so you should not take our word about their plans. Here is every claim on this page with its source attached, including where our best source has an interest of their own.

Claim Published by How confident
Actionstep acquired FilePro on 31 August 2023 Actionstep, "Actionstep Acquires Australian Legal Software Company FilePro" the company concerned Primary source
FilePro had over 400 Australian law firms Actionstep, "Actionstep Acquires Australian Legal Software Company FilePro" the company concerned Primary source
At acquisition, Actionstep said it would accelerate the availability of cloud technology for FilePro customers Actionstep, "Actionstep Acquires Australian Legal Software Company FilePro" the company concerned Primary source
FilePro closes on 31 December 2026 Law Support Australia, "FilePro Sunset 2026" a vendor that sells a competing product Reported
At close: compliance updates stop Law Support Australia, "FilePro Sunset 2026" a vendor that sells a competing product Reported
At close: the Electronic File Purchase portal closes permanently Law Support Australia, "FilePro Sunset 2026" a vendor that sells a competing product Reported

Facts checked on 29 July 2026. Anything marked "reported" we could not find stated publicly by Actionstep. Ask them to confirm it in writing before you plan around it.

How FilePro got here, and what is left
When What happened How well established
13 September 2022 Actionstep acquires LawMaster, then serving close to 4,000 daily subscribers Actionstep announcement
31 August 2023 Actionstep acquires FilePro of Perth, then used by over 400 Australian law firms Actionstep announcement
September to October 2026 Actionstep migration windows for the year reported to be filling Reported by a competing vendor
31 December 2026 FilePro reported to close. Compliance updates stop and the Electronic File Purchase portal closes permanently Reported by a competing vendor
From 1 January 2027 No further compliance updates, so continuing to run FilePro read-only carries its own risk Follows from the above

We could not find the close date stated publicly by Actionstep. Firms report being notified directly. Ask your account manager to confirm it in writing, along with how long you keep read access after the date.

The part that is not optional

Your trust records outlive your software.

Trust records must be kept for seven years after the last transaction entry in the record, or after the matter is finalised, whichever is later.

Legal Profession Uniform Law, section 147

A practice with a general trust account must keep a trust account ledger with a separate trust ledger account for each person, in each matter for which trust money is received.

Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015, rule 47

What this means for a migration. The obligation attaches to the records, not to the system holding them. A vendor switching off its product does not discharge it, and neither does moving to a new one. Whatever you choose, you need the trust ledger history to land somewhere you can produce it from for an external examination, in a form an examiner will accept. Settle that before you settle anything else.

The Uniform Law applies in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. Other states and territories have their own legislation with broadly similar obligations. Confirm the position with your own regulator rather than relying on a software vendor's summary. This is not legal advice.

Before anything is switched off

Get this out of FilePro while it is still running.

Whatever you migrate to, the extraction happens once and it happens while the old system still works. A gap found in February 2027 cannot be filled.

  • The full trust ledger, per matter. Not a summary and not closing balances. The transaction-level ledger for every matter, going back seven years, in a format you can still read without FilePro.
  • Trust reconciliations and external examination records. Monthly reconciliations and any examiner correspondence. These are the records you will be asked to produce, and they are the ones most likely to live in a reporting module rather than an export.
  • Matter records with parties, key dates and status. Including closed and archived matters. Firms routinely migrate open files and discover later that the archive was the part with the retention obligation attached.
  • Documents, with their matter association intact. A folder of 400,000 files with no link back to the matter is technically an export and practically a loss. Check that the association survives, on a sample, before you accept the extract.
  • Precedents and templates. Usually the most refined asset a long-standing firm has, and the one no migration package rebuilds for you. Export them and check the merge fields separately.
  • Time, WIP and billing history. Unbilled work in progress especially. It is the item most often left behind because it sits between systems, and it is money.
  • A written statement of what the export does not include. Ask for this specifically. The useful answer is the list of things that do not come out, and no vendor volunteers it unprompted.

Take this to every vendor

Questions to ask, including of us.

These are the questions that separate a migration that works from one that runs out of road in December. Ask all of them, of everyone, and get the answers in writing.

  1. 01

    Does our trust ledger history come across, at transaction level?

    The single most important question, and the one where answers differ most between vendors. "We support trust accounting" is not an answer to it.

  2. 02

    What will our external examiner accept for the years held in the old system?

    Ask your examiner, not only your vendor. If the answer is a static archive rather than live records, that is a much cheaper problem and worth knowing early.

  3. 03

    What is the contract term, and what happens if we want to leave?

    Firms coming out of a forced migration have a specific reason to care about being locked into another multi-year term.

  4. 04

    What does implementation actually cost, all in?

    Licence cost is the easy number. Ask for data migration, configuration, training and the cost of any parallel run, as one figure.

  5. 05

    Where is our data hosted, and can we choose the region?

    Onshore hosting is a checkable fact rather than a matter of opinion. Ask which region, and ask whether it is the default or an option.

  6. 06

    Can we run both systems in parallel for a month?

    The cheapest insurance available on a migration, and the first thing to disappear when a timeline compresses. Ask before the timeline compresses.

  7. 07

    Who is actually doing the migration, and what is the fallback if it slips?

    Named team or a partner. With a hard close date, the answer to "what if we are not ready in December" needs to exist before you sign.

  8. 08

    What happens to our precedents and document templates?

    Almost always rebuilt rather than migrated. Get the effort estimated in hours by whoever will do it.

Where MatterFirst honestly fits

What we can take on, and what we cannot.

We are an Australian-built platform hosted in the AWS region you choose. Here is what imports today and what is still being built, separated out, so you can check it against your own deadline rather than take a summary on trust.

What we migrate today

  • Contacts, matters and documents, imported from CSV with a staged review before anything is committed
  • Time entries, invoices and billing codes
  • Lead and enquiry records
  • Matter workflows rebuilt in the visual builder, which is design work rather than a data import

What is still in build

  • Trust ledger history is in active development, targeted ahead of the FilePro close date. MatterFirst has full trust accounting today, but the importer for prior trust transactions is not shipped yet. Ask us where it is up to before you plan around it
  • PEXA and InfoTrack as self-serve connections. Both are set up with us rather than switched on by the firm, so start that conversation early rather than late

Everything on that first list works today. The trust ledger importer is being built to land ahead of 31 December 2026, so if your history has to come with you, ask us where it is up to and we will give you a straight answer on progress rather than a promise. That is a fair question to put to every vendor on your list, not just to us.

FAQ

Questions firms are asking

When does FilePro shut down?
FilePro is reported to close on 31 December 2026, with compliance updates stopping and the Electronic File Purchase portal closing permanently on that date. We could not find the date stated publicly by Actionstep, so confirm it with them in writing.
Do I have to move to Actionstep?
No. Actionstep owns FilePro and is the default path, which is convenient but not an obligation. Australian firms leaving FilePro can choose any platform, and the practical constraint is time rather than permission.
What happens to my trust account records when FilePro closes?
The obligation to keep them does not end when the software does. Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law, trust records must be kept for seven years after the last transaction entry or the finalisation of the matter, whichever is later. You need those records somewhere you can produce them from, in a form an external examiner will accept.
How long does a practice management migration take?
For a small firm, plan on three to six months from decision to live, including data extraction, mapping, a parallel run and training. Firms that compress it usually do so by skipping the parallel run, which is the part that catches problems while they are still cheap.
Is it too late to start a FilePro migration?
It is late, not impossible. A firm starting now is running a compressed process rather than an impossible one, and the thing that decides it is usually how much trust ledger history has to move and in what form. Start talking to vendors this month rather than next, and get your external examiner's position early, because it can make the whole project substantially smaller.
Can MatterFirst take a FilePro firm?
Contacts, matters, documents, time entries, invoices and leads import today, from CSV with a staged review before anything commits. Trust ledger history is in active development and targeted to land ahead of the December close date. If that history has to come with you, ask us where the importer is up to and we will give you a straight answer on progress rather than a promise.
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 and Document AI processing all stay in that region: documents are not moved to another region to be OCRed or analysed.
How much does MatterFirst cost?
Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $149 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly pool of Document AI credits, 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 seven-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.

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 guide suits an Australian firm currently on FilePro that has not yet completed a migration, whether or not MatterFirst is on your list. It is less useful if you have already signed with a replacement and are mid-implementation, where the extraction checklist is the only section still worth reading.

Sources

Want a second opinion on your migration plan?

Bring us your export and your deadline and we will tell you straight what lands, what needs a decision, and where we are up to on the parts still in build. Half an hour, and you keep the checklist either way.

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