Matter Management

Matters are the central organising unit for legal work in AtlasOS. Every task, time entry, document, and communication links back to a matter. This page covers how to create, configure, and manage matters throughout their lifecycle.

Creating a Matter

To create a new matter:

1. Navigate to Matters & Contacts in the sidebar
2. Click New Matter (or New Entity if adding the client entity first)
3. Fill in the matter details:
   • Matter name — a descriptive reference (e.g. "Smith v Jones", "Transfer: 42 Oak Avenue")
   • Matter type — select from litigation, conveyancing, commercial, family, labour, estates, or custom types
   • Entity — link to the client entity (company, individual, or trust)
   • Account manager — assign the responsible attorney or conveyancer
   • Status — Active, On Hold, Closed, or Prospect

Matter Types

AtlasOS supports the following matter types out of the box:

Matter Type	Typical Use
Litigation	Civil and commercial disputes, personal injury, debt recovery
Conveyancing	Property transfers, bond registrations, sectional title
Commercial	Company formations, shareholder agreements, M&A
Family	Divorce, custody, maintenance, antenuptial contracts
Labour	CCMA disputes, disciplinary hearings, employment contracts
Estates	Deceased estates, wills, trusts administration
General	Catch-all for matters that do not fit a specific category

You can add custom matter types in Practice Settings.

Linking Persons to Matters

Each matter can have multiple linked persons with defined roles:

• Client — the instructing party
• Opposing party — the counterparty in litigation or negotiation
• Witness — factual or expert witnesses
• Counsel — external advocates or barristers briefed on the matter
• Other — any other relevant contact (e.g. estate agent, bank representative)

Link persons from the matter detail view under the People tab.

Matter Detail View

The matter detail view provides a consolidated view of everything related to a matter:

• Overview — matter status, type, key dates, and assigned team
• Tasks — deadlines, follow-ups, and to-do items specific to this matter
• Time — all time entries recorded against the matter
• Documents — case files, pleadings, correspondence, and court orders
• Billing — invoices, fee notes, and trust account movements
• People — all persons linked to the matter with their roles
• Activity — chronological log of all actions taken on the matter

Entity Groups for Related Matters

When a client has multiple related matters (e.g. a property developer with several concurrent transfers), use Entity Groups to link them. This allows you to:

• View all matters for a group on a single screen
• Generate consolidated billing reports
• Track group-level compliance obligations

Prospects Pipeline

New instructions that have not yet been formally mandated appear in the Prospects pipeline. Use this to track potential work before converting it to an active matter. Prospects can be converted to full matters with a single click, preserving all notes and linked entities.