Instead of FilePro
Stop paying FilePro per file. Own the system your matters live in.
We build your version around your practice areas, your file opening steps and the reports your principals read, map your FilePro records across, and run it for you. Your trust account stays in a certified trust accounting system.
FilePro publishes no price. It charges a fee for each file the firm opens, quoted privately, with implementation charged on top for customisation, installation, training and data migration.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What the file fee pays for
Each FilePro file fee is rent on a record your own team creates
The client details, the parties, the time and the documents on every new matter come from your people. The fee is what it costs to keep them inside FilePro's software.
A charge on every new matter
FilePro chose a consumable model over seat licences: the firm pays per file. More instructions mean a bigger software bill, in exactly the months you are busiest.
A rate you only learn by asking
Neither the home page nor the FAQ shows what a file costs. The vendor offers a demonstration and a return on investment model, if you ask.
Implementation billed as its own job
FilePro's FAQ prices implementation on the real cost of customisation, installation, training and data migration.
Hosting to choose and pay for
FilePro offers a choice of hosting options and publishes technical requirements for running it. Somebody has to own those machines or that hosting arrangement.
Data goes in, the way out is unwritten
FilePro's pages describe converting your data and precedents into FilePro. They say nothing about taking your matter and time history back out.
A product under a new owner
Actionstep bought FilePro in 2023 and says it will bring cloud technology to FilePro customers. Where your system goes next is decided in their roadmap, not your partners' meeting.
What your firm gets instead
Ask the practice a question, get the answer from your own records
Dates
Limitation dates and undertakings on watch
Every settlement, filing, hearing and limitation date counts down daily, and each promise a lawyer gives the other side is logged in one place.
- check Limitation dates sit above every other deadline in the list
- check Each undertaking holds its wording, who gave it and when it falls due
- check One morning list of what needs a call today, sorted by what it would cost to miss
- check Closing a matter is blocked while an undertaking on it is open
New matters
A conflict search that reads everything
Opening a matter searches every party the firm has recorded since day one, and the client care steps are checked before the first bill goes out.
- check Every past client, other party and matter searched in one go
- check A hit stops the matter opening
- check Engagement letter, scope, fee basis and due diligence tracked on each file
- check No per-file fee: open a hundred matters in a busy month at the same cost as ten
Fees
Unbilled work and slow payers, in plain sight
Staff record time the way they would say it out loud, and principals get direct answers about money on the books without commissioning a report.
- check Unbilled time on every matter, oldest entry flagged first
- check Each client's unbilled and unpaid amounts shown together
- check Recovery per fee earner after write-offs, not the rate on paper
- check A heads-up when a matter is close to running over its estimate
Ownership
A system that stays yours
Start on one laptop with nothing to install, then move to a shared database for the whole firm. Plain records any tool can open, whoever owns any vendor next.
- check Your FilePro matters, contacts and time mapped across by Enterprise DNA
- check Matter types and steps named the way your firm already talks
- check Change a field or a rule by describing it, no consultant
- check MIT licence, so there is no subscription to end
Make it yours
Design your own FilePro replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from FilePro. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your FilePro data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from FilePro
A move usually involves agreeing what your FilePro export contains, mapping its columns, checking the imported records, and running both systems side by side before you switch.
- 1
Plan the export
Ask FilePro what your account can export. Its public information describes bringing data into FilePro, not exporting it out, so do not assume a particular export route. Export the records you need for clients, matters, time, bills and documents in whatever format your account allows, and check with FilePro. Keep trust accounting in a certified trust system. It is not part of this replacement.
- 2
Map and load your records
Start with a test import if the import process offers one. Then load the export into Matters for Claude Code. The free version imports a standard practice management export, but FilePro's columns need mapping to the new database's fields. That mapping is part of the setup, rather than something to assume will happen automatically.
- 3
Check gaps and flagged records
Review the import results and the compliance check for gaps. Imported clients have no CDD date and matters have empty client care files, so review and backfill these rather than treating old records as proof. Check key dates and undertakings by hand in one careful pass. Resolve any other records the import flags before relying on the new database.
- 4
Run both systems side by side
For a short overlap, keep FilePro available while you use the new database and Claude Code for practice work. Check that staff can find the client and matter records they need, and compare key dates, undertakings, time and fee records against FilePro. Resolve discrepancies and finish manual checks before making the new system your working record.
- 5
Switch off FilePro
After the overlap, make Matters for Claude Code your working system and stop entering routine practice records in FilePro. Keep trust accounting in FilePro or move it to another certified, audited trust system. Before ending FilePro, make sure you have arranged access to any records you still need.
Where the real effort goes
Most of the work is agreeing how your FilePro fields and rules map to the new database, and deciding which history to bring across. FilePro's public information does not describe an export out, so the work depends on what your account can produce. Key dates and undertakings need manual checking. Enterprise DNA handles the export mapping and migration work when you have them install and run it.
Not ready for a call?
Get your FilePro switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off FilePro, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your FilePro switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardTwo ways to run it
Try the free version, or let us build and run yours
Open source
Run it yourself
Free
- 1 Clone the repo from GitHub
- 2 npm run demo, then open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Type /attention to see the sample firm's week
- 4 Connect your own database when the firm is ready
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA build and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We map your FilePro records across and go through key dates and undertakings with you
- check We set it up for your practice areas, file opening steps and principal reports
- check We connect it to your email, documents and accounting
- check It runs inside Omni, our managed Command Centre, beside the rest of your practice
Questions
Instead of FilePro, answered
FilePro runs our trust account. Does this replace it? expand_more
No, and that is deliberate. FilePro's trust accounting is certified under the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules, and trust money belongs in a certified, audited trust system. Keep it there or move it to another certified one. This system holds everything around the trust account: matters, conflicts, time, fees, dates and undertakings.
How do our records get out of FilePro? expand_more
FilePro's public pages describe moving data in, not out, so the export is worked out with your own system. The free version imports a standard practice management export; a FilePro export has its own columns, and mapping them is part of what Enterprise DNA does. Key dates and undertakings are checked by hand in one careful pass.
Is the per-file model not cheaper in a quiet month? expand_more
It can be, which is why some firms like it. The catch is that the bill climbs with your busiest months and the rate is quoted privately. Here there is no charge for opening a file at all: our fee is one setup fee then a retainer for running it, not a toll on each new matter.
Actionstep owns FilePro now. Why not just move to Actionstep? expand_more
You can, and it is a well known system. It is still a subscription to someone else's screens. This puts the same kind of records in a database your firm owns, built around how you already work.
Does anyone at the firm need to understand databases? expand_more
No. People ask in the words a lawyer already uses, like which files have gone quiet this month, and Claude Code finds the answer. Enterprise DNA handles the setup and keeps it running.
Stop paying a fee each time a client instructs you
30 minutes with Sam. We go through what FilePro costs your firm across a year of files, what you actually use, and what your own version would look like. If it fits, we build it. If not, the free version is yours to run.
Matters for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for FilePro?
Get your version built