What's new
What changed, release by release
The last 15 days in plain words: what a firm can now do, and where to find it. The help centre has the step by step guides.
Access reviews that read person by person
Access reviews read person by person, nobody reviews their own access, a grant's details show what it is, and the word asked before a removal is taken in any case.
- Access reviews read person by person. Each person's grants sit apart from the next person's under a line, so a name is read with its own roles and access. A long name keeps one line beside its Confirm all.
- Confirm all only while there is something to confirm. Once every grant a person holds has a decision, their Confirm all steps aside.
- Details that say what a grant is. A grant's details show its kind and only what that kind has, and a role reads from the day the person was given it.
- What is left, on the reviews list. Each period reads as its first day over its last, with its due date and how many grants are still undecided.
- Nobody reviews their own access. A reviewer's own grants go to another reviewer or wait for another access manager, so no one signs off what they hold themselves.
- The word asked before a removal, in any case. Typing remove where Remove is asked now enables the button, here and wherever an action asks for a word first.
- A page that scrolls after a preview. Closing a file opened from a dialog, such as the letterhead drawn with a template, leaves the page scrolling again.
- No Actions heading over empty cells. A table whose rows have no actions no longer keeps an empty Actions column, on Matters, Parties and every other register.
A new firm from its first day
A clear first password, fewer sign-in alerts, letterhead previews that show the head, and integrations that say which are paid.
- Choosing your first password. The welcome email opens a page that asks you to choose your password, and sign-up ends by sending you to that email.
- Fewer new sign-in alerts. A browser you have signed in on before is known wherever you sign in from, so a phone on mobile data no longer looks new each time.
- Letterhead previews show the head. The exact preview, and documents drawn on the letterhead, print the firm's name and details at the top of the first page.
- Integrations in two parts. The accounts every firm sets at no charge, and the paid add-ons for a provider of the firm's own, each marked bought or not.
- No vacancy alerts on day one. A post the law requires that nobody has held yet is first alerted after thirty days, so a new firm has time to set up.
- Hear the sample data as a firm would. While the sample data is loaded, you can have its notices emailed and texted to you too.
- A steadier assistant. It helps with the firm's work and questions about legal practice, declines the rest, never takes instructions from a record, and shows outside addresses as words, not links.
Fixed assets, the year's tax and an assistant that answers from Docavra's help
A fixed asset register with monthly depreciation, the income tax computation and the year's accounts, updates that hold one firm back alone, and an assistant that answers about Docavra from its own help.
- Fixed assets on a register. Under Ledger, Fixed assets: what the firm owns, its class, where it is, who keeps it, what it cost and what it still carries, brought in from a supplier's bill, bought from an office account, or already in the books.
- Depreciation month by month. Each month is read asset by asset before it posts as one journal, and the latest month can be reversed and run again. An asset taken off the register posts its gain or loss.
- The year's income tax computation. Under Ledger, Tax: from the books' profit to chargeable income and the tax, as a company, a sole practitioner or each partner's share, with capital allowances by the classes of the Income Tax Act, 2015 for the firm's adviser to confirm.
- The year's accounts. The statement of changes in equity and the notes, printed with the statements on the letterhead.
- Updates that never hold one firm up for another. A release reaches firms a few at a time, and a firm whose update meets a problem is held back and retried while the others carry on.
- The assistant answers about Docavra from its own help. How a screen works, the plans, the terms or how your data is kept, answered from the help centre with the page's link, or a support ticket offered when the help does not cover it.
- Say whether an answer helped. Helpful or not on each answer, with an optional note for Docavra.
- Sub-accounts on their parent's line. An account added under another now reports on its parent's line of the profit and loss and the balance sheet, and a bank heading you add reports with the bank accounts.
The console on a phone
Headings and lists take less of a phone's height, the Day tab reads as a schedule, and a list's search fills its row.
- Headings that stay out of the way. A page's heading on a phone now holds its sentence and its menu. The sentence stops at two lines, with the rest a press away.
- A search you can type in. A list's search fills its row on a phone and takes all of it while you type. The list's main button stands beside it as an icon, and its other actions are in the menu.
- Shorter rows. A list's rows on a phone read in two lines where they can, the last detail sharing the line above it.
- The calendar on a phone. Its controls take less height on every tab, and Today and the date share their row without moving as the dates change.
- The Day tab on a phone. It reads as a schedule down the page, saying where the day has got to and where a long stretch has nothing in it.
- The court diary on a phone. A hearing reads down: the time, what it is for, its numbers, then the matter.
- The sidebar on a phone. It opens from the three lines and closes with the cross.
- Clear filters on a phone. It no longer lies over the filter it clears.
A client account that can balance, and one size on the calendar
The three way reconciliation counts money in suspense, the calendar's entries read at one size, and the status page has one title.
- One size on the calendar. A day's entries and the bars that run across several days now read at the same size. Pressing deadlines stay bolder.
- A client account can balance with money in suspense. The three way reconciliation now counts money nobody has yet identified, and the office's share of a mixed receipt, as held in the client account. Before, either one showed as a difference that could never close.
- The status page's title. The logo and the word Status now read as one line, without the name twice.
A firm's day, worked through from start to finish
Forms that take the first press and show what they refuse, choices in place of typing, and company secretarial ready from the first day.
- Create party on the first press. A press right after typing a name is no longer lost.
- A refused form shows where. The page moves to the first field in question.
- Closing a matter says what stands in the way. Open deadlines count, and each thing named takes you to where it is settled.
- Choices, not typing. Currency and country are picked from a list, and settings that hold a list are picked by name.
- Company secretarial from day one. A firm starts with templates for a company resolution, an annual return and a share certificate, for its lawyer to adapt.
- Conflict results name the prospect. A match on an earlier enquiry shows the person's name beside its number.
- Plain words. Stage checks, the audit list, alerts and setting history read in words.
- Honest about what happens. Recording a fee proposal as sent says it records it, and a bill held for its E-VAT reference says why it has no PDF yet.
- Sharper starting points. A new case suggests "A v B" from the matter's parties, and a receipt from a bill leads with the office account.
- Links that open. A reference you may not open reads as plain text rather than landing on a refusal.
- Changes that matter ask first. Approving new bank details, withdrawing a signature and taking a setting out of use no longer happen on one click.
- Earlier years of a company. A company newly taken on can file for earlier years once the rule has terms that cover them.
- Detail pages stay together. Filings and meetings keep their main column and side rail side by side on any screen.
- A faster approvals badge. The count of what waits for you is kept until something changes.
Many lexicon terms approved together
A lawyer ticks the drafts in the lexicon and approves them at once, and loading the sample data now leaves a firm's logo alone.
- Approve many terms at once. In the lexicon, tick the drafts you have read and press Approve selected. Each is approved at the wording you read and named in the audit trail. A term someone changed in the meantime is left as it stands, and you are told.
- Sample data keeps your logo. Loading the sample used to replace a firm's logo, mark and favicon with a plain colour. It now leaves them alone.
- What's new shows the last 15 days. Here and in Settings, so it reads as news.
Court matters, conversions and tidier settings
Court matters record their limitation position and open, conversions take the firm's own fields, and settings read in plain words.
- Court matters open. A matter now has a section for its limitation position: the cause of action and the day it accrued, which sets the limitation deadline, or a note saying why no period applies.
- Converting an enquiry. The kind of matter chosen on the convert screen counts, and the screen asks for any of the firm's own fields that kind of matter requires.
- Generated resolutions. A resolution the system draws is read and previewed like any other file.
- Plainer alerts. A background job that stops says what stopped, without quoting the program's own error.
- Restricted documents. Reading one in the viewer and taking a copy are separate rights, as the role says.
- One file for a fiscalised bill. The copy with the fiscal reference is the next version of the bill's document, not a second one beside it.
- Settings in plain words. Lists read in words, and company secretarial settings open on their own rules screen.
- Recording a payment from a bill. The form names who paid.
- Matters opened and closed, by month. The report can read month by month, each month against its own year before.
- Only what opens is offered. The sidebar and settings take you to the first tab you may open, and bills and funds requests list only what opens for you.
Clearer reports, documents and lists
A management dashboard, charts that suit each report, any period compared, projections, tidier printed reports and fuller lists.
- Tidier printed reports. Conflict check reports, registers, access reviews, client reports, form responses and report packs print in one layout, with lined-up details, ruled tables and dates in words.
- One way to choose custom dates. Matter financials, reports and financial statements open the same calendars as every other period filter.
- Lists that show more. A note shows up to three lines, other rows run further across the page, and conflict check results read without scrolling sideways.
- Quieter filters. The words in filters read a step smaller, and filters beside a heading stay level with it where there is room.
- Reports you can read at a glance. The overview is a management dashboard, and every report draws its rows as trends, ranked bars, shares of a whole, funnels or heat maps.
- Choose any period, and compare it. Today, this week, the last 7, 30 or 90 days, custom dates and more stand above every report, with the compared period drawn on the chart.
- Where the money is heading. Monthly money charts carry on as a dashed line at the recent average, named as an estimate.
- Tidier tables and lists. Every table's actions sit behind one icon, list rows show a name, one line and their badges with the rest in the details, and a section's buttons stand beside its heading wherever they fit.
- A reports overview that opens faster. The headline figures come first, and each other section draws as soon as its own figures are ready, so a slow chart never holds up the rest. The Approvals count beside the menu also no longer slows a large firm's pages.
- Client portal money lists read in full. On a phone, bills, statements, fee notes, funds requests and payment links show every word and figure, and an overdue request says since when in one badge.
- The same folder name on different clients. Two clients can each keep a folder of the same name, such as Statutory documents.
Custom fields and the lexicon
The firm's own fields on every kind of record, with conditions, formulas and restricted fields, and a lexicon of the Ghanaian legal terms the firm relies on.
- Fields on any record. Matters, clients, parties, enquiries, tasks, documents, time and people, grouped in sets, with repeating rows, defaults and a history of every change.
- Conditions and formulas. A field can show only sometimes, be worked out by a formula, or be restricted to the people allowed to read it.
- Everywhere the record goes. Fields show as register columns, are found by search, read in reports and the data feed, and fill merge tokens in templates.
- Bringing values in. From a spreadsheet, or from a question on an intake form.
- The lexicon. A shipped base of Ghanaian legal terms for a lawyer to review, with a plain-English explanation for clients and a check of a document's defined terms.
- Details we need. Ask a client for details on a matter and have them answered in the portal.
Dashboards and reports you can open
A dashboard for every role, figures that open down to their records, a report builder, and a data feed for Power BI and Excel.
- Dashboards. Everyone opens on their own: today's diary, deadlines, court, tasks, time and what waits on their decision. Partners, finance, intake and practice-area heads have theirs, and anyone can build and share one.
- Figures that open. Every figure opens down through its parts to the records behind it, says why it moved, and reads against the firm's targets.
- A fuller library. Time, revenue, matters, clients, intake, client account, the books, compliance and risk, usage and people.
- Build your own. Choose a data set, its columns and filters, preview it, save it and share it. Packs put views together as one PDF, and schedules send them.
- The data feed. Read the firm's data sets in Power BI and Excel through a personal feed key.
- In the portal. Clients read their costs, their matter's progress and the year, and download them as PDFs.
Stages as workflow steps
Each stage says what a matter must have before it moves on, what happens as it enters, and what comes next.
- What a stage asks. Fields filled, tasks done, documents filed and signed, deadlines set, a partner's sign-off, undertakings discharged and client money cleared.
- What a stage does. Sets tasks for the people on the matter, starts a workflow, makes drafts, raises deadlines and tells the client.
- Moving on. Advance lists exactly what is missing; a partner may move on anyway with a reason, shown on the history. Matters can be moved in bulk.
- Stage analytics. How matters flow through each stage and how long they stay, by matter type, office or lawyer.
Undertakings, complaints and the compliance calendar
Undertakings kept in sight, complaints and incidents worked to their clocks, gifts and interests declared, file reviews, insurance, and every duty in one calendar.
- Undertakings. Recorded on the matter, with the riskier kinds approved by a partner first, and kept in sight until kept, released or breached.
- Complaints. Answered within the firm's time limits and closed with their outcome, redress and lessons.
- Incidents and data breaches. Assessed, with the notices the Data Protection Act asks for recorded within their clocks.
- Gifts and outside interests. One register of gifts given and received, and yearly declarations of interests, warned on conflict checks.
- File reviews. Each period a sample of every fee earner's matters is drawn for review against the firm's checklist.
- Indemnity insurance. Policies with their limits, each renewal worked to binding, notices of circumstances and claims.
- The compliance calendar. Every dated duty in one list and in the firm's diary, with a private address for Outlook or Google.
Fee notes and split bills
Send a pre-bill for the client's review before it becomes a bill, and share a matter's bills among its payers.
- Fee notes. The client agrees or comments, on the whole or line by line, in the portal or by any route you record. Revise and send again, every version kept.
- Split bills. An insurer's percentage up to its limit, an employer who pays the fees, a co-owner's fixed part. Each payer gets its own numbered bill, VAT and balance.
The assistant
Ask about the firm's work in plain words. It reads only what you may read, and nothing changes until you approve what it proposes.
- Plain words. Questions about the firm's work answered from what the person asking may read.
- Approve first. It proposes the action asked for as a card with the screen's own fields; nothing is done until you approve it, and it runs as you.
- The firm decides. The models and effort, the firm's credits, and the limit each person works under.