Glossary · edition 2026.09

The words firms use, explained plainly.

Practice management has its own vocabulary, and vendors use it inconsistently — sometimes deliberately. These are the terms as we use them, each with a line on why it matters when you are evaluating software.

Work & matters Time & money Clients & documents People & firm Compliance & data Deployment & licensing

Work & matters

The vocabulary of getting legal work done in a defined order.

Matter: A single piece of legal work for a client — a purchase, a defence, a review — with its own file, deadlines, documents, time and money. Why it matters: if a system cannot hold a matter as one object, everything else has to be reconstructed by hand.
Matter reference: The unique identifier a firm gives a matter, usually encoding practice area and year (CON/2026/0042). Why it matters: references are how staff, clients and files find each other; auto-generation removes a class of error.
Practice area: The category of work: conveyancing, litigation, employment, corporate, tax, immigration, family. Why it matters: procedures, deadlines and reporting vary by area, so the system should know which one applies.
Procedure blueprint (SOP): The firm’s written method for a type of matter: phases, ordered steps, owners, documents and deadlines. Why it matters: it turns a good matter into the firm’s standard way of working. See blueprints.
Guarded step: A step that cannot start until the preceding step is complete. Why it matters: guards are what make a procedure real; without them a checklist is a suggestion.
Blocked step: A step that cannot proceed for a stated reason — a missing document, an unanswered client, a court date. Why it matters: blocked is different from late, and it is the first thing to review each week.
Deadline trigger: The event from which a deadline is calculated: service, delivery, a ruling, publication. Why it matters: a deadline with no recorded trigger cannot be checked later, and checkability is the point.
Conflict check: A firm-wide search of clients, matters, contacts and counterparties before accepting instructions, with the outcome recorded. Why it matters: “we checked” should be a document on the file. See conflicts.
Ethical wall (matter wall): A restriction limiting a matter to named people inside the firm, usually because of a conflict of interest. Why it matters: it must be enforced by the system, with the grant of access recorded, or it is only a convention.
Engagement letter: The document setting out scope, fees and basis of retainer, signed before work begins. Why it matters: it is the first professional act on a file and the first thing an insurer asks for.
Matter status: Where a matter stands: active, on hold, completed, cancelled, archived. Why it matters: reporting and workload only mean something if status is kept honestly.

Time & money

Where under-billing hides, and where client money is either protected or at risk.

Time entry: A record of work done on a matter: duration, description, author, date. Why it matters: the loss happens at recording, not at invoicing — see time & recovery.
Time governance: The firm’s rules on time: rounding increments, minimums, daily caps, late-entry rules. Why it matters: policy applied by the system removes a monthly argument and makes recovery predictable.
Unbilled time: Recorded work not yet on an invoice. Why it matters: visible unbilled time is the most useful number in a partner review, and the least often seen.
Recovery rate: Billed value as a percentage of the value of time recorded. Why it matters: it separates firms that work hard from firms that get paid for it.
Realisation: Collected value as a percentage of billed value. Why it matters: discounts, write-offs and slow payers appear here rather than in recovery.
Write-off: Time or fees deliberately not billed or not collected. Why it matters: a write-off should be a decision with a reason, not a discovery at month end.
Disbursement: A payment made on a client’s behalf — a filing fee, a search, a courier — usually from client funds. Why it matters: it is a trust movement, not a firm expense, and the two must not blur.
Trust account (client account): The account holding money belonging to clients. Why it matters: it is not the firm’s money, and the records must show whose money is where at any moment.
Office account: The firm’s own account, holding fee income and firm expenses. Why it matters: movement between it and trust must be an explicit, referenced transfer.
Fee transfer: Client funds moved to the firm in payment of fees: an outflow from the client’s balance and an inflow to fee income, referenced to an invoice. Why it matters: this is where the two accounts most often blur — see the ledger test.
Double entry: Recording both sides of a movement rather than a single adjustment. Why it matters: it is what makes a ledger checkable; a balance without entries is a number, not a record.
Deficit (overdraw): A client balance that has gone, or would go, below zero. Why it matters: a system that refuses the entry prevents the error; one that reports it later only documents it.
Reconciliation: Matching the ledger against the bank statement and resolving differences as listed items. Why it matters: monthly reconciliation is the difference between routine bookkeeping and a bad quarter. See trust accounting.
Receipt: Acknowledgement of money received, issued to the client and filed against the matter. Why it matters: required above thresholds in most jurisdictions, and the first thing a client asks for.
Aged debtor: An invoice unpaid beyond its due date, usually grouped by age (30/60/90 days). Why it matters: cash flow is decided by how early you see this, not how firmly you chase it.
Invoice type: The basis of charging: fixed fee, hourly, retainer, contingency, or a mixture. Why it matters: the invoice should be generated from the agreed basis, not a manual calculation.

Clients & documents

What the client sees, and what happens to the paper.

Client record: The firm’s master record for a client: contact details, identifiers, matters, billing history, last contact. Why it matters: duplicates here create duplicates everywhere else.
KYC (know your client): Identity verification and the documents evidencing it, collected at onboarding. Why it matters: a regulatory expectation, and far cheaper to collect at the start.
Matter document request: A structured request for a specific document from the client, tracked until received. Why it matters: chasing documents becomes a checklist instead of a series of phone calls.
Document version: A dated copy of a file as it changed, with the current version identifiable. Why it matters: the executed copy must be distinguishable from the seventh draft.
File lock: A setting preventing further edits to a document or version. Why it matters: it stops a final document being overwritten after it has been sent.
Executed copy: The signed version of a document, filed against the matter. Why it matters: it is the record of what the client actually agreed to.
E-signature: Sending a document for signature electronically and tracking it to completion. Why it matters: it removes a week of printing, posting and chasing. See e-signature.
Client portal: The client-facing part of the system: progress, shared documents, messages, invoices. Why it matters: it answers routine questions so fee-earners do not have to. See the portal.
Shared item (projection): A matter, document, message or invoice that staff have deliberately made visible to a client. Why it matters: the default should be invisible; sharing should be an act, recorded when it happens.
Enquiry (lead): Inbound contact from a prospective client, before any matter exists. Why it matters: enquiries handled slowly are work given to a competitor — see intake.
Triage: Deciding what an enquiry is, who handles it, and how urgently, before anyone spends an hour on it. Why it matters: triage is where responsiveness is either achieved or lost.
Attribution (referral source): The recorded origin of an enquiry: referral, search, event, intermediary. Why it matters: marketing decisions should come from conversion data, not impressions.
Intermediary: A third party who introduces work or acts between firm and client. Why it matters: their involvement affects conflicts, onboarding and sometimes fees.

People & firm

The operational half of a practice.

Role & permission: What a person may see and do: view or edit matters, approve time, see financials, administer the firm. Why it matters: access should follow the firm’s structure, not the software’s convenience.
Delegation: Assigning a step or task to another person under the firm’s hierarchy. Why it matters: work that cannot be delegated safely stays with the partner and becomes a bottleneck.
Workload view: A per-person and per-team view of open matters, due dates and effort. Why it matters: capacity should be visible before a deadline is promised.
CPD (continuing professional development): Mandatory professional learning hours, tracked per fee-earner. Why it matters: a compliance obligation, and in most firms a December panic that software can smooth.
Leave & cover: Recorded absence and the arrangements made for work during it. Why it matters: a deadline that lands on an empty desk is a client problem.
Fee share: An internal allocation of fees between people or departments. Why it matters: recorded with the matter, it need not be reconstructed at year end.
Knowledge base: The firm’s internal reference material: precedents, checklists, guidance, house style. Why it matters: it is how accumulated know-how survives staff changes. See research & knowledge.
Handbook: The firm’s policies and procedures for staff, held where staff can find them. Why it matters: fewer questions to partners, and evidence that policies were available.

Compliance & data

The words an insurer, auditor or data request will use.

Audit trail: A record of who did what and when, including changes with before and after values. Why it matters: it turns a dispute about a figure into a lookup. See compliance & audit.
Activity log: A record of ordinary use — logins, views, uploads, completions — as distinct from changes to data. Why it matters: it answers “was this file looked at, and by whom?”.
Data subject request (DSR): A request from an individual to see, correct or delete their personal data. Why it matters: it must be answered within a statutory period, with a record of what was done.
Retention policy: How long each category of data is kept, and what happens at the end of that period. Why it matters: keeping everything forever is a liability, not diligence.
Consent: Recorded permission for a specific use of personal data, where consent is the lawful basis. Why it matters: consent must be provable and withdrawable.
Processor & controller: The controller decides why personal data is processed; the processor acts on the controller’s instructions. Why it matters: in practice your firm is the controller of client data and your vendor is the processor. See the DPA.
Sub-processor: A third party engaged by the processor to handle data, such as hosting or email delivery. Why it matters: you are entitled to know who they are and to object to new ones. See the list.
RPO / RTO: Recovery point objective (how much data you can lose) and recovery time objective (how long you can be down). Why it matters: the only meaningful way to describe backup quality.
SLA (service level agreement): A written commitment about availability and support response. Why it matters: without one, “we will fix it quickly” is not a commitment. See managed terms.
Incident: An event affecting confidentiality, integrity or availability. Why it matters: notification, containment and a written summary matter — not the word “unprecedented”.
Privilege: The professional protection attaching to lawyer–client communications. Why it matters: it is why client data must not be spread across inboxes, messaging groups and personal drives.

Deployment & licensing

How the software is run, and what you are permitted to do with it.

Private instance: One firm’s own deployment: its own application, database and storage, separate from every other firm. Why it matters: it is the structural claim this product is built on. See security.
Per-firm release: Delivering an update to one firm at a time, after verification, with rollback available. Why it matters: your firm is never the test environment for someone else’s work.
Managed deployment: The vendor operates the firm’s instance: updates, backups, monitoring and support, under a subscription. Why it matters: it is a service, not a licence — you can also run the software yourself.
Self-hosted: The firm runs the software on infrastructure it controls. Why it matters: maximum control with a real standing obligation, costed in whitepaper 03.
Bring your own account: The firm owns the underlying cloud account and its costs; the vendor operates the instance. Why it matters: control and exit path stay with the firm without the operational work.
Apache License 2.0: A permissive open-source licence allowing use, modification and commercial distribution, with an express patent grant. Why it matters: you can run and change the software without asking permission. See licensing.
Fork: A copy of the software developed independently of the original. Why it matters: a fork is the ultimate exit route — and the reason a trademark policy exists.
Source available vs open source: “Source available” means you may read the code; “open source” means you may also use, change and redistribute it. Why it matters: the distinction decides whether you can keep running the software without the vendor.
Creative Commons (CC BY): A licence for documents rather than code, allowing reuse with attribution. Why it matters: our papers carry it so firms can circulate and quote them freely.

Missing a term you have seen elsewhere — or one a vendor used on you with confidence and no explanation? Write to support@openlpm.com and we will add it. Definitions are more useful when they are asked for.

See the words behave in the product

Definitions are cheap. The useful test is whether a matter, a trust transfer and a portal view behave the way the definitions promise.

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Comparisons Whitepapers State of LPM 2026