Finding your way around
The sidebar
The sidebar on the left takes you to every part of your firm. You only see the items your role and your plan allow.
| Item | What's there |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Your own overview: tasks, upcoming dates, your time this week and what needs attention. |
| Calendar | Events, task due dates and statutes of limitations. See The calendar. |
| Tasks | Your tasks and your team's. See Tasks. |
| Matters | Every matter you can see. See Creating a matter. |
| Conflict checks | Conflict searches and their reports. See Running a conflict check. |
| Contacts & Clients | Your address book, and Portal accounts if you manage the client portal. |
| Time & expenses | Time, expenses and flat fees logged across your matters. |
| Invoices | Every invoice you can see, firm-wide. |
| Enquiries | Messages sent from your website's contact form. |
| Team | Members and User groups. |
| Online Payments | Stripe Transactions and Payouts, once online payments are set up. |
| Firm settings | Everything about how your firm is set up. See The settings hub. |
| Website | Themes, Pages, Navigation and Blog. |
| Help center / Contact support | These guides, and a way to reach the Mattersimple team. |
Your name sits at the very bottom of the sidebar. Click it for My account and Log out.
The header
Along the top of every page:
- Search: opens the search menu. See Search and quick actions.
- Timer: start a timer and stop it to log the time on a matter. See The timer.
- Live status: shows whether your website is live, and lets those who can update firm settings take it live or offline. While it's live, View site opens your website in a new tab.
- Notifications bell: your latest notifications. See Notifications.
Search and quick actions
Press ⌘K on a Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows, or click Search in the header, to open the search menu from any page. You can also press / when you're not typing in a field.
Before you type, it lists the matters and contacts you opened most recently. Start typing to find:
- Matters you can see, by number, title or a client's name. Closed matters are listed after open ones.
- Contacts, by name, email address or phone number. Spaces, dashes and brackets in phone numbers are ignored.
- Pages from the sidebar, such as Invoices or Firm settings.
- Quick actions, such as New matter, New contact, New task, New event and Start timer.
Use the arrow keys to move through the results, Enter to open one and Esc to close the menu. You only see the pages and actions your role and plan allow.
Your dashboard
The dashboard is personal: it shows your work, not the whole firm's. Cards load one by one.
- My tasks: open tasks assigned to you.
- Upcoming: what's on your calendar in the next 14 days.
- My time this week: billable and non-billable hours, and their billable value.
- Needs attention: things waiting on someone, such as Invoices to approve, Approved invoices to send, Open conflict checks, New enquiries and Client uploads to review. A row only shows when it has something in it and you're allowed to act on it.
- Financial overview: for people who handle invoices, Outstanding, Overdue, Collected this month and Unbilled work, with Collections over the last 12 months, Aged receivables and the Largest overdue invoices. It only counts invoices and matters you can see.
- Quick start: a button at the top right, for people who can update firm settings. It opens the setup steps still to do and opens by itself on your first visit. Dismiss hides it for the whole firm.
- Finish your website profile: shown if you're on the firm's website team without a photo or bio.
Still need help?
Send a request to the Mattersimple team and we'll reply by email.