Matters

What a matter is

A matter is a potential or retained legal engagement connected to one contact. It carries the pipeline stage, estimated value, owner, close date, services, fee type, and notes used for pipeline and revenue reporting.

The standard pipeline is:

1. New
2. Qualified
3. Engagement Sent
4. Retained

Lost is a terminal stage for work the firm did not retain.

Create a matter from the Matters page

Use this path when you are working from the firm-wide pipeline.

1. Open Matters.
2. Click New matter.
3. Give the matter a name that describes the work, such as "Estate planning". See Matter names.
4. Search for and select the contact. A matter cannot be created without a contact.
5. Choose the current Stage.
6. Add the Estimated case value, or add service line items under Services.
7. Choose the Fee Type:
   • Contingency
   • Hourly
   • Flat Fee
   • Recurring
8. Assign the responsible team member.
9. Set the expected or actual Close Date.
10. Add services from the catalog or click Manual entry.
11. Add case notes.
12. Click Create matter. Nothing saves until you do.

Create a matter from a contact

Use this path when you are already working in a contact's record.

1. Open Contacts.
2. Open the contact.
3. Click Create matter in the header.
4. Complete the matter fields. The contact is already selected and cannot be changed in this flow.
5. Click Create matter.

The name starts as the contact's practice area or matter type. When the contact has notes the AI may read, Superpractice drafts a first note for the matter from them, marked Written by AI. Edit it or replace it. If you start typing in Notes first, no draft is added.

You can also begin this flow by changing a qualified contact to Converted. Superpractice opens the matter form so the retained engagement can be recorded instead of changing the status without a matter.

Matter names

Name a matter for the work, not the contact. Superpractice shows the contact for you:

• Where the contact is already on screen, such as the matter window, the Matters page (which has a Contact column), and the contact's own record, the matter shows its name alone.
• Where matters from many contacts are listed together, such as payments, search results, and notifications, it shows both, for example "Jordan Reyes · Estate planning". Engagement letters that use the matter name print it the same way.

Matters from Clio, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, or other connected systems keep the name your firm gave them there. Superpractice never adds the contact in front of an imported name. The only tidy-up: when an imported name starts with the contact's own name, such as "Jordan Reyes - Estate planning", it shows as "Jordan Reyes · Estate planning" in mixed lists and "Estate planning" where the contact is already on screen.

Stored names are never changed, so syncs and integrations see exactly what they sent. In lists, a matter's name is never blank: a matter named only for its contact shows the contact's name. In the matter window, a matter with no name of its own shows a muted Add name.

Other ways matters are created

Matters can also be synced from:

• HubSpot deals and line items
• GoHighLevel opportunities
• Matter webhooks from another CRM or case-management system

See Integration basics before a large import. Map stages and services first, then verify a single matter end to end.

Add value to a matter

There are two ways to record value:

One estimated value

Click the amount in the matter header or the Est. Value row and enter the total.

Use this when the engagement has one meaningful total and you do not need service-level detail.

Service line items

Under Services, click Edit, then:

• Choose a service from the catalog to use its name and default price.
• Or click Manual entry for a one-off item.
• Adjust the quantity and price as needed.

When line items exist, reporting uses the sum of price × quantity. The matter's single estimated value is the fallback only when the matter has no line items.

Move a matter through the pipeline

Open a matter, then click a stage label in the pipeline bar or edit the Stage row.

• Use New when the opportunity has just been created.
• Use Qualified when it is a real fit worth pursuing.
• Use Engagement Sent after the agreement or proposal has been sent.
• Use Retained only after the firm has won the work.
• Click Mark Lost when the opportunity will not proceed.

Retaining a matter also marks its contact as a Client. See Clients.

The fastest way through these last stages is sending the engagement letter from the matter itself — signature and payment then move the matter to Retained automatically. See Contracts.

Moving a matter to Retained:

• Sets the contact to Converted.
• Sets the close date to the current date if the matter did not already have one.
• Makes the matter eligible for closed-revenue reporting.

Retained matters require a positive value or at least one priced line item.

Edit an existing matter

1. Open Matters, or open the contact's Matters tab.
2. Click the matter.
3. Click a field to edit it.
4. For service line items, click Edit in the Services section.
5. Review the Activity section to confirm important changes.

Most matter fields autosave. Service line items also autosave after you leave a changed field.

Use the Matters page

The firm-wide Matters page supports two views:

• Table — best for scanning detail and sorting through records.
• Kanban — best for seeing the pipeline by stage and moving work visually.

Search finds a matter by its name, or by its contact's name, email, company, or phone. Words can be split across both, so "jordan estate" finds Jordan Reyes's estate planning matter.

Use Filter for stage, contact, service, value, owner, close date, and created date. Active filters appear above the list and can be removed individually.

Delete or mark lost?

• Mark Lost keeps the history and makes the pipeline outcome visible.
• Delete removes the matter and should be reserved for duplicates, tests, or records created by mistake.

If the engagement was real but did not close, mark it lost instead of deleting it.

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