One application for matters, time, money and records
Law firm management software that runs inside the firm
AntChambers is one application covering the working life of a matter — opening it, recording time against it, capturing disbursements, billing it under agreed terms, and collecting against the bill. It installs on a server the firm controls, and you license only the parts you use.
What a practice actually has to run
The whole chain, in one place.
Most firms do not lack software. They have a spreadsheet for time, a Word template for bills, a folder tree for documents, and a partner who keeps the outstanding position in their head. Each part works. The joins do not.
AntChambers is built as one chain with no manual joins in it:
- A matter is opened against a client, with the court, case number, opposing party and hearing dates that litigation actually needs.
- Terms of engagement are agreed — fixed, hourly, or hybrid with rates by designation and fixed amounts for named tasks.
- Time is recorded as start and end blocks across the week, refusing overlaps and locking once approved.
- Disbursements are captured with the receipt attached and a billable flag, and go through their own approval.
- A bill is raised for a period from approved time and approved disbursements only, priced by the terms, taxed under the client's GST treatment, and numbered by financial year.
- A receipt is recorded net of TDS, so the outstanding figure is the money you are actually waiting for.
Nothing in that chain is retyped, and every figure at the end can be traced back to the hour that produced it.
One chain, with no manual joins left in it.
What is always there, and what you choose
A core that never changes, modules that do.
Core is present in every installation and is not separately licensed: people and designations, granular permissions, firm branding and settings, a complete audit trail, notifications, file storage, currency handling, and the module and licence manager itself.
Everything else is a module, enabled per firm by the licence file. A module that is not licensed contributes nothing at all — no screens, no menu entries, nothing running in the background.
Core
coreUsers, designations, permissions, firm branding, settings, audit trail, notifications and file storage. Present in every installation.
Clients
licensedClient master with contacts and billing entities, per-client GST treatment and TDS applicability.
Read moreMatters
licensedMatter type, court, case number, opposing party and hearing dates — with configurable status and priority lists.
Read moreTasks
licensedA task catalogue plus per-matter assignments with assignee, supervisor and due dates.
Timesheets
licensedWeekly entry grid with overlap validation, an approval queue, entries that lock once approved, and a reminder job.
Read moreExpenses
licensedDisbursement capture with receipt attachments, a billable flag and an approval queue.
Billing
licensedTerms of engagement, bills raised from approved time and expenses, GST, TDS-aware receipts, FY numbering, PDF and DOCX invoices.
Read moreRetainer
licensedPre-paid wallets per client or matter, a full ledger, replenishment on finalised bills and a low-balance scan.
Read moreDocuments
licensedA central document store per client and matter with versioning and permission-aware access.
Read moreReports
licensedA parameterised report runner with Excel and PDF export and scheduled email delivery. Modules contribute their own reports.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Fit.
It fits firms that
- Bill by time, or by a mix of time and fixed fees, and argue about rates by seniority.
- Have clients who withhold TDS and expect a GST invoice with a SAC code.
- Take money on account and need a retainer ledger rather than a note in a file.
- Want the whole system on infrastructure they control, for confidentiality or client mandate.
It does not fit firms that
- Work purely on contingency with no time recording at all.
- Want a public app marketplace with third-party plug-ins — modules here are ours, licensed per firm.
- Want somebody else to run the servers with no involvement. A managed arrangement is possible, but the product is built to be yours.
Bringing a firm live
Four steps.
Provision a server
A modest machine in your network, or with whichever hosting provider you already use. Everything it needs ships in the bundle, or it uses what your IT people already run.
Install with your licence and branding
One installer run with the signed licence naming your modules, and a configuration file carrying firm name, logo, GSTIN, financial-year convention and timezone.
Import what you already have
Clients, matters, people and rates first, so opening balances are real rather than typed. Historic time and bills follow where the source data supports it.
Go live one module at a time
Matters and timekeeping first, a settled month, then billing on the next cycle. Adding a module later is a licence update, not a migration.
Questions this raises
Straight answers.
What does law firm management software need to do that generic project software cannot?
Three things. It has to record time in a way that survives an audit — approved, locked, attributable. It has to turn that time into a fee note under terms of engagement that vary by client, matter, designation and task. And it has to reconcile what was invoiced with what was received after the client withheld TDS. Generic project tools do none of these.
How many people does a firm need before this makes sense?
From about five fee earners recording time. Below that, the discipline usually matters more than the software. Above it, consolidating weekly sheets by hand starts costing a person a week every month.
Does it replace accounting software?
No. AntChambers owns everything up to the invoice and the receipt against it — terms, time, disbursements, tax lines, outstanding balances. Your books stay in your accounting package, and the invoice data is exported to it.
What happens when we outgrow one server?
It grows without a rewrite. Capacity is added to the same installation, and the records stay in one place, which is the right shape for a single firm. Your IT people can have the specifics whenever they want them.
Where to read next
Related
- Billing and fee notes
Terms of engagement, bill generation, invoices, receipts.
- Timekeeping
Weekly grid, overlap checks, approvals that lock.
- Deployment and security
Where it runs, who can reach it, how licences work.
- Pricing
How a per-installation licence is put together.
See it against your own matters
A working demo takes about forty minutes. Bring a real fee note and a real timesheet week — we would rather show you the awkward parts than the polished ones.