Matter-opening checklist preparation

The outcome

In a fully powered firm, the first invoice on every new matter is right. The billing arrangement in the system matches the engagement letter, and the client’s e-billing rules are known before anyone records an hour. That is 10X what your setup team can do with the hours it has.

This capability prepares the matter-opening checklist from the acceptance record, the engagement letter and the intake packet. It fills in each system’s fields, pulls out the terms that drive billing, lists the documents on file and names an owner for everything still missing. A person opens the matter in the firm’s systems, in minutes instead of a week of follow-up emails. The checklist enters nothing, sends nothing and interprets nothing in the engagement letter.

Who starts the work, and when

The firm administrator starts it once the responsible attorney has accepted the client through the firm’s own process and the engagement terms are agreed. If either record is missing, it stops and says which. The billing coordinator reruns it as open items close.

What they supply

• The acceptance record. Who accepted the client, for which matter.
• The engagement letter as agreed. Billing arrangement, rates, retainer and any client billing requirements.
• The intake packet. Client, contacts, parties and documents gathered at intake, with the firm’s conflict review record.
• The matter-opening standard. Each system’s required fields, the numbering rule and the documents every matter must hold.

What comes out

A checklist in four parts: matter fields ready to enter, billing terms with their source clause, documents on file, and open items with an owner and the step each blocks. The example continues Inquiry handoff at the same invented 40-person litigation and employment firm.

Good means the billing coordinator sets up billing without rereading the engagement letter, and sees the two answers that stand between Matter 26-0412 and a correct first invoice.

Where it fits

• Law firms: the step between acceptance and the first time entry.
• Professional services: account or engagement opening after a signed proposal.
• Engineering firms: project setup before staff book time.
• Operations and process improvement: the handoff crosses three roles and several systems.
• Finance and accounting: billing terms are set once, from the agreed source.
• Acquisitions & integration: two firms with two opening routines move to one standard.

What has to change for your company

1. Your systems and their fields. Which systems a new matter touches, what each requires and how a matter is numbered.
2. The billing terms to capture. Arrangement, rates, retainer, budget caps, billing guidelines and e-billing format.
3. Work with items still open. Whether work starts before billing setup is complete, and who can make the exception.

In professional services and engineering firms this is project or account opening. A signed statement of work starts it, milestone terms replace a retainer, and a project manager or finance lead owns it.

We map the path from acceptance to first invoice with the firm administrator, the billing coordinator and the responsible attorney, then land each field on the role that owns it. This capability template is written for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini, and your firm keeps control of how the work gets done.

What has been checked

Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 9 November 2026. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.

Testing in your firm means preparing checklists for recently opened matters and comparing them with what billing needed, including a fixed-fee matter and one with no agreed letter, which should stop. Pilot acceptance-test preparation builds that test set, and What we test before we call an AI workflow ready shows the record we keep.