Sole practitioner: doing everything yourself, without forgetting anything

The situation

Ms Peeters works alone, mainly in contract law and landlord-and-tenant law, with around 120 ongoing matters. She kept matters in folders on her computer, hours in a spreadsheet and invoices in a word processor. Deadlines were in her diary.

How she uses Advoca

1. New matter: she creates the matter (matter ID G2610014) and adds the client and the opposing party. The conflict check confirms that neither is on the other side in another matter.
2. Deadlines: the deadline for submissions and the hearing date go into the matter as deadlines. On Mondays she looks at the weekly agenda.
3. Time: during a phone call with a client she starts a timer; afterwards it becomes a time entry, rounded to 6 minutes. In the evening the day overview shows which hour has no matter yet.
4. Documents: she uploads the client's documents, scans included. A week later she finds a clause by searching for a single word.
5. Invoice: at the end of the month she creates an invoice per matter from the unbilled time entries. The VAT regime, structured payment reference and VAT breakdown are added automatically; the client receives a PDF.
6. Payment: she records payments; the overview of overdue invoices shows who needs a reminder.

What it gives her

• One place for matter, deadlines, hours, documents and invoices, instead of four.
• No more missed short time entries: the timer and the day overview catch them.
• Invoices with the correct VAT wording and structured payment reference, without maintaining templates.
• Finding a document takes seconds, even if it is a scan.

Which plan?

Advanced, €99 per month for one user, because she invoices from Advoca. If she left invoicing to her accountant, Core (€69) would be enough.

Get started in fifteen minutes

1. Create your firm at secure.advoca.io: 30 days free, without a payment card.
2. Fill in the Firm details: address, VAT number, IBAN. Your invoices can then go out straight away.
3. Invite your colleagues with the right role (Team).
4. Create the contacts and ongoing matters; the conflict check works from the very first party.
5. Enter the key deadlines in each matter and upload the documents you need.
6. Record your first time entries with a timer, and create your first invoices at the end of the month.