MatterX

Overview

MatterX is a law-firm practice and finance platform built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It best suits Australian and New Zealand firms that want trust accounting and matter workflows connected to Microsoft services. Good Minutes costs nothing and caps firms at five matters; the firm plans use custom pricing.

Key features

Legal Finance combines matter lifecycle management, time recording, billing, diary management, safe custody records and financial reporting. That breadth suits firms looking to connect practice administration with finance, but may be more than a firm needs if it wants only a trust ledger.

Trust accounting includes three-way and bank reconciliation, statutory deposits, controlled money handling, disbursement approvals, compliance reports and audit trails. MatterX describes the service as NSW Law Society-certified. Dual authorisation, access controls, a prohibition on backdating and compliance exception alerts provide specific safeguards for firms handling client funds.

Microsoft integration is a defining strength: MatterX lists Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, Copilot and Dataverse. SharePoint document management adds automatic matter folders, version control, full-text search and granular security. Firms that keep Xero for general accounting can use a configuration with automatic bidirectional sync for matters, billing and trust accounting.

There are notable preview caveats. Frontdesk, an Outlook add-in for syncing emails, meetings and calls to matters and SharePoint, is in preview, as are the eight Crew AI agents that can take actions inside Business Central. Contra and Fresh Press, along with SharePoint, Dot to Dot and Word Up in the relevant plan descriptions, are marked as coming in 2026. Firms should not make a purchase decision on the assumption that preview or forthcoming capabilities are ready for current use.

Pricing

MatterX describes plans as tailored to firm size, available by personalised quote, and month-to-month. Its pricing page says implementation and training are included in all plans, as is free data export at any time. The larger plans have no published price, so firms will need a quote to assess cost.

• Good Minutes: free. It allows up to five matters and includes automatic activity capture, six-minute billing increments and privacy controls. This is a useful entry point for a very small matter load, but the hard cap makes it unsuitable once a firm handles more than five matters.
• Base: custom pricing for solo practitioners and small firms with 1–5 lawyers. It adds unlimited matters and clients, NSW Law Society-certified trust accounting, SharePoint document management and Microsoft 365 integration. For a small firm that needs a full operational system, it removes Good Minutes' matter ceiling; the trade-off is moving to a custom-priced plan.
• Professional: custom pricing for growing firms with 5–30 lawyers. It includes everything in Base, plus Frontdesk preview, Contra, Fresh Press, eight Crew AI agents, priority support with an 8-hour response and quarterly business reviews. That support and service layer may appeal to a growing firm, but several named capabilities are preview or marked as coming in 2026.
• Premium: custom pricing for mid-market and enterprise firms with 30+ lawyers. It includes everything in Professional, plus SharePoint DMS, Dot to Dot, Word Up, managed services, custom integrations, a dedicated account manager and custom Power BI dashboards. The bespoke services and reporting are aimed at complex deployments; the higher-tier scope is difficult to evaluate without a quote, and some named products are marked as coming in 2026.

Base includes Australian-based support, while Professional specifies priority support with an 8-hour response. Month-to-month contracts and free export at any time reduce commitment and data-portability concerns across plans.

Platforms

MatterX is listed for web. Its core platform runs natively on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and its legal finance data lives in Microsoft Dataverse with Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on. The Microsoft-centered design is a natural fit for firms already relying on that environment; firms seeking a desktop or mobile app should compare the web platform against their needs.

Who it's for

MatterX makes most sense for Australian and New Zealand firms that want practice management, trust controls and financial workflows in one Microsoft-oriented setup, particularly firms using SharePoint or keeping Xero for general accounting. It is less compelling for firms that need more than five matters but are not ready for a custom-priced plan, or that require preview capabilities to be production-ready.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Trust controls go beyond basic reconciliation, combining NSW Law Society certification with dual authorisation, access controls, audit trails and compliance exception alerts.
• Pro: The combination of matter, billing and financial workflows with Microsoft 365 integration can reduce separation between legal work and firm finance for Microsoft-oriented practices.
• Pro: Month-to-month terms and free data export at any time make it easier to leave than a long-term contract with restrictive data access.
• Con: Good Minutes stops at five matters, while every firm plan has custom pricing, so firms outgrowing the free tier must request a quote.
• Con: Frontdesk and Crew are in preview, and several named products are marked as coming in 2026; firms should verify that the capabilities they need are ready before choosing a plan.
• Con: The listed platform is web, which may not suit firms that require native mobile or desktop software.

Alternatives

For a no-cost, self-hosted option, compare LexNebulis, whose free open-source plan runs under Apache 2.0. LegalClaw is another free alternative, with API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted and web platforms. Firms wanting a paid accounting add-on across mobile and desktop platforms can consider MyCase Legal Accounting, which offers three-way trust reconciliations for $39 a month per accounting user, added to a MyCase case management plan. CosmoLex is a paid option with a free trial and a Launch plan at $49 a month per user for time tracking, invoicing, online payments, trust accounting and ledgers. LeanLaw may suit firms seeking a paid, broader-platform alternative with a free trial; its Core plan is $55 a month per user and includes time and expense tracking, e-payments, reporting and trust accounting. GhostPractice uses pricing that varies by service requirements and firm size. Open Practice is another paid option. Firms comparing trust-accounting products can also browse the Trust Accounting Software category. Smokeball offers a paid plan with a free trial; its Bill plan starts at $59 a month per user, excludes GST, and includes invoicing, time and expense tracking, online payments, trust accounting and reporting.

Verdict

MatterX is a strong candidate for Australian and New Zealand firms that want connected legal finance, trust controls and Microsoft workflows, with Xero compatibility for general accounting. The free tier is a constrained preview of the proposition rather than a path for a growing matter load, and the custom-priced plans require a quote before the value is clear. Choose it when its Microsoft-centered structure and trust features fit the firm; look elsewhere if you need published pricing, a broader app platform or production-ready versions of preview tools.