Legal practice management software on AtlasOS, now in scoping
AtlasOS for legal practices is legal practice management software from Arke Technologies in Johannesburg, in scoping for South African law firms. It will add matter management, trust accounting integration and FICA compliance tracking to the AtlasOS core, whose client records, billing, deadlines and tasks are already live for accounting, audit and payroll practices.
What practice management software for lawyers must handle
Practice management software for law firms carries obligations that general business software does not. Check any system, ours included, against the rules a South African firm works under:
Trust money. The Legal Practice Act and the Legal Practice Council's rules require trust money to be kept apart from the firm's own money, accounted for and audited. A practice system must agree with the trust ledger, not compete with it.- FICA. Attorneys are accountable institutions under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, so a firm must identify and verify its clients, keep the records and follow a risk management and compliance programme.
- POPIA and privilege. Client files hold personal information, sometimes special personal information such as details of criminal proceedings, and much of it is privileged. Access should be limited to the people working on the matter.
- Deadlines. Court dates, filing deadlines and prescription periods. A missed one can become a claim against the firm.
- Fees. Time recorded against a matter must stand up if a client disputes a bill or has it taxed.
Billing software for legal practices, and time tracking
Billing is where legal software earns its keep. AtlasOS billing, live in the core today, supports time-based, retainer and fixed-fee billing, invoices across related entities and produces client statements. That matches how most firms charge: hourly for litigation and advice, retainers for corporate clients, and fixed fees for defined work such as wills or company registrations.
Time tracking software for legal work pays off only when time is recorded against a matter and a fee earner, reviewed before it is billed, and explained whenever it is written off. Matter-level time tracking is therefore a question for the legal module now in scoping, and a demo is the place to tell us how your fee earners record time today.
Integration with accounting platforms is on the AtlasOS roadmap. Until then, our ERP and accounting integration team connects practice systems to accounting packages such as Sage and Xero as a separate project.
Security, POPIA and oversight of your firm's data
AtlasOS stores data in PostgreSQL on Google Cloud SQL, with Firebase Authentication for sign-in, Firebase App Hosting and Cloud Scheduler, and each firm's data isolated at the database level, so no other firm on the platform can reach your clients' records.
AI-assisted advisory follows our AI principles: AI recommends and people decide, every AI action is logged and reviewable, and we never train models on client data, privileged material included, without explicit consent. The legal judgement stays with the attorney.
For oversight, the core shows compliance status across the whole client portfolio, with task assignment and status tracking, so a partner can see what is overdue without chasing individual inboxes.
Your data, credentials and documentation are yours, and so is the decision to leave. Arke Technologies (Pty) Ltd is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (135% procurement recognition; sworn affidavit available on request); company documents, our CSD supplier number and SARS tax compliance status are available on request. For the rest of your firm's technology, see IT for law firms and POPIA compliance.
