A plain-language guide to every tool LegalStep.ai gives your AI assistant — more than 60 of them, each with an example prompt to try. Written for the people who use it, not the people who build it. New here? Start with the Setup Guide to connect, then come back.
You don't need special commands. Ask the way you'd ask a colleague — your assistant works out which action to take.
A few habits get you faster, more precise answers:
If you have the matter number, use it. Asking about "matter 2026/00123" goes straight to the right file. If you only have a name or an address, that's fine too — your assistant will search.
Start broad, then drill in. A request like "summarise matter 2026/00123" gives you the whole picture; you can then ask follow-ups like "show me the file notes" or "who's the other side?" without repeating the number.
It confirms before it changes anything. When you ask to open a matter, record time, add a disbursement, update details, or add a contact, you'll be shown the details and asked to confirm first. Deletions go further — see Deleting records.
Locate a matter or a contact, and pull up the details and the people involved.
Searches for matters by client name, address, reference, or any partial text. Use this when you don't have the matter number to hand.
Finds every matter a person or organisation is connected to — across open, closed, and historical files — so you can screen for conflicts before taking on new work. Because it looks past just the open matters, you see the full picture, not only what's currently active.
A single, consolidated brief on one matter — the key details, the people involved, the current stage, and recent activity. The best place to start when you want to get across a file quickly.
The core details of a single matter — its type, status, key dates, and reference.
Lists everyone connected to a matter and their role — client, other side, agent, and so on.
Searches your Actionstep contacts — people and organisations — whether or not they're linked to a matter.
Full details for one contact — phone, email, and address.
Shows the Actionstep user accounts a contact holds and whether any of them is active — the check behind "can I record time against this person?". One person can hold more than one account, so all of them are listed and the conclusion is stated, rather than answering from whichever came back first. A contact with no user account is reported plainly as not staff.
Changes the details on an existing contact — phone, email, address, and other fields. You'll be shown the change and asked to confirm before it's saved.
Can't find a matter? If you searched by number and it didn't work, try the client's name or the property address. If you searched by name, check the spelling or try just part of it.
Once you're on a matter, look at where it's up to, what's outstanding, and what's been filed against it.
Shows where a matter sits in its workflow and what comes next.
Shows the steps a matter can move to, and exactly what each one requires — tasks that must be completed first, anyone missing an email address, data fields you can set, and the tasks, messages and documents that will fire when the step happens. Read-only, so you can check before committing.
Advances a matter through its workflow. If something's blocking the change — like an outstanding mandatory task — you'll be told what it is, and can clear it (for example by completing the task) and try again. Confirmed with you before it happens.
Lists the tasks on a matter. You can ask for outstanding, completed, or all of them.
Opens a single task by its reference, leading with the matter it sits on — its name, due date, who it's assigned to, and whether it's complete. Handy for checking a task before you reassign or delete it.
Adds a task to a matter — give it a task name, a due date, and who it's assigned to (someone already on the matter), with an optional priority and a longer description. New tasks start as incomplete and appear in Actionstep straight away.
Changes an existing task — mark it complete (or incomplete), reassign it, move the due date, rename it, or change its priority. Completing a task is also how you clear a step's mandatory tasks before a workflow step change.
Shows the extra information captured against a matter — the fields specific to that type of matter.
Lists the documents saved against a matter.
Shows the emails linked to a matter.
See what's in the diary and manage appointments without leaving the conversation. Appointments can be linked to a matter, so they show against the file too.
Lists the calendars available to you. You'll need one to book into — if you don't have a calendar of your own yet, your assistant will let you know so you can create or share one in Actionstep.
Shows appointments — filtered by matter, date range, or a particular calendar — including timed, all-day and multi-day entries, soonest first. You can also ask for a single appointment by its reference, which is the reliable way to check one that isn't linked to a matter.
Creates a new appointment — a title, a start and end time (or all-day), and optionally a location and a matter to link it to. Shown and confirmed before it's booked.
Moves an appointment to a new time or changes its details — title, location, or the matter it's linked to. Shown and confirmed before it's saved.
Removes an appointment from the diary. The appointment is read back to you first, so you can see exactly which one is going. Prefer rescheduling where the meeting is only moving — and note that attendees are not notified, so tell anyone expecting it yourself.
You need a calendar of your own to book into. If you haven't got one yet, your assistant will say so — create or share one in Actionstep and try again. Cancelling is permanent and can't be undone through the assistant; see Deleting records.
Generate your firm's precedent documents from your Actionstep templates — filled with the matter's own data and filed straight back onto the matter.
Lists your firm's Actionstep templates. Narrow the list to a matter or a matter type to see only the ones that apply. Word templates can be generated; other formats — like some PDF cost agreements — are listed but flagged as not generatable in this version.
Shows the merge fields in a template. Point it at a matter for a dry run — it shows exactly what each field would fill with and which would be blank, without creating anything. The best way to spot missing data before you generate.
Fills the template from the matter's data and files the finished Word document on the matter — optionally in a folder you name — then tells you how many fields filled and which didn't.
Lists the document folders on a matter — useful for checking where something is filed, or naming the right folder before you generate a document into it.
Set up per firm. Document generation is switched on for each firm first — an administrator approves the Document Merger and points it at a SharePoint library of your templates (see the Document Merger Setup Guide). Blank fields render as **** and are listed, and you should always open the draft in Actionstep and review it before it goes to a client or court.
Read what's already on file, and record new notes as you go.
Shows all the file notes recorded on a matter.
Opens a single file note in full — handy as a follow-up after seeing a list.
Records a new file note against a matter.
Fixes the text of a note already on file. The matter it belongs to and the time it was recorded deliberately can't be changed — a contemporaneous note draws its weight from when it was made, so re-dating one isn't offered. For a note written on the wrong matter, delete it and write it on the right one.
Check what's been recorded against a matter financially — or across every matter — and record time and costs as you work. Every rate and amount reported is the one Actionstep stored on the entry itself, never a figure worked out from your firm's rate card. Anything that changes a record is shown to you and confirmed first.
Shows the time recorded against a matter — each entry's hours, the rate actually applied, the amount actually stored, and a total. The rate shown is the one on the entry, so a fee earner charging their own rate rather than the base rate-card price reads correctly, and each line names where the rate came from. An entry carrying no stored amount is left out of the dollar total, and the total says how many were left out.
The same review without naming a matter — ask by fee earner, by date range, by billed or unbilled, or any combination, with an optional per-matter breakdown. This is the one for "what's my unbilled work this month?" or a WIP check before invoicing. At least one filter is always required, so it can't sweep the whole firm's time by accident, and if a date range is assumed for you it's stated in the answer.
Opens a single time entry by its reference, leading with the matter it belongs to — hours, the rate applied, the amount stored, and whether it's been billed. The one to reach for after correcting an entry, or before deleting one.
Adds a new time entry to a matter — duration, description, and whether it's billable. Tell it the time in plain language (e.g. "18 minutes" or "0.3 hours") and it records it correctly. Afterwards you're told the rate and amount Actionstep actually applied, rather than a repeat of what you asked for — so a rate that didn't take effect is visible straight away instead of at invoicing.
Adjusts an existing time entry — its duration, description, rate or billable status, with the rate and amount Actionstep applied reported back afterwards. One thing to know: Actionstep doesn't recalculate an entry's stored amount when you change its hours or its rate, and that stored amount is what gets billed. Your assistant tells you when an entry's amount no longer matches its hours and rate — but a rate correction that has to reach the invoice needs to be made in Actionstep itself.
Lists the disbursements and expenses charged to a matter, with quantities, amounts and GST.
Opens a single disbursement by its reference, leading with its matter — description, quantity, unit price, GST and total. Useful before correcting or removing one.
Records a new disbursement or expense against a matter — description and amount, with GST handled the way your firm expects.
Adjusts an existing disbursement — its description, amount, or quantity.
Shows the invoices raised on a matter, with each bill's total, amount paid, and amount outstanding — so "has this been billed?" and "what does the client still owe?" are one question away.
Shows how a matter is set up to bill — its billing mode, tax treatment, default rate, and related settings.
Lists any rate overrides on a matter, or confirms it's using your firm's default rates. These are base rate-card values — not necessarily what any individual fee earner charges, which is recorded on each time entry.
Changes a matter's billing settings — billing mode, quote or discount, tax, default rate, and billing email. Shown and confirmed before it's saved.
Adds a rate override to a matter, or changes an existing one.
Retrieves your firm's billing reference lists — rates, tax codes, units, activity codes, and similar — so the right one can be used when recording time or costs. Rate lists show base rate-card values; what a particular fee earner actually charges is stored on their own time entries.
Set up new files and contacts, update existing matters, and link people to a matter. Your assistant always shows you the details and asks you to confirm before anything is created or changed.
Lists the matter types your firm uses, so you can pick the right one.
Shows the fields and people required for a particular matter type, before you open it — so you can gather what you need first.
Creates a new matter, using the correct matter type and fields for your firm. Your assistant confirms the details with you before it's created.
Changes details on an existing matter — its name, status, reference, or who it's assigned to. Shown and confirmed before it's saved.
Lists the custom data collections and field names available for a matter type — whether or not any matter has them filled in yet. Useful when you want to know what can be recorded, not just what has been.
Sets the custom data fields captured against a matter — key dates, property details, and the other fields specific to that matter type. Shown and confirmed before it's saved.
Where a matter type allows multiple records of the same kind — a second property, say — this adds the extra record so its fields can be filled in.
Links an existing contact to a matter in a role — client, other side, agent, and so on.
Creates a new person or organisation in Actionstep. Your assistant checks for an existing record first to avoid duplicates.
Your assistant can permanently delete eight specific kinds of record on a matter. Deletions cannot be undone through the assistant, so they work differently from everything else on this page — read this section before you use them.
Correcting is almost always better than deleting. A task that's finished should be completed, not removed. A time entry with the wrong hours should be updated, not deleted and re-entered. Correcting keeps the matter's history intact; deleting erases it. Where an update would do the job, your assistant will say so.
One record per request, always. There's no way to delete a list, a filtered set, or "everything of this kind on the matter", and your assistant won't loop through records to clear them out. If you need a genuine bulk clean-up, do it in Actionstep.
You'll always see what's about to go. Before anything is deleted, the record is read back and described to you — what it is, and which matter it belongs to. If it can't be found, nothing is sent. You can also name the matter you expect it to be on: if it turns out to belong to a different matter, the deletion is refused and nothing is destroyed.
Removes a task from a matter. Prefer marking it complete — that keeps it in the matter's history rather than erasing it.
Removes a time entry, and its fee comes off the matter total. Prefer updating the entry to correct hours, date or description. A time entry that has already been billed can't be deleted.
Removes an expense from a matter. Prefer updating it if the amount or description is simply wrong.
Removes a rate override so the matter reverts to your firm's default rates. To change the amount rather than remove the override, update it instead.
Removes an appointment from the diary. Attendees are not notified, so let anyone expecting it know yourself. To move a meeting rather than cancel it, reschedule.
Removes one row from a matter's multi-row information — a second property, say — and every field value on it. To clear or fix a single field, update the field instead.
Removes a contact's role on a matter. The contact record itself is kept — this unlinks them from this matter only, and they stay in your Actionstep contacts and on any other matter.
Removes a file note. Consider correcting the note instead, or writing a new one that records the correction — on a file that may later be examined, a visible correction usually reads better than a gap.
What can't be deleted at all. Matters, contacts, bills, emails, workflow steps, documents, and your firm's matter-type configuration are out of reach by design — not a gap to be filled later. And whether a deleted record can be recovered by any other means depends on Actionstep's own retention policy, not on us: the activity log records that something was deleted, by whom and when, but never what it said.
A catch-all for the occasional request the everyday actions don't cover.
A flexible, look-up-only action used to retrieve information the everyday tools don't cover — for example, reference lists like tax codes. You won't usually ask for it by name; your assistant reaches for it when it's the right fit. It can only read information — it can't change anything.
A few things worth keeping in mind as you work.
Whenever you ask to create or update something — open a matter, record time, add a disbursement, change details — you'll see the details and be asked to confirm first.
Eight kinds of record can be deleted — tasks, time entries, disbursements, rate overrides, appointments, custom data rows, party roles and file notes. Never in bulk, always read back to you first, and never undoable through the assistant. See Deleting records.
Every rate and dollar amount reported for a time entry is the one Actionstep stored on that entry — not a figure worked out from your firm's rate card, which is often not what an individual fee earner charges. An entry with no stored amount is excluded from the total and the total says so. Figures reported by earlier versions were understated; see the Release Notes.
Actionstep doesn't recalculate a time entry's stored amount when you change its hours or its rate, and the stored amount is what gets billed. Your assistant flags an entry whose amount no longer matches its hours and rate — but make corrections that need to reach an invoice in Actionstep itself.
When you record time, add a file note, create a task, or open a matter, Actionstep saves it under your own name — not a shared account. Timesheets, audit trails, and "who did this?" reflect who actually did the work.
For accountability, the server keeps a private log of every request — who asked for what, and when — using privacy-safe summaries only, never document contents or client data. Each entry records whether the request actually succeeded or was refused. Your firm's administrators can review this activity, and are alerted automatically to unusually high volumes of contact lookups.
You can ask your assistant which Actionstep account you're signed in as at any time — a quick way to confirm your work will be recorded under the right name. Try "Which Actionstep account am I connected as?"
Your firm has its own dedicated server, and each person signs in with their own Actionstep login through a secure, authorised connection. Your data stays separate from every other firm's.
Your assistant is a helpful tool, not a substitute for your own judgement. Confirm anything important against the matter itself before you rely on it.