Everything you can ask
Actionstep to do.

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. Pair it with See how a contact connects to other contacts below: the search answers "have we acted against this name", relationships answer "and what else is this party".

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 a contact's recorded relationships to other contacts — directorships, group and trust structures, body-corporate management chains, employers, family, and which firm acts for whom. Relationships point in a direction, and both directions are reported separately, so a company's directors and the companies a person directs never get mixed up.

Links two contacts with a relationship you name — "Director", "Acting Law Firm", "Body Corporate Manager", or anything else your firm uses. Actionstep's own list is offered as a suggestion, not a limit, so a description your firm relies on isn't refused just because it isn't on the list. The relationship is read back to you after it's saved.

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.

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 available on that step. Read-only, so you can check before committing. Nothing on that list fires by itself — you choose which of them the step change should create.

Advances a matter through its workflow, and can create the tasks, documents and messages that step offers — ask for them and they're created with the step change, leave them out and nothing extra happens. 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, and afterwards you're told what was requested, so check the matter's tasks to see the result.

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, newest first, a page at a time — so a matter with hundreds of them can be worked right through. You can narrow to a word in the subject line, to emails in or out, to a date range, or any combination of those, and ask for a one-line summary per email when you are sweeping a long matter rather than reading it.

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.

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.

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.

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 — and a rate correction now moves the billed amount with it, in the same change, so the entry never reads one rate while billing another. You can also state an amount directly, for a write-down, a write-up or an agreed fixed sum. The confirmation shows what you asked for and what Actionstep applied, separately. Three things it won't do: touch an entry that has already been billed (it names the invoice instead), recalculate a fixed fee from hours, or overwrite an amount that already disagreed with hours × rate — that reads as a deliberate write-down, so it asks you for the figure rather than guessing. Changing only the hours sets the recorded hours and leaves the amount alone; say so explicitly if you meant to change what's charged.

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 the address invoices are emailed to. Several email addresses can be given, separated by commas. Anything you leave out is left alone, which means the email address can be set or changed but not emptied: switching emailed invoices off for a matter is still done in Actionstep. The email template, the invoice template and the number of copies to print sit on the same Actionstep screen but aren't reachable through its API at all, so those stay an Actionstep job too. 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.

Four ready-made views cover what most firms ask for: KPI targets by fee earner and month; the trust ledger for a matter, with receipts, payments and interest and a running balance; matter finance — what a matter has billed over its life, what's been paid, what's outstanding; and fee earner by month — billable hours and fees, which is the one to pair with targets. Anything outside those four can still be asked for, because the whole of your firm's exported data sits behind it, not just the four views. Every answer arrives with the date the data was taken and says plainly that it isn't live.

Lists the four ready-made views and the underlying tables, explains what each column means, and names which views leave out impossible dates — a timesheet entry dated in the year 8973 would otherwise turn up in a monthly total. Worth asking for in its own right when you're working out what's answerable, and it's what your assistant reads when your question doesn't fit one of the four views.

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, and afterwards the field is read straight back out of Actionstep so the confirmation shows what was actually stored, not just that the change was accepted. If the value didn't land, you're told it failed rather than told it worked.

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.

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.

Removes one recorded relationship — a directorship that has ended, say. Both contact records are kept; only the link between them goes. Because relationships point in a direction, removing "A is a director of B" leaves any separate record of "B manages A" untouched, so check both directions if you mean to clear the pair.

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.