1. Legalmaster
Closing a Matter

2. So, you’re trying to close a matter and Legalmaster won’t let you
Usually the case screen gives you a hint as to why you’re being prevented from closing a matter.
So your challenge is to understand the hint and act accordingly.
For example,

3. You may not close a matter if it has any transactions that have not been Posted to History.

4. or

5. You may not close a matter unless all of its invoices have a zero balance.

6. or

7. You may not close a case that has any money in trust.

8. Generally speaking, the best place to go to determine what you must do is Account Status.
Here, for example, you see that the matter you couldn’t close because it has a trust balance does indeed have a trust balance.
Your solution is to enter a trust debit to zero out the trust balance and Post the debit to History.

9. Here’s the Account Status/WIP Summary for the case that has current period transactions.
In this case you must either bill the unbilled transactions, adjust off the resulting A/R balance & Post everything to History, or
write down the unbilled transactions, “bill” and Post them
delete them
move them to another matter.

10. This is a tricky one.
Legalmaster wouldn’t let us close this matter because it still has an A/R balance.
But at first glance at the ledger card screen, the matter appears to have a zero balance.

11. The screen to look at is not the A/R Ledger, but Open Items.
Here, as you can easily see, the matter has two offsetting invoices.
Now all you have to do is enter two adjustments, one on each of the invoices.
Once you Post the adjustments to History, you may close the case.

12. Summary
Determine why Legalmaster won’t let you close the case. It usually tells you.
Confirm the circumstance on the Account Status screens.
Deal with it, usually by entering or altering transactions and Posting them to History.
Or call us for help.