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Tool readiness

What is ready. What is next. What is further out.

21 tools are proven and available today. 25 more are on the way, in three honest tiers. Tick the ones you care about and you will get one email each, the day it launches, and nothing else.

Phase 1

Available now Proven

Every tool here has been through the launch checklist, an adversarial pass that tried to break it, and an independent re-test after every fix. Each has a test in the suite holding it in place. Ship-ready is a claim we can back.

  • Trust accounting

    IOLTA ledger, three-way reconciliation, and an overdraw that is refused on every route.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Client and matter sub-ledgers
    • Deposits, disbursements, transfers, apply to invoice
    • Three-way reconciliation with every uncleared item listed
    • Post-dated deposits are not spendable; reconciled periods are locked
    • Full trust ledger export for your bar

  • Time and expenses

    A timer, entries in hours or minutes, and a browser extension that suggests time from what you had open.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Timer with six-minute rounding
    • UTBMS activity and task codes
    • Expenses with categories
    • Paginated lists whose totals cover every row

  • Conflict check

    Fuzzy search across contacts, parties, notes, messages, documents and leads, with a waiver gate on intake.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Exact and fuzzy matching, diacritics folded
    • Alternate names, maiden names, DBAs
    • Every role a name has ever held
    • Waiver recorded with a reason and an audit row

  • Calendar, deadlines and court rules

    Deadline chains that land on business days, recurrence that stops when told, and an iCal feed that carries your deadlines.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Limitation dates derived from the record
    • Deadline chains from a trigger date
    • Generic court-rule starter sets (real jurisdiction sets are Phase 2)
    • Firm and personal iCal feeds, correct across time zones and DST

  • Tasks

    Per-matter tasks with assignees, due dates and standard task sets that do not duplicate on re-run.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Overdue tracking
    • Standard task sets per practice area
    • Court-rule generated tasks

  • Client portal

    Magic-link login, and a client sees only their own matters, invoices, documents and messages.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • One-use links that expire in thirty minutes
    • Invoices with online payment
    • Shared documents and uploads
    • Messaging
    • Spanish

  • E-signature

    Engagement letters signed in the browser, with a certificate that records who, when, where and what.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Document and signature hashes
    • Immutable once signed
    • Decline with a reason
    • Signed copy to both sides

  • Intake and leads

    Web leads, follow-up sequences, and a conversion that refuses to skip the conflict check.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Lead scoring
    • Automated follow-up sequences
    • Conflict-gated conversion to client and matter
    • API for your phone line or website

  • Messages

    Portal messages, texts through your Twilio, and email filed to the matter.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Portal messaging both ways
    • SMS, stored and clearly marked when Twilio is not set up
    • Email filing (needs your mailbox; see Phase 3)

  • Documents

    Upload, version, extract text, and share to the portal. A file that is not what its name claims is refused.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Versions linked to their root
    • Text extraction for search and AI
    • Folders and tags
    • Signature checks on uploads

  • Personal injury

    Providers, records and billing letters, liens, a demand package with exhibits, and a settlement worksheet that posts to trust.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Chronology from records
    • Lien reduction letters
    • Demand package with bound exhibits
    • Settlement disbursement worksheet

  • Criminal defense

    Charges with ranges, court date chains, a speedy-trial count that says what it counts from, and a disposition summary.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Multiple charges per matter
    • Tolling disclosed when not modelled
    • Disposition PDF

  • Discovery and depositions

    Propound and respond, and deposition summaries that catch a witness contradicting the record or themselves.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Discovery sets as PDFs
    • Contradictions cited to page and line, internal and external
    • Multi-volume transcripts
    • Corrected testimony reported as corrected

  • Research and cite check

    CourtListener search, saved authorities, memo export, and a cite check that catches a citation resolving to the wrong case.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Opinion reader
    • Pincite name matching
    • Honest that it cannot say whether a case is still good law

  • Reports

    WIP, receivables aging, realization, productivity, compensation and trust, each reconciled against its own rows.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • CSV on every report
    • Collected-fee compensation, stated as such

  • Exports

    Contacts, matters, time, invoices, payments and the full trust ledger. QuickBooks layouts. LEDES.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Spreadsheet formula injection neutralised
    • Fast at thousands of rows
    • Currency code on every amount

  • Importer

    Bring a Clio or MyCase export in. Preview, map, commit, and a failed-rows file that explains each failure.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Duplicates skipped or updated
    • Trust overdraws refused on import
    • Survives concurrent writes

  • API and MCP

    Give an AI agent scoped access: twenty scopes across ten resources, and a redacted mode that hides every client name.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Per-resource read and write scopes
    • Trust is deliberately not exposed
    • Draft invoices from an agent (Phase 2)

  • Webhooks

    task.completed and matter.closed to any endpoint, with retries and a masked signing secret.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Retry on failure
    • Secret hidden from readonly users

  • Users, roles, offices and audit

    Owner, attorney, paralegal and readonly roles enforced on the request, not just the menu. Per-office rates. Every destructive action logged.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Fee splits and compensation report
    • Multi-office rates
    • Audit log with CSV export

  • Backup, restore and self-update

    Nightly backup, a restore that has been proven by doing it, and automatic updates that roll back on a bad build.

    Available now
    What is inside
    • Backup lands before an update touches anything
    • A failed build pins the previous one and holds
    • Two seconds of downtime per update

The record behind the word "proven" is public: the readiness register, with every further check we still intend to run.

Phase 2

Next In testing or in build

Built or nearly built, and not yet held to the same standard as Phase 1. Some of these are in testing this week. Ask to be alerted and you will hear the moment one crosses the line.

  • Invoicing

    Hourly, flat, contingency and hybrid billing with a template you control.

  • Payments and payment plans

    Cards and ACH through your own Stripe account, or a mailing address when you have not set one up.

  • AI assistant

    Bring your own key. Matter summaries, demand drafts, deposition summaries, dates from documents. Zero-retention routing by default.

  • Multi-currency matters

    CAD, GBP, EUR, AUD and MXN end to end: invoice, PDF, payment, exports and reports. In testing now.

  • Web AI tools, connected by MCP

    Coil now serves its tools over HTTP, so an open-source AI workbench like Mike can connect with a scoped token. Built and tested; in independent testing this week.

  • Invoices drafted by an AI agent

    The invoices:write scope actually drafting invoices through the API and MCP. In testing now.

  • Real jurisdiction court rules

    Today's rule sets are generic starters and say so. Real state and federal sets, maintained.

  • Screen-reader pass

    Keyboard and screen-reader coverage across the client-facing surfaces, the portal and invoices first.

  • Automatic time capture in Word and Outlook

    Today the browser extension suggests time from what you had open. Nothing watches your desktop yet.

  • Deeper LEDES for insurance defense

    Past the LEDES 1998B export that ships today.

Phase 3

Later Designed, not proven

Some of these exist in code and are waiting on an integration to prove them. Some are decided and unbuilt. None is something you should plan a practice around yet.

  • Harfree AI, the optional AI workbench

    Document review, drafting and research beside Coil, built on Mike (open source, AGPL). Its own stack, requested separately, free apart from your own model usage.

    Request this add-on

  • Email filing from your mailbox

    IMAP into the matter. Built; waiting on a mailbox to prove it against.

  • After-hours phone intake

    A voice agent on your number that takes the call, refuses to give advice, and files the lead. Built; needs your Twilio.

  • Credit notes and refunds

    The accounting-correct way to reverse a paid invoice. You do not void money that has moved; you credit it.

  • Document figure checks

    Flag a dollar amount in a matter's documents that disagrees with the case record, before a demand goes out.

  • Live two-way QuickBooks sync

    Today you get clean CSV exports built for the QuickBooks importer.

  • Right-to-left scripts in PDFs

    Arabic and Hebrew render today but unshaped. Proper shaping needs a different font and a decision.

  • Court e-filing

    Needs a filing vendor, so the timing is not entirely ours. We will name the vendor once we have one we trust.

Phase 4

Further out Ideas with a shape

Things we have thought about enough to describe and not enough to promise. Tell us which ones matter to you; that is how they move up.

  • Mobile apps

    Coil runs in a phone browser, but the screens inside are laid out for a desktop. Nothing is in the app stores.

  • Online booking and questionnaires

    Let a prospect pick a slot and answer intake questions before the first call.

  • Matter stages and pipelines

    A board view of where every matter sits, with stage changes that trigger tasks.

  • Client review requests

    Ask a client for a review at the right moment, once, politely.

  • PDF tools

    Bundling, Bates numbering, and a table of authorities built from your citations.

  • Litigation dockets

    Docket tracking and case status across courts.

  • Patent search

    US and international patent search from the free USPTO, EPO and WIPO APIs. Search only; not filing, and not maintenance docketing, which we would not ship in a free tool.

Alerts

Tell me when it launches

One email per tool, the day it lands. No newsletter, no sequence, and your address is not shared. Some tools will move up a phase before others; this is how you find out without checking back.

Alert me about

You can ask again later for different tools. Each request is kept separately.

The other way to shop

Every feature, filed under the product it replaces

99 features across 26 products. Generated from the app's own feature map, so it cannot drift from what is built.

Clio Manage

Core practice management. Clio's plans run $49 to $149 per user per month.

  • Client statement: every invoice, payment and trust application with a running balance
  • Invoice template editor: logo, colour, columns, labels, payment wording, preview
  • Contacts and matters with custom fields
  • Time tracking with a timer [6-minute rounding]
  • Expenses with receipt capture
  • Invoicing: flat fee, hourly, contingency, hybrid
  • Bulk invoicing and approval workflow
  • Split billing across payers
  • Interest on overdue balances
  • Trust [IOLTA] accounting with three-way reconciliation
  • Evergreen retainer top-up requests
  • Tasks, deadlines, limitations dates
  • Calendar with recurrence, per-user calendars, ICS feeds
  • Court rules calendaring [generic starter sets] partial
  • Document automation from DOCX and HTML templates
  • Client portal with magic-link login
  • Secure client messaging in the portal
  • Conflict check across names, files and messages
  • Matter templates with task workflows
  • Roles and permissions, offices, audit log
  • Reports: AR aging, WIP, revenue, productivity, origination, realization, profitability
  • UTBMS codes and LEDES 1998B export
  • Multi-currency matters and invoices
  • Mobile apps planned
  • Chrome time-tracking extension

Clio Grow

Clio's separate intake and CRM product. In Coil it is one flow with the matter.

  • Public intake form and lead list
  • Intake to signed engagement letter in one step
  • Engagement letters with open and signature tracking
  • Lead pipeline [kanban] and follow-up sequences

Clio Manage AI

The $10 add-on people on Reddit actually use: dates from documents, client update emails, monthly invoicing, AR questions.

  • Scheduled monthly invoicing per matter [python -m app.cli monthly_invoicing]
  • Draft client update email from notes, work, tasks and dates
  • A/R and hours questions answered from your data without the model
  • Pull dates from a document into tasks and calendar
  • Matter summary
  • Invoice narrative cleanup
  • Natural-language search

Clio Work

Research and drafting. Several Reddit users say it replaces Westlaw or Lexis at about $200 per attorney.

  • Case law search on CourtListener [free public database]
  • Full opinion reader with optional AI summary and holding
  • Save authorities to a matter with notes
  • Research memo export as a PDF filed on the matter
  • Citation check that flags citations which do not resolve

Clio Payments / LawPay

Card and ACH processing with trust-safe handling. Coil uses your own Stripe account at Stripe rates.

  • Public invoice page with ACH [no fee] and card [surcharge you set]
  • Stripe Checkout with idempotent webhooks
  • Online trust deposits
  • Invoice open tracking

Filevine

Personal-injury case management: providers, records, liens, settlement.

  • PI case facts and stage board
  • Provider and records tracking with request letters
  • Lien tracking with reduction letters
  • Demand package builder
  • Settlement disbursement worksheet with trust postings
  • Standard PI task set

NetDocuments

Document management.

  • Documents per matter, shared to the portal
  • Versions, folders, tags
  • Full-text search inside files
  • Email filing to matters [IMAP]

HubSpot

What one Reddit user said he would use instead of Grow.

  • Pipeline stages with drag and drop
  • Follow-up sequences [drafts unless the firm turns on sending]

PracticePanther

The simple, cheaper suite several solos in the thread prefer.

  • Two-way texting attached to the matter
  • E-signature on any document
  • Custom dashboard

Switching from Clio / MyCase / PracticePanther

Bring a whole practice across from CSV exports, one file at a time, with a preview and a column mapper.

  • Contacts: person and company detection, first non-empty email and phone, tags, aliases
  • Matters: linked to clients by the old id, name or email; old numbers kept when free
  • Time and expenses from one activities file; billed rows arrive non-billable and marked
  • Bills with balances: one invoice per old bill plus a payment, so A/R matches
  • Trust ledger in date order; rows that would go negative are refused and listed; opening balances form
  • Tasks and calendar with matter, assignee, done flag, start and end
  • Documents by matter folder from a ZIP, filed under Imported
  • Re-import updates instead of duplicating [Coil remembers the old system's ids]
  • Manual column mapping for any CSV, failed rows downloadable for a second pass
  • Export steps guide per source

LeanLaw / QuickBooks

Billing that lives on QuickBooks Online.

  • QuickBooks CSV exports [invoices, payments, customers]
  • Operating ledger, bank import, reconciliation, P&L
  • Live two-way QuickBooks sync planned

TimeSolv / Bill4Time / OnPoint

The $10 to $40 time-and-billing tools named as Clio alternatives.

  • Time, expenses, invoices, trust in one place

Smokeball

Known for automatic time capture from documents and email.

  • Time capture suggestions from the browser extension: tabs become suggested entries with a guessed matter, accept or dismiss

Calendly / Lawmatics

Self-scheduled consults, paid or free, with intake questionnaires.

Hona / Case Status

A client-facing stage timeline with automatic updates.

Kenect / Podium

Review requests by text and email after a matter closes.

CosmoLex

Fee splits and compensation reporting.

  • Fee splits per matter: originating, working and referral percentages
  • Compensation report: collected fees allocated by working split, originating credit alongside, CSV

Gavel / Documate

Guided questionnaire-to-document generation.

CaseFleet / TrialPad

Fact chronology tied to evidence, witnesses and exhibits; trial notebook.

CourtDrive / Docketbird

Docket alerts on followed cases [via CourtListener RECAP].

Adobe / Bates tools

Bates numbering, exhibit stamps, redaction boxes, table of authorities.

Ruby / Smith.ai

Phone intake that lands in the pipeline.

  • Phone intake API: POST /api/v1/leads creates and scores a lead, idempotent on an external reference
  • Voice intake agent hook: the after-hours DUI agent posts a finished intake to Coil when COIL_LEADS_URL is set
  • Client case status by phone after caller id plus name verification [stage, next event, next task, balance, last update date]
  • Attorney voice line: caller id plus PIN, then dictate a note or log time on a matter by number or description
  • Outbound reminder calls before calendar events and court dates [python -m app.cli voice_reminders]
  • Call log: every voice call with summary, transcript, outcome and links to the lead, contact and matter

Vertical case types

Practice-area modules beyond PI.

  • Criminal defense: stage board, case facts, charges with attorney-entered ranges, court date chain, speedy-trial check, disposition PDF

Coil only

Not modelled on any competitor.

  • Priced at cost, no per-seat tiers, no add-ons
  • Self-hosted with a free install key
  • REST API with tokens and outgoing webhooks
  • Spanish client-facing pages and emails
  • Installable web app [PWA]
FAQCommon questions
What does "Available now" actually mean?

Every tool in Phase 1 went through a launch checklist of over a hundred checks, then a second pass that deliberately tried to break it with hostile input, bad data and concurrent users, and every fix was re-tested by an independent tester. Each one has an automated test holding it in place. It does not mean nothing will ever go wrong. It means what we knew how to ask has been asked.

Can a tool move from one phase to another?

Yes, in both directions. Something in Phase 2 that clears the same bar as Phase 1 moves up. Something in Phase 1 that turns out to have a problem we did not catch is demoted until it is fixed, and we say so. The alerts exist so you do not have to keep checking: tick the tools you care about and you will hear the day each one launches.

Can a tool work differently for my firm?

Yes. Coil is the same software for every firm, customized to each one. Any tool can be switched off, and it leaves your menus with nothing deleted. If a tool does not behave the way your office works, tell us and we change it. Our goal is 7 days from request to live. The change is offered to every firm, and each one decides whether to switch it on.

What happens when I ask to be alerted?

You get one email per tool, the day it launches, and nothing else. No newsletter, no sequence. Your address is not shared with anyone. If you asked about all the later tools, you will hear about each as it lands.

What does all of it cost?

The software is free. Coil is built to run on a server you own, and Coil on it is free; we will set that up for you on your hardware for a one-off fee if you would rather not. The first five firms also get hosting from us free, and after that it is worth asking. The source is public, so you keep what you have.