Archiving a Matter

Archiving is the step after closing — it marks a matter as a historical record. Once archived, the matter is read-only.

How to archive:

1. Open the matter. Its status must already be Closed or Not Proceeding — you cannot archive an open matter directly.

2. Click the status control (the pencil icon next to the status badge, or Change Status in the matter's actions menu).

3. Select Archived and click Update Status.

The pre-archive checklist

If the matter still has money or billing loose ends, CaseConnect stops you and shows a checklist instead of archiving immediately. This catches the situation where a file gets tidied away with revenue left on the table, or client money still sitting untouched on a matter nobody is looking at anymore.

It checks for:

• Unbilled time entries — recorded time that has not yet been invoiced

• Unbilled disbursements — expenses paid on the client's behalf that have not yet been recovered

• Client account balance — money still held for the client that has not been returned or transferred

• Office balance outstanding — invoices raised but not yet paid

If any of these apply, you'll see a "Confirm Before Archiving" panel listing exactly what's outstanding. Tick each item to confirm you're aware of it and still want to proceed (for example, a small unbilled time entry you've decided to write off), then click Confirm & Archive.

If none of these apply, the matter archives immediately with no extra step — this only appears when there's something worth double-checking.

Note: Confirming a flagged item does not resolve it — it does not write off the time, bill the disbursement, or move the money. It's a record that you saw the warning and chose to archive anyway. If you meant to bill or clear the balance first, cancel out, deal with it in the relevant tab (Time Recording, Billing, or Client Account), and archive afterwards.

To reverse an archive, change the status back to Closed from the same status control — this does not re-run the checklist.