Hayat Legal — law firms and legal departments
hayaterp.com ↗Hayat Legal is the opt-in Hayat ERP module for law firms, advocates' chambers and in-house legal departments — clients, matters and cases with a conflict check, the hearings calendar, deadlines and limitation dates, tasks, versioned documents, privileged notes, timesheets and expenses, invoices through Sales, client funds (trust / retainers) kept apart from income, and a client portal. Who it is for, who does what, switching it on, the demo data, the money and the client portal.
Hayat Legal runs a law practice inside Hayat ERP. You open a matter for each case or piece of work after a conflict check, keep its hearings, deadlines, tasks, documents and privileged notes together, record time and expenses against it, bill the client through Sales, and hold the client's advance or retainer in a separate liability account until they approve using it. Clients follow their cases, next hearing dates and invoices on their own portal link.
Who it is for
| You run | What Hayat Legal does for you |
|---|---|
| Law firm or chambers | Clients and matters by type (litigation, corporate, family, property, criminal, labour, tax), the court diary, hourly / fixed / retainer / contingency billing, client funds, WIP and realisation reports. |
| Single advocate | A hearings calendar with reminders, case files with documents, time and fees in one place, invoices with online payment. |
| In-house legal department | Every case the company is party to, with court, opposing counsel, next date and limitation deadlines; time and outside costs per matter. |
Who does what
| Permission | Typical person | Can do |
|---|---|---|
| legal.view | Everyone who works in Hayat Legal | See clients, matters, the calendar, documents, invoices, client funds and reports. Every other Hayat Legal permission needs this one too. |
| legal.time | Associate, junior lawyer, clerk | Record their own time and expenses; add hearings and their outcomes, deadlines, tasks, notes and document uploads on matters. |
| legal.manage | Partner, office manager, legal accounts | Settings, clients, opening / editing / closing matters, parties, the conflict check, editing and deleting documents, billing, receipts, client funds, write-offs, AI notice drafts. |
Suggested roles (Settings → Roles): Legal Partner (view, manage, time), Associate (view, time), Legal Accounts (view, manage). See Roles.
The menu
Hayat Legal has its own group in the menu: Legal dashboard, Legal clients, Matters & cases, Hearings calendar, Deadlines, Legal tasks, Timesheet, Matter expenses, Legal invoices, Client funds, Legal reports and Legal settings (settings only for legal.manage).
The dashboard shows hearings this week, deadlines due, your tasks, unbilled work (WIP), outstanding invoices and client funds held.
Switching it on
- The Hayat team switches the module on. Hayat Legal is opt-in, so a new subscriber starts without it. The super admin opens admin.hayaterp.com → Subscribers, opens your business, ticks Hayat Legal under Modules and presses Save modules (see Switch modules on or off). Until then the screens say Hayat Legal is not part of your subscription.
- Your admin gives people roles. In Settings → Roles, add the Hayat Legal permissions to the roles above and give each person a role.
- Optional: set up the demo data. On an empty Legal dashboard (or in Legal settings), someone with legal.manage can press Set up demo data. It adds 3 clients and 4 matters with hearings, deadlines, tasks, notes and time. It does nothing once the company has clients.
Getting started in order
- Fill the settings: default hourly rate, time increment, invoice due days, tax on fees, reminders, client portal.
- Add your clients.
- Open each matter through the conflict check.
- Put the hearings and deadlines in, and upload the key documents.
- Record time and expenses every day; bill at month-end.
How money reaches the accounts
Hayat Legal does not keep a ledger of its own:
- Invoices are Sales invoices to the client (who gets a Sales customer on the first bill, segment Legal clients). Professional fees are then moved to 4791 Legal fees, and disbursements you paid for the client to 1791 Disbursements recoverable.
- Expenses the firm pays and will bill go to Disbursements recoverable until invoiced; ones it will not bill to 6791 Matter expenses.
- Client funds (advances, retainers held in trust) go to 2791 Client funds held in trust, a liability — never income. They are used to pay an invoice only with a client approval record.
- Payments from the client, at the desk or online, are Sales receipts.
Hayat Legal adds these four accounts to your chart the first time it needs them; each can be pointed to another account in Legal settings. The postings in detail are in Time, billing and client funds; see also How every module reaches the accounts.
The client portal
Every client has a private link on my.hayaterp.com/legal/… (copy it from the client's page and send it by WhatsApp or e-mail). The client sees:
- their matters with type, status, stage, court, case number, responsible lawyer and the next hearing (date, time, court, purpose);
- their invoices with paid and balance, and a Pay button for each (online payments);
- documents you chose to share (download the latest version);
- the client funds you hold for them.
Privileged notes, time entries and documents you did not share are never shown. The link is a random code; Reset on the client's page makes a new one and the old one stops working. Switch all portals off with Client portal by link in Legal settings.
Reminders
- Staff: the hearing's lawyer (or the matter's responsible lawyer) is notified of hearings within the reminder days (2 by default); deadlines within 7 days and missed deadlines — a missed limitation date is marked critical; tasks due today.
- Clients: switch on the Hayat Legal hearing reminder and invoice due reminders in Marketing → Reminders.
Hayat Legal pages
| Page | For |
|---|---|
| Clients, matters and the conflict check | Clients, the new-matter wizard, conflict check, fee arrangements, parties, closing and reopening |
| Hearings, deadlines, tasks and documents | The hearings calendar and outcomes, deadlines and limitation dates, tasks, documents with versions, privileged notes, AI summaries and notice drafts |
| Time, billing and client funds | Settings, timesheet, expenses, invoices from unbilled work, receipts and pay links, client funds, reports, accounts |