A new workspace needs a few things before your firm can work in it. Others can wait until you have finished a matter or two. This guide puts the Workspace Settings pages in the order to tackle them.

Watch the walkthrough: Setting up a new workspace, 6 minutes. The video predates some changes to the app. Where they differ, follow this page.

To open Workspace Settings, click your profile picture in the top right and choose Workspace Settings. The pages you see depend on your role. See Workspace roles and permissions.

Do these first

Choose a plan

Go to Plan & Billing. A new workspace has no plan, and nobody can create a matter until an owner or admin chooses one. The first plan starts with a free trial. See Plans, trials, and current matters.

Invite your team

Go to Members and invite everyone who will use the workspace. Plans are priced by the number of current matters, not by the number of members, so there is no charge for adding people. The app works better when each person has their own sign-in instead of sharing one. See Invite and manage members.

Name the workspace

Go to General. Use the name of your law firm as the workspace name. You can also add a logo, which shows in the top navigation, and a header image, which shows behind the workspace name. Both are optional. Only owners can change these.

Plan your tags

Go to Tags and decide how you want to sort your matters. Estate Bookkeeper uses tags instead of folders, because a matter can carry several tags at once. With five matters this hardly matters. With fifty, it does.

One approach that works well is three groups of matter tags.

The responsible attorney, by initials.
The responsible paralegal.
The type of matter, such as Probate or Trust.

You can then filter the matters list by any of them. See Organize matters with names and tags.

Leave these for later

Templates

A new workspace has no account templates. Set up the chart of accounts on your first matter, then save it as a template for the matters that follow. Templates decide which accounts a new matter starts with, and those accounts decide how your reports look. See Plan your chart of accounts.

AI Instructions

AI Instructions tell Import with AI how to handle the statements you upload, such as which accounts to use and how to word descriptions. Without instructions, its suggestions need much more correction. Writing good instructions takes some experience with the app, so come back to this page once you have entered a matter by hand. Only owners can edit them. See Import a closing statement with AI.

Audit Log

The Audit Log needs no setup. It records who did what in the workspace, and owners can review it at any time. See Review the audit log.

Next step

Click the Estate Bookkeeper logo to return to the matters list, then create your first matter. See Create your first matter.

Set up a new workspace