What is a matter?

In BopSuite, a matter is the central thing every other piece of work attaches to. If you understand matters, you understand the product.

What it actually is

A matter is one client engagement. Whatever your firm calls it — your industry decides the label:

Pick the vertical when you create the matter and the UI uses the right word everywhere — "Case detail," "New engagement," etc. Same data underneath; just smarter copy.

What attaches to a matter

Almost everything:

• Tasks — to-do items for your team, optionally visible to the client
• Doc requests — checklists you send to the client; uploads come back into the matter
• Messages — internal team notes + client-visible threads, on one timeline
• Calendar events — meetings, court dates, IRS filing deadlines
• Time entries — billable hours and notes
• Invoices — built from time entries; sent via Stripe
• Signature requests — engagement letters, retainers, 8879s
• Intake form submissions — when a public intake form creates a new matter, the prospect's responses get attached
• Notes — markdown notes for your team, pinnable
• AI briefings (Firm tier) — auto-generated state-of-the-matter summary
• Activity log — every action across all of the above

This is the whole point: instead of digging through Gmail for the W-2, Dropbox for the engagement letter, QuickBooks for the invoice, and your assistant's Excel for the deadlines — it's all on one page.

What does NOT attach to a matter

• The client — Clients are a level up from matters. A single client can have many matters over time (recurring tax client returning every year, repeat litigation clients, etc.). Don't conflate client and matter.
• Templates — These are reusable across matters. They live at the org level.
• Workflows — Same. Apply them to a matter; they don't belong to one.

Matter lifecycle

Every matter has a status:

• Open — active work
• On hold — paused, but still relevant
• Closed — work done, kept for reference
• Archived — out of normal views

Status is editable inline from the matter detail page. Changing it auto-stamps closed_at when you close, and re-opens with closed_at cleared.

For long-running tax/CPA practices, the convention is: open one matter per tax year for each repeat client. So an individual you've prepared returns for since 2024 has matters "Smith — 2024 Tax Return" (closed), "Smith — 2025 Tax Return" (closed), "Smith — 2026 Tax Return" (open). Each carries its own deadlines, invoices, and submissions.

Responsibility + team access

Each matter has one responsible user — the lead attorney/CPA on this matter. Optional, but recommended. Set it from the matter's edit panel.

Beyond that, every member of your firm has access to every matter by default. Matter members is a deeper feature where you scope a matter to specific firm users (e.g., partner-only matters, conflict walls). For most small firms, leaving the default open access is the right call.

When to open a new matter vs. add to an existing one

Open a new matter when:

• A new fiscal year starts (CPA tax matters)
• A new transaction starts (each real-estate closing = new matter)
• A new lawsuit, charge, or case is filed
• The scope expands materially (e.g., a divorce that grows into a custody battle — separate or split, your call)

Add to an existing matter when:

• Same engagement, more work (a tax client also wants Q3 estimated tax payments)
• Same case, new docs (discovery in an ongoing lawsuit)
• Same closing, related task (post-closing recording on a real estate matter)

What's next

• Creating your first matter — the step-by-step
• Sending doc requests — the most common matter activity
• Time tracking + billing — turning hours into invoices