Sales & CRM

How to set up your first crm as Small Law and Accounting Practices

Sales & CRMFor Small Law and Accounting Practices2 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

Your intake emails land in a shared Outlook inbox where three attorneys have access and no one owns follow-up. Conflict checks happen in a spreadsheet that was last audited when you hired your second associate. New matter setup means copying a client's name and address from an intake form into Clio, then again into QuickBooks, then again into a Word engagement letter. Client status emails take 45 minutes because the relevant context is split across Clio matter notes, an Outlook thread from six weeks ago, a calendar entry, and whatever your paralegal remembers from the last call. You have no single view of which matters are active, which haven't had partner contact in 30+ days, and which clients are waiting on something from your office.

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Sales & CRMFor Small Law and Accounting Practices2 apps12 steps~24 min to set up

Outcome

What you'll set up

A CRM that maps to how your practice actually runs — matters instead of deals, responsible attorney instead of sales rep, engagement status and billing phase instead of pipeline stage — built by describing it to Starch in plain English

An intake-to-matter pipeline that pulls from your Outlook inbox and Google Calendar, flags new inquiries, surfaces conflict-check data, and drafts the initial engagement email so your paralegal reviews rather than writes

A matter dashboard showing every active client, last contact date, outstanding deliverables, and next deadline — pulled from Outlook, Google Calendar, and QuickBooks — so the 'what's the status on Smith?' question takes ten seconds, not ten minutes

The Starch recipe

Apps, data, and prompts

The combination of Starch apps, the data sources they pull from, and the prompts you use to drive them.

Apps used

CRM Email Agent

Data sources & config

Starch syncs your Outlook mail and calendar data on a schedule, and syncs your QuickBooks billing data on a schedule, so matter records stay current without manual updates. Connect your practice management tool (Clio, MyCase, or Karbon) from Starch's integration catalog; the agent queries it live when your CRM or dashboard needs matter data. If your practice management system doesn't have a direct integration, Starch automates it through your browser — no API needed.

Prompts to copy

Build me a CRM for a six-attorney litigation and transactional practice. Instead of 'deals' and 'pipeline stages,' use 'matters' and 'matter status.' Status options are: Inquiry, Conflict Check Pending, Engagement Sent, Active — Litigation, Active — Transactional, Awaiting Client, Closed — Billed, Closed — No Charge. Fields I need on every matter: client name, responsible attorney, opposing counsel (for conflict checks), matter type (litigation / transactional / advisory), open date, last attorney contact date, next deadline, estimated fees, billed to date, and a notes field. Pull email thread history from Outlook so I can see correspondence on each matter without leaving the CRM.

Set up an email triage agent for our shared intake inbox. Incoming emails that look like new client inquiries should be flagged as Priority 1 and summarized with: sender name, matter type if determinable, urgency indicators, and any names mentioned (for conflict checking). Draft a reply acknowledging receipt and asking for a brief call. For existing client emails, match the sender to a matter in our CRM and show me the last three touchpoints before I reply. Flag anything that's been sitting unanswered for more than 48 hours.

Run these in Starch → or paste them into your favorite agent

Walkthrough

Step-by-step

1 Connect Outlook (or Gmail if that's your firm email) as a scheduled-sync provider. Starch will sync your inbox and calendar on a schedule so matter correspondence and deadline entries flow into your CRM automatically.

2 Connect QuickBooks as a scheduled-sync provider. This gives your matter records live billing context — billed to date, outstanding invoices, and payment status — without exporting anything manually.

3 Connect your practice management tool (Clio, MyCase, Karbon, or TaxDome) from Starch's integration catalog. The agent queries it live when populating matter records, so you're not maintaining two systems of record.

4 Start from the Starch CRM app template, then describe your firm's actual schema in plain English. Tell Starch you want 'matters' not 'deals,' list your status stages, and specify the fields every matter needs — responsible attorney, opposing counsel, matter type, next deadline, billed to date.

5 Import your existing client list. If it's in a spreadsheet or Clio, describe the source and ask Starch to map the fields. Starch cleans up duplicate records and fills gaps from Outlook thread history.

6 Set up the Email Agent on your intake inbox. Tell Starch to flag new inquiries, draft acknowledgment replies, and surface any names from the email as potential conflict-check entries against your matter records.

7 Ask Starch to build a conflict-check view: 'Show me a table of all opposing counsel names and adverse parties across every active matter, searchable by name.' This replaces the shared spreadsheet with a live query.

8 Build a matter dashboard by describing it: 'Show me all active matters grouped by responsible attorney, with last contact date, next deadline, and billed vs. estimated fees. Highlight any matter where last attorney contact was more than 21 days ago.' Starch builds this as a persistent dashboard.

9 Set up a weekly automation: 'Every Monday at 8 a.m., pull all matters where next deadline is within 14 days or last contact is over 21 days. Draft a summary email to the responsible attorney for each, listing the matter name, deadline, and last touchpoint. Send it from my Outlook account.' Review and send with one click.

10 For each active matter, ask Starch to generate a status summary: 'Summarize the Smith v. Jones matter — open date, all Outlook correspondence, last calendar entry, current billing status from QuickBooks, and any open items.' This is the brief you hand the junior associate.

11 Publish the conflict-check view and matter dashboard to your paralegal's Starch account so they're looking at the same live data, not a stale export.

12 Every quarter, ask Starch: 'Which clients have had no attorney contact in 60 days but have open matters? Which matters are over budget against estimated fees?' Use these as your client retention and billing-health checkpoints.

See this running on Starch

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Worked example

Henderson & Reyes LLP — April 2026 client intake week

Sample numbers from a real run

New inquiries received (Mon–Fri)	9
Intake emails triaged automatically by Email Agent	9
Conflict-check names surfaced without manual spreadsheet entry	14
Acknowledgment reply drafts generated	9
Matters opened after engagement (by Friday)	6
Paralegal hours saved on intake admin (estimated)	4
Partner time spent on status emails that week	0.5

Henderson & Reyes is a four-attorney firm doing commercial real estate transactional work and some landlord-tenant litigation. On Monday morning, three new inquiries came in through the website contact form, all landing in the shared intake@hrlawfirm.com Outlook inbox. In a normal week, the paralegal would read each one, copy the sender's name into the conflict spreadsheet, draft a reply, and flag the partner. This week, the Email Agent flagged all three within minutes of receipt, extracted the sender names and the names of any counterparties mentioned, drafted acknowledgment replies, and surfaced two potential name matches against existing matter records for conflict review. The partner spent 12 minutes reviewing drafts instead of 45 minutes writing them. By Thursday, six new matters had been opened in the Starch CRM — each with responsible attorney assigned, matter type tagged, and Outlook thread history already attached. The matter dashboard showed two matters from the prior month where last attorney contact had exceeded 21 days; the Monday automation had already drafted outreach emails to those clients, which the responsible attorneys sent with one click. QuickBooks billing data synced automatically, so the 'billed to date vs. estimated fees' column on every matter record was current without anyone running a report.

Measurement

How you'll know it's working

Days from intake inquiry to engagement letter sent

Active matters per attorney with no contact in 21+ days

Billed-to-date vs. estimated fees across all open matters

Intake emails triaged without paralegal intervention

Conflict-check coverage rate — percentage of new matters where opposing-counsel check ran before engagement

Comparison

What this replaces

The other ways teams handle this today, and how the Starch version compares.

Clio Manage

Clio is excellent at matter management and time tracking, but it won't draft your client status emails, build a cross-matter deadline dashboard from your calendar data, or let you describe a custom intake triage workflow in plain English — you get Clio's schema, not yours.

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is built for sales pipelines, not matters and engagements — you'll spend significant time configuring it to think like a law firm, and you'll still need something else to handle Outlook thread sync, deadline tracking, and billing status from QuickBooks.

Karbon

Karbon is purpose-built for accounting practices and handles workflow and client requests well, but it's subscription-heavy for a four-CPA office and doesn't let you describe a custom dashboard or automate a weekly status email from natural language.

Shared Outlook inbox + Excel conflict spreadsheet

Zero cost and no learning curve, but every status update is manual, conflict checks are only as current as the last person who updated the sheet, and there's no way to query 'which clients haven't heard from us in three weeks' without a Friday afternoon audit.

TaxDome

TaxDome handles client portal, e-signatures, and tax workflow well for accounting practices, but it doesn't connect to QuickBooks billing data or your calendar to build a unified deadline and billing dashboard, and it won't draft client-facing updates from matter context.

On Starch RECOMMENDED

One platform — crm, email agent all running on connected data. Setup in plain English; numbers stay current via scheduled syncs and live agent queries.

Try it on Starch →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

We use Clio for matter management. Will Starch replace it or work alongside it?

Starch works alongside Clio. You connect Clio from Starch's integration catalog; the agent queries it live when building your CRM records, dashboard, or automated emails. You're not abandoning Clio's time tracking or billing — you're adding a surface on top that Clio doesn't provide: a CRM with your schema, an inbox agent, and cross-system views that pull from Clio, Outlook, and QuickBooks together.

Can Starch run a conflict check automatically when a new inquiry comes in?

Starch can extract names from intake emails and surface them against your existing matter records — opposing counsel names, adverse parties, client names — as a searchable view. It's not a formal conflict-check system with a legal-compliance audit trail, but it replaces the shared spreadsheet and gives you a live query rather than a static list. You still make the call; Starch gives you the data faster.

Is Starch SOC 2 Type II certified? Our clients ask about data security.

Not yet — Starch is not currently SOC 2 Type II certified. If your engagement agreements or clients require certified security compliance for tools that touch matter data, that's worth knowing upfront. It's on the roadmap.

We're four CPAs using QuickBooks and Karbon, not attorneys. Does this apply to us?

Yes. The schema just changes — instead of matters and opposing counsel, you'd describe engagements, filing deadlines, and client phases. Tell Starch: 'Build me a CRM for a four-CPA practice. Instead of matters, use engagements. Status stages are: Prospect, Engagement Letter Sent, Active — Bookkeeping, Active — Tax Prep, Review Pending, Filed, Closed. Fields I need: responsible CPA, engagement type, filing deadline, last client contact, billed to date from QuickBooks.' Starch syncs your QuickBooks data on a schedule and connects to your calendar for deadline tracking.

Our intake process involves a web form. Can Starch connect to that?

If your intake form sends a notification to your email, the Email Agent picks it up from Outlook or Gmail and handles triage from there. If your form is through a tool like Typeform, JotForm, or a similar platform, connect it from Starch's integration catalog; the agent queries it live when processing new submissions. If your form tool isn't in the catalog, Starch can automate it through your browser — no API needed.

Will Starch draft client emails, or do I still write them?

Starch drafts them and you review. When you ask Starch to build a weekly status-email automation, it pulls context from the matter record — last contact date, open items, next deadline, billing status — and writes a draft addressed to that client. You read it, edit if needed, and send. Most practice founders report spending a few minutes reviewing instead of 30–45 minutes composing.

What if my practice management tool isn't Clio — we use MyCase or TaxDome?

MyCase and TaxDome are reachable through Starch's integration catalog or, where a direct integration isn't available, through browser automation — Starch can pull data from any website you can log into. Describe what you need and Starch figures out the connection. QuickBooks and Outlook sync on a schedule regardless of which practice management tool you use.