Transaction or financing
Share or asset purchase, financing, reorganisation. She records the entities, the caller's role, the closing deadline reported and any professionals already involved — accountant, notary, lender.
Business law and SMB advisory firms
A business owner calls about an acquisition, then their controller follows up with details. Your firm receives the companies involved, other parties, stated date and person authorized to give instructions. The lawyer has a clear intake record to review before accepting the work.
$49 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
The parties and authorized contact before engagement
The partner receives an intake with both entities, the nature of the transaction, the letter of intent as the document in hand, the closing deadline and the name of the authorised contact. The conflict check runs before the firm has read a single document.
Read the full conversation
Tuesday, 9:20 a.m. The partner is in a meeting. The controller of a small manufacturer calls about an acquisition whose closing has already been announced.
ReceptionistGood morning, law office. Before you tell me about it, I have to note two things for the firm's check: your name and the company's, then the name of the other party.
CallerDaniel Joly, controller at Ateliers Rivard. We are buying a supplier's assets, Métallurgie Saint-Denis.
ReceptionistThank you. In two lines, what is it about, and what deadline do you have?
CallerAsset purchase. We have a signed letter of intent and closing is targeted for the end of next month.
ReceptionistRecorded. Two things for the intake: at your end, who is authorised to give instructions to the firm? And let me be clear — I am taking your request, I am not accepting it. The firm runs its conflict check and gets back to you; an engagement letter follows if the mandate is taken.
For the requests you receive
Contract to review or draft
A services agreement, a commercial lease, a shareholders' agreement. She records the kind of document, the version in hand, where it came from, and when signature is expected.
Corporate client, several contacts
The controller calls, an assistant sends documents, the president signs. She asks who is authorised to give instructions on this file and records it, so follow-ups do reach the right person.
Other requests you can delegate
Employment question on the employer side
Termination, internal policy, a demand letter received from a former employee. She records the company, the person named as a party and the date on the document received — telling nobody what to do with it.
Opposing party or its counsel
She discloses nothing. She records the name, organisation, file, subject and a number, and the call goes to the responsible lawyer as a priority.
What she does for your business-law firm
What she takes on between a business transaction and an opposing party calling, then the line she does not cross. Every line is a call your firm gets.
A first call that checks before it listens
She takes the caller’s name, the company’s and the other party’s name before the story begins.
Those names come before any detail, for your conflict check.
She establishes whether this is a new file or one already open at the firm.
An open file finds its history instead of starting another one.
She sums up the request in a few lines — purchase, financing, contract, employment, commercial dispute.
The kind of request steers what happens next in the call.
She records who is authorised to give instructions on behalf of the company, so follow-ups reach the right person.
A controller, an assistant and a president do not play the same role in a file.
What she protects before listening to the rest
An opposing party or its counsel calling gets no information: she records the subject and moves the call to priority.
She discloses nothing, even when the caller sounds confident.
She closes every call on the same sentence: the intake is taken, the firm checks, an engagement letter follows if the mandate is accepted.
No one hangs up believing they are already represented.
A lawyer in a meeting is not interrupted: the message waits, and the callback is put at the front of the queue on the way out.
A situation matching your priority rule still triggers the alert.
The meeting booked while the check is under way
She books the meeting within the windows you open, with confirmation and a reminder before the date.
The meeting gets booked without waiting for the conflict check to finish.
She records the document in hand, its version and where it came from, so the firm starts from the right copy.
A services agreement and a commercial lease do not call for the same reading.
She captures the deadline reported by the caller — closing, signature, a date carried by a document received.
That deadline stays what the caller reports, not an estimate from the firm.
What else you can hand to her
- Add-on
With Documents and deadlines, follow-up on a document stops as soon as it arrives, and versions received stay told apart.
A replaced contract or letter of intent is not confused with the outdated version it replaced. Documents and deadlines
- Add-on
With Preparation and coordination, drafts follow your approved templates and coordination with the accountant or notary happens under your authorisation.
Nothing goes out without passing through your validation. Preparation and coordination
By email, and with the firm’s software
- Channel
She attaches executives’ and colleagues’ emails to the enquiry, keeping the authorised recipient.
A file does not end up split across several contacts at the same company.
- Software
With Clio, creating contacts and tasks still has to be proven on a real account before any promise of writing.
The app is specific to the account’s region, and no authenticated trial has been run yet. Clio
- Software
With ProNotaire or JurisConcept, a documented need is not yet proof of access to the file.
No authentication contract is established with the vendor. ProNotaire and JurisConcept
What does not leave her mouth
- She gives no legal advice and does not say whether a position holds or a file looks strong.
- She calculates and states no procedural or limitation deadline: she records the date, you do the counting.
- She quotes no fee the firm does not publish.
- She does not confirm that a person or a company is a client, and does not reveal that a file exists.
- She discusses a file with no opposing party, no opposing counsel and no third party.
- She takes no position on a conflict of interest: she records the names of the parties, and the firm rules.
- A call creates no mandate: accepting it and the engagement letter belong to the firm.
What you can ask her yourself
She answers from the calls and files of your firm you are allowed to access. A question about an option only applies once you have switched it on.
The questionWho is named to give instructions for this enquiry?
She reads the stated authorised contact and entities. The firm verifies authority and accepts the engagement.
Which documents are still expected for a transaction file?
Add-onWith Documents and deadlines: the list by kind of mandate and versions received. Without the add-on she reports the request without tracking its documents.
Which requests came from an opposing party this week?
She rereads calls flagged as coming from an opposing party or its counsel. She still discloses none of that content.
Which drafts are still waiting on my validation?
Add-onWith Preparation and coordination: proposed documents and their review status. Without the add-on no draft is prepared.
What happens to the request
You write your instructions once
Areas the firm takes and areas it does not, how a first consultation works, your meeting windows, who to alert by area, and the exact sentence on accepting a mandate. You can change all of it at any time from the app.
She checks before she listens
Caller name, company, name of the other party or company involved — those names come first, and she politely interrupts the story to get them. Then: kind of request, document and version, authorised contact, reported deadline.
You get an intake ready to rule on
A written record arrives with the parties, the request summarised, the deadline and the referral source. You run the conflict check, you decide, and the meeting is booked into your windows with confirmation and reminder. The caller, meanwhile, has heard that nothing is accepted at this stage.
What the Legal and accounting base covers
A receptionist who answers for you in both languages, tells a prospect apart from an open file, and sends you a written intake. No setup fee, and you keep your number.
- Calls answered in French and in English, following the caller
- Names of the parties taken before the story, for your conflict check
- Kind of request, document and version, reported deadline, written into the intake
- An immediate alert when the situation matches your priority rule
- The meeting booked into windows you open, with confirmation and a reminder before the date
- A written summary after every call, readable in the app, and the option to ask her what happened
A call creates no mandate. She says so to the caller: the intake is taken, accepting it and the engagement letter belong to the firm.
Decisions that stay with you
- She gives no legal advice and does not say whether a position holds or a file looks strong.
- She calculates and states no procedural or limitation deadline: she records the date, you do the counting.
- She quotes no fee the firm does not publish.
- She does not confirm that a person or a company is a client, and does not reveal that a file exists.
- She discusses a file with no opposing party, no opposing counsel and no third party.
- She takes no position on a conflict of interest: she records the names of the parties, and the firm rules.
- She does not interrupt a lawyer in court: the message waits, and the callback is put at the front of the queue.
- Every call stays confidential: she does not confirm that somebody is a client of the firm, and no call is used as a testimonial.
Ask your receptionist, too
This is included in your base plan. She answers using the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access.
Talk to your receptionistA question you can ask
Who is named to give instructions for this enquiry?
She reads the stated authorized contact and entities. The firm verifies authority and accepts the engagement.
What else you can hand to her
Beyond the base plan. Each one is added on purpose, separately from the base. None is switched on unless you choose it.
When your customers prefer to write
You can add a channel so she can continue the conversation with your customers. Any action she takes follows the same rules and the options you have chosen.
Optional customer channel
Your email inbox
Attach executives’ and colleagues’ emails to the enquiry while retaining the authorized recipient.
The transactional messages provided by your base plan and your own questions to the receptionist remain included.
Keeping your current software?
Check the actions supported, connection requirements and how to work when your software cannot perform the requested action.
Permissions, matters and statuses are documented by the vendor. The app is specific to the account's region, and creating contacts and tasks still has to be proven: no authenticated trial has been run yet.
The need is documented — matters, documents, versions and rights — but no authentication contract has been established with the vendor. A documented need is no proof of access.
The first call on a business file is decided in two minutes
A business law firm lives on a stream of intakes that all sound alike on the phone: a small manufacturer wanting a contract reviewed, a buyer preparing a transaction, an employer with a termination question. The difference between a clean mandate and a file you will have to decline is settled in the first two minutes — the names of the parties, the nature of the request, and what the caller believes they obtained by hanging up.
Your receptionist opens the call with the check, not with the story. She takes the caller's name, the company name and the name of the other party before the person goes into detail, then sums up the request in a few lines. She records who is authorised to give instructions for the company — in a small business, that is often somebody else entirely.
And she closes on the right sentence: the intake is taken, the firm will run its checks, an engagement letter follows if the mandate is accepted. A firm that lets a caller leave convinced they are already represented manufactures an unintended client; avoiding exactly that is why this page exists.
In the same section
The other lines of work in this section run on the same engine, with their own requests and their own rules.
Legal & accountingLegal and notarial practices
Business law and SMB advisory firms — your questions
Why does she ask for the other party's name before listening?
Because order matters. If the caller pours out confidential information and the firm already acts for the other side, the situation you were meant to avoid is created before you even pick up. She takes the names, politely cuts the story short, and leaves the check to you.
What if the company has several contacts?
She asks who is authorised to give instructions on this file and records it in the intake. Confirmations and document requests then go to the right person rather than to whoever happened to call.
Can a caller think their file has been accepted?
She works so they do not. The acceptance sentence is part of your instructions and she says it out loud: the intake is taken, the firm decides afterwards, an engagement letter follows. It is the simplest protection against an unintended client.
Can she give a ballpark on fees?
Only what the firm publishes. The rest depends on the mandate, and the preset rules out improvising an amount. She explains that fees are confirmed by the lawyer once the request has been reviewed, and books the meeting.
What does she do while the lawyer is in court?
She does not interrupt. She takes the call, records the subject and the deadline, and the callback is put at the front of the queue on the way out. A situation matching your urgency rule still triggers an alert to the person you designated.
Does she handle email as well?
Yes, with the Email module: the firm's inbox is triaged, intake requests are recognised, and the same rule applies — names of the parties, no advice, no acceptance. The thread lands in the same record as the call, so a file has one intake rather than two.
Your rules, before the first call
Start your free trial with your email. Your website can help prepare your business information, but it is optional. Confirm the facts, choose a first task and test your receptionist. You can try options too, starting with the ones you need.
Keep my phone numberBusiness law and SMB advisory firms