What's New in 1.5.0

Overview

Version 1.5.0 turns Smart Forms into a signing tool for several people: an Owner, a Co-owner and a Witness each sign through their own link, can be asked for an ID document and a live selfie, and the client can pay for extras such as a certified copy while signing. When everyone has signed, Matterly seals one PDF with a signing record. Firms can also connect their ERP or CRM through scoped API keys and webhooks, and AI assistants through the new MCP server add-on. Updating from 1.4 is one click (see Upgrading from 1.4).

Signed by several people

Form settings → Signers: up to six roles (for example Owner, Co-owner, Witness), one after another or all at once, and who fills each field.
Start from the public link (the first signer names the others) or from Share → Send for signature.
Each signer fills only their own fields and sees the others' answers read-only. Signers can decline with a reason.
Sign on one device: hand the phone or tablet from one signer to the next.
When everyone has signed, the final PDF is produced once with a signing record page (who, when, from where, the full history and a SHA-256 fingerprint) and every signer gets that exact file.

See Smart Forms.

ID document and selfie

Two new Smart Form fields: ID document and Selfie (a photo taken with the camera on the spot, or an upload that is marked as not taken live). They appear as thumbnails for staff and on the signing record. Choose how long they are kept on the Smart Forms list.

Paid extras while signing

Smart Forms → Extras lists what clients can buy as they sign. Each form offers the extras you pick, optional or always included, and can require payment before anyone else is asked to sign. Payment goes through the firm's own gateway (Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, LigdiCash or Paystack); a paid order on a matter files a paid invoice.

API keys, webhooks and MCP

Settings → API: named API keys with permissions (matters, clients, invoices, Smart Forms), shown once.
New endpoints for clients, matters, invoices, Smart Forms and their responses, and sending a form for signature.
Webhooks for new clients and matters, paid invoices, Smart Forms submitted, completed or declined, and paid extras. Signed, retried for about 15 hours, with a delivery log.
MCP server add-on: Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients use the same keys and permissions. See MCP server.

See API & Webhooks, including a recipe for Perfex CRM.

New designs

Super Admin → Landing page → Design: the platform home page now comes in three designs (Classic, Editorial and Product). Super admins can preview a design with ?design=editorial before saving it.
Three new firm website templates: Harbor (light), Nocturne (dark) and Terracotta (warm), bringing the total to nine.

Changes to know about

Creating, reading and cancelling matters through the API now always needs an API key with the matter permission. The single key from earlier versions is replaced by named keys: create new keys in Settings → API.
Plans have three new switches: Multi-party signing, ID and selfie verification and Extras at signing (checkout). Turn them on for the plans that should include them.
Smart Form PDFs now use the firm's date format and time zone, and are much smaller.
The Paystack add-on 1.1 (needed for paid extras through Paystack) requires Matterly 1.5.

For developers

Payment gateways can take any amount through the new optional ChargesPayables interface (a Charge value object). Add-on gateways that don't implement it keep working; they just aren't offered for Smart Form extras.
New scheduled commands: cforms:seal-due and webhooks:deliver (every minute), cforms:expire, cforms:purge-evidence and cforms:prune-files (daily). Nothing needs a queue worker.

Upgrading from 1.4

Open Super Admin → License & Updates and click Update. Then switch the new plan features on under Plans & Pricing, and give integrations new API keys under Settings → API.

Coming from an older version? Follow the upgrade steps for that version below first.

Version 1.4

Version 1.4.0 lets add-on modules add payment gateways, and the first one, Paystack, is free. A gateway from an add-on shows up on Settings → Payments next to Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal and LigdiCash, and the Super Admin can now pick which gateway bills firms for their subscription. Updating from 1.3 is one click (see Upgrading from 1.3).

1.4.1: Smart Form uploads

The File upload field in Smart Forms now stores the client's file; before 1.4.1 only its name reached you. Files upload as soon as they are picked, and large photos are scaled down first so clients on a phone can finish.
Open a response's Answers view and click the file name to download it. Files are kept in private storage and only staff of your firm can open them.
An Access PIN now allows 5 wrong tries per visitor every 15 minutes, so a short PIN cannot be guessed.

See Smart Forms.

Payment gateways from add-ons

Firm → Settings → Payments lists every gateway the firm can use: the four built-in ones plus any an installed add-on adds. If an add-on is switched off, or a firm's plan no longer includes it, its gateway disappears and the firm is asked to pick another.
Super Admin → Settings → Payments has a Billing gateway choice: Stripe, None (invoice firms manually), or a gateway an add-on adds. Cards saved through one billing gateway are never charged through another; firms are asked to add their card again.
Record Payment on a client invoice lists every installed gateway.

See Payments.

Free add-on: Paystack

Firms in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya can take client payments through their own Paystack account (card, bank transfer, USSD, mobile money), and the platform can bill subscriptions through Paystack. It's free: install it from Super Admin → Modules. See Paystack.

For developers

Modules can register a client payment gateway with GatewayRegistry and a subscription billing gateway with ChargerRegistry. Matterly renders their settings, stores their secrets encrypted, and routes checkout, the client's return and webhooks to them. See Module Development → Payment gateways.

Upgrading from 1.3

Open Super Admin → License & Updates and click Update. Matterly downloads and installs 1.4.0 for you. Then open Super Admin → Modules to install Paystack.

Coming from an older version? Follow the upgrade steps for that version below first.

Version 1.3.0

Overview

Version 1.3.0 adds add-on modules: new features you install from the Super Admin area in one click, without touching Matterly's code. The first one, Conflict Check, is free. You can sell add-ons per plan, grant them to single firms, and developers can build their own with React pages that look like the rest of Matterly. Updating from 1.2 is one click (see Upgrading from 1.2).

Add-on modules

Super Admin → Modules (/super/modules) lists installed modules and the official add-ons you can install. Free add-ons install in one click; paid ones ask for their purchase code. A progress bar shows each step.
Updates for add-ons appear as an Update to x.y.z button on their row. Matterly checks once a day, or use More → Check for updates.
Sell add-ons per plan: Plans & Pricing → Modules included ticks the add-ons a plan includes, and Firms → Edit → Extra modules grants one to a single firm. Firms without it don't see its pages.
Add-on pages sit inside Matterly: an Add-ons group in the firm sidebar and in the Super Admin sidebar.
Safe by design: only signed modules install, every change asks for your password, and a module that breaks is switched off on its own while the rest of Matterly keeps working. Nothing can change in demo mode.
License & Updates shows a modules summary (installed, running, needing attention).

See Add-on Modules.

Free add-on: Conflict Check

Search a new client or the other side across your clients, matters and recorded parties before you take a case on, record the outcome (Clear, Conflict or Waived) in a conflict log you can export, and get a Needs review flag when a new client was once an opposing party. See Conflict Check.

For developers

Build your own module: a Laravel service provider plus React pages that use Matterly's layouts and components. Super Admin → Modules → More → Download example module gives you a complete working example.
Turn on developer mode (LICENTRA_MODULES_DEV=true) on a development copy to load unsigned modules from modules-dev/.

See Module Development.

Upgrading from 1.2

Open Super Admin → License & Updates and click Update. Matterly downloads 1.3.0, runs the database update and clears caches for you. Then open Super Admin → Modules to install Conflict Check.

Coming from 1.1 or 1.0? Follow Upgrading from 1.1 below first.

Version 1.2.0

Overview

Version 1.2.0 adds one-click updates: Matterly now tells you when a new version is out and installs it for you from the Super Admin area. It also adds license activation with your Envato purchase code. Only the Super Admin area needs a license; firms, their staff, the client portal and public firm websites are never affected. See Upgrading from 1.1 for this one manual update.

One-click updates

Super Admin → License & Updates shows your installed version and checks for new versions once a day, or right away with Check for updates. A banner in the Super Admin area also tells you when an update is ready.
Update downloads the new version, checks it is signed by us, backs up every file that will change, replaces only the changed files, runs the database migrations and clears caches. If anything fails, the previous files are put back automatically.
Your .env, uploads and storage/ are never touched, and translations you edited under Super Admin → Translations are kept, with new strings added alongside them.
Prefer the command line? Run php artisan licentra:update.

License activation

The first time the Super Admin opens /super, Matterly asks for your Envato purchase code and a contact email.
Local and staging installs (localhost, .test, staging.yourdomain.com) don't use up your license.
Move your license to a new domain yourself from /license.

See License & Updates for details and exactly what is sent.

Upgrading from 1.1

Upload the new files (keep your .env), then run php artisan migrate --force and php artisan optimize:clear.
Open /super and enter your purchase code.

From now on, updates are one click. Coming from 1.0? Follow Upgrading from 1.0 below as well.

Version 1.1.0

Overview

Version 1.1.0 adds a matter board with your own stages and automations, custom fields for case details, two-way client texts (SMS) with reminders, and LigdiCash, a fourth payment gateway for mobile money in West and Central Africa. It also makes every screen work on phones and tablets, and makes the public sites much easier for search engines and AI assistants to find, read and show in results. See Upgrading from 1.0 for the steps to take after you update.

Matter board and stages

Matters → Board shows open matters as cards in stage columns. Drag a card (or use Move to… on a phone or keyboard) to move it, with Undo.
Settings → Stages sets your stages: names, colours, which ones clients see and what they are called, and a separate pipeline per practice area if you need one. Every new firm starts with Intake, Engaged, In progress, Resolved and Cancelled.
Stage automations create tasks, email Smart Forms or message the client when a matter enters a stage.
Client portal matters show "Step 2 of 4 · Engaged" with a progress bar.
Case Tasks → Board gives tasks a column per status, opening on your own tasks.

See Matter Board & Stages.

Custom fields

Settings → Custom fields adds case details such as the court or a case number, per practice area, in seven types. Up to two can be pinned to board cards.
Values are edited on the matter's Overview tab, and both the list and the board can filter by them.
A Smart Form question can fill a case detail: accepted answers are copied onto the matter, never over a value staff typed.

See Custom Fields.

Client texts (SMS)

Twilio, MSG91 and Africa's Talking. Firms use the platform's account (paid in SMS credits) or their own keys.
Consent first: an unticked box on booking and chat, a switch in the client portal, and a staff switch that records how the client agreed. STOP and START work in English, French and Spanish.
Two-way: client replies land in Client Inbox, and staff reply by SMS with a live length and credit count and delivery ticks.
Settings → Messaging walks through setup, sends a test SMS, and keeps a log of every client message.
Super Admin → SMS holds the platform account, per-firm usage, credit top-ups and per-country rates. Plans get an SMS switch, a credit allowance per billing period and a daily cap.

See Client Texts (SMS) and SMS.

Reminders

Two reminders now go by SMS, WhatsApp or email, whichever the client has agreed to. They replace the earlier hearing and closing reminder emails:

Appointment reminder: 24 hours before a hearing, consultation or client-visible meeting.
Payment reminder: the day before an unpaid invoice is due, and 3 days after.

Each can be turned off under Settings → Notifications. A rescheduled hearing gets a new reminder, and a paid invoice gets none.

LigdiCash payments

Firms can now take payments through LigdiCash, alongside Stripe, Razorpay and PayPal. Clients pay by mobile money (Orange Money, Moov, MTN, Wave and others) or card in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea and DR Congo.

Connect it under Settings → Payments → LigdiCash with the API key and API token of your LigdiCash project. No webhook setup is needed.
CFA francs (XOF): fees are charged in whole CFA francs. Firms that price in another currency are converted at their own exchange rate, and XOF is now in the currency list.
Every payment is double-checked: a matter is confirmed only after Matterly asks LigdiCash directly, so a forged link or notification cannot mark a booking as paid.
Mobile money approvals: if a client returns before approving the payment on their phone, they see a "waiting for approval" message, and the matter confirms by itself once the payment clears.
Record Payment on invoices now lists PayPal and LigdiCash.
Subscription payments by LigdiCash: the Super Admin can connect the platform's LigdiCash account under Settings → Payments. Firms then pay subscription invoices, and their renewal, by mobile money from their Billing page. Paying a renewal moves the subscription to its next period.

See Payments for setup and testing.

Mobile and tablet

Every Super Admin, Firm Admin and public page was checked at phone (375px), tablet (768px) and laptop (1024px and 1280px) widths.

Page headers wrap their buttons under the title instead of squeezing them, and button labels stay on one line.
Tables scroll sideways inside their card instead of being cut off (Translations, Expenses, Forms, Localization, Knowledge Base and others).
Forms with a side panel (Add or Edit Firm, Create Invoice) show the panel under the form below 1280px.
Matters list and Smart Form submissions use the card and list-then-detail layouts on tablets.
Firm Settings shows its section menu as a swipe strip on phones and tablets.
Smart Form builder stacks the field palette, document and settings on narrow screens, and uses slimmer side panels on laptops. It no longer needs a 1024px-wide window.
Public Smart Form page shows the questions first, then the live document, on phones.
Firm website menu no longer makes the page wider than the phone screen, and its close (X) button is visible.
Platform site menu on phones matches the light header, lines up with the logo and scrolls, so every link and button can be reached on a short screen.
Hero buttons on outline-style website templates are readable on dark photos.
Admin screens no longer jump or turn blank when you tap a hidden choice such as a plan or firm type.

Search engines (SEO)

Everything below is generated from each firm's own settings, pages and practice areas. Nothing needs setting up for it to work. See SEO & Search Visibility for details.

Every language can be found in search. Each language a firm enables gets its own address (?hl=fr) with its own canonical link, and every page lists its other languages (hreflang). The same applies to the platform homepage, the Smart Forms page and platform pages.
Firms on their own domain now serve their own robots.txt, sitemap.xml and llms.txt, and their canonical links use the clean domain.
Richer sitemaps list every language version, plus practice-area and hero photos. The platform sitemap now also lists the Smart Forms page and every documentation page.
Better link previews on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, WhatsApp and Slack. Pages fall back to the page photo, the firm cover, the home page hero or a practice-area photo. Shared Smart Form links show a title and description, and stay hidden from search.
One main heading per page. Website pages without a hero block now promote their first heading, so every page has exactly one <h1>.
Structured data describes each firm as a legal service with opening hours, areas served and practice areas. The platform homepage describes Matterly as software, priced from your active plans. Documentation pages are marked up as technical articles.
Documentation is readable without JavaScript, so search engines and AI assistants see each page's real title, description and text.
Descriptions are trimmed at a word boundary to fit search results, and page titles use " | " as the separator.
Admin and sign-in screens tell search engines not to index them, and robots.txt also keeps client-portal and matter-management pages out of search.

Fixes

The practice calendar can be filtered by practice area, and it shows consultation requests.
The client portal invoice heading is readable on dark website templates.
Firms' Billing page lists their subscription invoices.
The booking page shows why an online payment did not go through ("Payment was not completed", "We could not start the payment").
The Client Inbox shows who sent each message.
The registration page shows the free-trial length.

Upgrading from 1.0

Upload the new files, then run php artisan migrate (adds the stage, custom field and messaging tables, a column for gateway references and the LigdiCash payment method) and php artisan optimize:clear.
Make sure the task scheduler runs every minute (* * * * * php artisan schedule:run). Texts and reminders are sent by it.
Delete the old public/documentation/ folder if it is still there. Documentation screenshots now live in public/images/documentation/.

Documentation links that still use /documentation/1.0/ redirect to the current version automatically.

Best Practices

After updating, submit https://your-domain/sitemap.xml in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Firms on their own domain should submit https://their-domain/sitemap.xml as well.