Day-One Checklist for New Firms
This is the launch playbook for a firm that's just signed up. Run through it once, document your decisions, and you'll skip the most common first-week issues — unclear ownership, fee/trust confusion, intake template gaps, and notification routing failures.
1. Assign ownership
Before changing settings, decide who owns each area. Write it down somewhere you can find it later.
- Practice admin — settings, team, integrations.
- Billing lead — invoices, retainers, follow-up on unpaid balances, refunds.
- Trust / compliance — trust-routing config, monthly reconciliation.
- Intake owner — first response on new submissions, accept/decline decisions.
Why this matters: when ownership is unclear, items get done twice or not at all.
2. Verify your practice profile
In Settings → Practice, confirm:
- Practice name and slug.
- Accent color matches your brand (it appears on widget, payment pages, and engagement letters).
- Business email and phone.
- Office address — used for jurisdiction defaults.
- Services list — even if minimal, the AI uses this in intake.
- Coverage areas — the jurisdictions you're admitted in.
Why this matters: every client-facing surface (widget, payment receipt, engagement letter) reads from these fields.
3. Clear both Stripe Connect checkpoints
In Settings → Payments:
- ☐ Checkpoint 1 — bank linked through Stripe.
- ☐ Checkpoint 2 — charges enabled.
If charges are still pending, open the Stripe dashboard from the Blawby link — Stripe will list any docs it still needs.
Read Accept Your First Payment for the full Stripe Connect walkthrough.
4. Configure trust vs. operating routing (if you hold client funds)
If your firm will ever hold unearned funds (retainers, settlement deposits, court filing-fee deposits):
- ☐ Trust routing configured in Settings → Payments → Trust routing.
- ☐ Operating-account card linked for processing fees.
- ☐ Trust/compliance owner identified (see step 1).
If you don't hold client funds, skip this — all payments will land in your operating account.
5. Build your first intake template
In Settings → Intake templates:
- ☐ Template created with a recognizable slug (e.g.
personal-injury). - ☐ Required fields kept short — contact, matter type, case summary, jurisdiction, urgency.
- ☐ A few enrichment fields configured for the post-submit "strengthen your case" phase.
- ☐ Conditional fields where they apply (e.g. "court date" only if "open case" = yes).
- ☐ Consultation fee toggle set correctly for your free-vs-paid policy.
Read Intake Templates for the field model.
6. Invite your team and set roles
In Settings → Team:
- ☐ Each team member invited with the right role (Admin / Attorney / Staff).
- ☐ At least one Admin besides yourself, so you're not a single point of failure.
- ☐ Default matter assignees agreed on (who picks up new accepted intakes?).
7. Set notification policy
In Settings → Notifications:
- ☐ In-app notifications on for every team member.
- ☐ Email notifications enabled at least for: new intake, invoice paid, engagement signed.
- ☐ Push notifications (OneSignal) enabled if you want mobile/web alerts.
- ☐ Backup person identified for the intake owner — for vacation and after-hours coverage.
Why this matters: a fast first response on a new intake is the #1 conversion driver. Make sure the notification reaches a human.
8. Run a live dry run
Before sharing your widget URL externally:
- ☐ Open your widget URL from a private browser window.
- ☐ Submit a test intake with realistic answers.
- ☐ Confirm the intake reaches your queue with all expected fields.
- ☐ Confirm the right person got the notification (in-app, email, or push).
- ☐ Accept the test intake; confirm a matter is created.
- ☐ Send a $1 test invoice to yourself, pay it with a Stripe test card, confirm the invoice flips to Paid.
Document anything confusing during the test — those are the issues real clients will hit first.
9. Document your firm rules
Write the playbook your team will follow. The minimum:
- Required response time for new intakes (e.g. same business day).
- Who follows up on unpaid invoices, and when.
- What happens after a failed payment — see Failed Payment & Chargeback SOP.
- When a matter escalates from staff to attorney.
10. Go live
When the dry run passes:
- Add the widget script to your firm website. See Install the Chat Widget.
- Share the widget URL in email signatures and intake replies.
- Watch the first week of submissions closely; expect to refine intake template fields once you've seen real answers.
Success criteria
You're ready when:
- A real client can complete intake and reach your queue.
- Your team can see the submission and the right person gets notified.
- A test invoice can be sent and paid.
- Trust-routing responsibility is documented (or explicitly N/A).
- Failed-payment ownership is explicit.
Next: pair this with the failed-payment SOP
Once you're live, the most common operational hiccup is a failed card charge or chargeback. Make sure your team has a written response.