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Legal practice management and billing

How to find and size your Filevine data.

Find how many matters (projects), documents and billing entries Filevine holds and how a full-history export works, with consent and medical-record rules.

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Find how much you have

  1. Sign in with a login that is an Admin or collaborator on every project. Filevine says a report covers only those projects, and that an Org Admin can assign project access across many projects from the Teams subsection of the Member Access tool, and Project Hub lists the projects where you are a member, so a narrower login undercounts. Filevine calls matters projects, and one project normally holds one case.

  2. Open the main menu and go to Report Builder. Under Create New Report choose List of Projects, which has one row per project. On the Set Up Columns page pick a few columns, and choose your Org and project type at the bottom left if you want project-type columns. Then click Choose Criteria.

  3. Under the General criteria, add Include Archived Projects and set it to Yes. Filevine says this is the only way to include archived projects, which otherwise stay out of searches and reports. Finished projects are moved to the Archived phase rather than deleted, so skipping this step leaves out much of a long history.

  4. Click Run Report and count the rows. Filevine's table shows up to 1,000 rows per page, and an Excel export from the Save/Export page is limited to 30,000 rows, so a very large firm should lean on the next step or on the Data Connector described below.

  5. Cross-check with two count reports from the same Report Builder list: Project Type Counts, which lists each project type and its number of projects, and Project Phase Counts, which lists each phase and its number. Filevine does not say whether they include archived projects, so compare the totals with your List of Projects count and ask Filevine if they differ.

  6. Size the documents with the List of Docs report, which Filevine describes as listing every file uploaded to projects, with details such as file size, where it sits in the project, and the uploader and upload time. Set the same archived criterion, count the rows and total the size column. Also run List of Notes, and if your Org has billing turned on, the Billing Items report, to count activity feed items and billing items (time entries, expenses and fees).

  7. For your start date, note that Project Hub shows each project's date of last activity, not its start. Check Set Up Columns in List of Projects for a project date column your Org offers. If there is none, use the oldest upload time in List of Docs as a stand-in and say so in the description.

What to put on your intake

Your intake has five boxes for each system. Here is what goes in each one for Filevine.

What does it hold?
Projects (cases) with their client and contacts, activity feed notes and tasks, deadlines and calendar events, documents with version history, billing items and invoices, and the custom sections each project type adds. Describe it by the work, for example: closed injury and civil cases with intake, notes, deadlines and billing. Do not list client or case names.
Data types
Structured records for project fields and sections, and Text for notes and documents. Add Image or Video only if project folders hold case photos or video you would consider licensing. They are usually the most sensitive files.
How big is it?
Choose Matters and enter the List of Projects row count with archived projects included. Put your document count and total size, and your time-entry count, in the description. Sizing never needs client names, case details or documents.
Verified or estimated
Verified when the count comes from List of Projects with Include Archived Projects set to Yes, run by a login that is on every project. Estimated when you used Project Hub with a narrower login, counted one project type, or scaled up from a sample. Document totals from List of Docs are verified only if you ran it for every project.
Records start
The date of your oldest project, or the oldest document upload time if your report has no project date. If you moved cases in from another system, say when the Filevine records begin.

Exporting the full history

If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of Filevine.

  1. A buyer export happens only after a license is signed and the scope is agreed. For legal records the scope has a second gate: matter-level material moves only with documented client consent, and client details are removed inside the firm before anything leaves it. Your ethics counsel decides whether what's left is de-identified enough that neither the client nor the situation can be identified, but that doesn't replace the consent (ABA Model Rule 1.6; ABA Formal Opinion 512). Medical records and bills in injury files are excluded by default. Not legal advice.

  2. Files, one project at a time. In a project's Docs section, select files and folders with Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac), click the download icon and choose Download zip file. Filevine says the selection must sit at one level of the folder structure, the zip must be 5 GB or less, and any single file 2 GB or less. The unzipped folders keep the Docs structure. The progress window keeps a download for thirty minutes unless dismissed, and a download stops if you leave Filevine or close the browser.

  3. Structured data on a schedule: Data Connector. An Org Admin builds reports in Report Builder, then on the Save/Export page clicks CSV Report and Export. The file appears on the Saved Reports page, or in an AWS S3 bucket or Azure Blob storage you control. Filevine says a CSV can take up to 24 hours and is usually ready the next morning, and that you contact your Filevine representative to set the Data Connector up for your Org. For S3, the access key needs s3:PutObject on the bucket.

  4. Filevine's guidance for reliable Data Connector CSVs: standard fields with fewer than 50 columns, up to 1 million records; custom non-collection section fields, up to 200,000; custom collection section fields, up to 100,000; more than 50 columns, up to 50,000. Split a larger report by criteria. Filevine says Data Connector will eventually be decommissioned in favor of DataBridge.

  5. Broader data access: DataBridge. Filevine describes it as a paid Snowflake data layer with SQL views over billing items, invoices, transactions, audit, the activity feed (notes, tasks and comments), document metadata, tags, contacts, projects, section fields and values, teams and users, with 10 to 20 minutes of latency. It needs your own Snowflake account in AWS US West (Oregon) for US customers or AWS Canada (Central), and the data is shared through Snowflake. Its data list names document metadata, not the files themselves.

  6. Billing narratives in a standard format: LEDES 1998B. After setup (timekeeper IDs and classifications, your Law Firm ID, the UTBMS codesets and each project's client matter ID), go to Advanced, then Billing, open the Invoices tab, select invoices, click the vertical ellipsis and choose Download LEDES. Filevine delivers the files as a zip, and flags any file with errors in its name.

  7. Programmatic access: Filevine's API. Since June 2025 Filevine enforces a default rate limit on direct API use, and says new customers who call it with the customer client ID and tenant secret will get 429 Too Many Requests responses. An account admin requests increased access in the Account Manager, under Access Tokens and then the Client Secrets tab. Customers who used the API during or before June 2025 keep their existing access. Each response carries RateLimit-Limit and RateLimit-Remaining headers. The help articles we reviewed do not describe pulling files in bulk through the API, so ask Filevine how to do that.

  8. Under the license, client and contact names, the people in person fields such as witnesses and adverse parties, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, case and claim numbers and names typed into notes are removed inside the firm before anything leaves it. Removal alone does not settle the ethics question, so the client consent in the first step still applies.

We only ask for an export after you sign a license and agree the scope. Sizing your data for the intake never needs one.

Limits to know

  • Medical records are excluded by default. Filevine's Med Chron tool automatically includes every project document classified as a medical record, so a project that uses it has medical records in its Docs. HIPAA says a covered entity or business associate may not sell protected health information except as an authorization under 45 C.F.R. § 164.508(a)(4) allows (45 C.F.R. § 164.502(a)(5)(ii)). Whether that reaches your firm's copies depends on how you received them: a firm that provides legal services to a healthcare provider and handles its patients' records can be its business associate (45 C.F.R. § 160.103), while a firm that gets records through its own client's authorization usually is not. Substance-use treatment records carry stricter federal limits (42 C.F.R. Part 2), and state laws such as California's CMIA add their own. Ask your counsel. Not legal advice.
  • Reports show only part of the picture by default. Archived projects stay out unless Include Archived Projects is Yes, and Filevine says reports include only project sections that are visible at the time the report runs, so a hidden section's data will be missing.
  • Row limits differ by article. Build a Report says reports shown in Filevine have unlimited rows and Excel exports stop at 30,000. Collection Exports says a report over 20,000 rows cannot be viewed in Filevine, though it can still be saved. Expect to slice a large history by criteria and test.
  • Data Connector covers only report data, with hours of latency, and CSVs can fail on very wide or very large reports. Filevine says a job that fails repeatedly for three days is unscheduled, and an Org can use the As Soon As Possible option only three times in 24 hours.
  • DataBridge is a paid product, needs a Snowflake account in the regions Filevine names, and covers document metadata, not files. Collection Exports hands you the file once in a pop-up and does not keep it in Filevine afterward.
  • Projects are archived rather than deleted in normal use, but purging exists. Filevine says its Delete Batch tool, which needs an Org Admin, purges records permanently and the Undelete tool cannot bring them back. The Undelete tool restores documents, collection items and deadline chains for up to 30 days, with no guarantee after one year.
  • Version history includes machine versions. Filevine creates a new version whenever a user saves in an editor, uploads a new version, or OCR runs, so a long version list is not all human drafts. OCR versions can be downloaded but not restored or have their version info edited.
  • The activity feed holds client communications. Filevine says it tracks notes, tasks, texts and faxes for a project, and guests such as clients and co-counsel can be given access to parts of a project. Texts and anything shared with a guest are scoped last.
  • Documents from the other side, anything under a protective order or seal, and signed client documents are not yours to license without consent or proof of ownership. Public court filings are still covered by the confidentiality rule. ABA Formal Opinion 480 says information in a public record is not exempt from Rule 1.6. Not legal advice.

This guide isn't legal advice. Check your contracts, and any recording-consent rules that apply, with your own lawyer.

Why buyers value it

Filevine is case management built around projects that move through phases. A single project holds the intake, the notes and tasks, the deadlines, the documents and their versions, the billing, and how the case ended. For buyers building legal agents and case-management tools, that sequence from first contact to outcome is the useful part, and it is hard to learn from published material.

Most of it is information about clients, and injury files add health and financial details. What can move is narrower: the firm's own templates and workflow structure that hold no client information, plus matter-level material, including phase and deadline patterns, task flows and billing narratives, from clients who have given documented, informed consent, with client identifiers removed inside the firm. Long runs of consistent project types and billing codes make that narrower set more useful.

What stays private

Client and contact names, the people in person fields (witnesses, adverse parties, adjusters, providers), addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, case, claim and policy numbers, and any names typed into notes, tasks and billing descriptions are removed before delivery under the license. Dates and amounts, including settlement figures, may be generalized when they could point to one case.

Removal does not by itself make a record safe to license. The confidentiality rule also covers a disclosure that reveals nothing protected on its face but could reasonably lead someone to discover it, and it allows a hypothetical only when there is no reasonable likelihood the listener could work out who the client is or what the situation was (ABA Model Rule 1.6, Comment 4 (opens in a new tab)). Whether a set of records meets that bar is a judgment for your ethics counsel, not a script. For matter-level material, we require a separate, specific client consent, because ABA Formal Opinion 512 (opens in a new tab) says general engagement-letter language is not enough when client information goes into a self-learning AI tool. Not legal advice.

Left out by default: medical records, medical bills and treatment records; privileged advice, strategy and opinion work product on open matters; anything under a protective order or seal and documents produced by other parties; client funds and trust records; texts and faxes with clients; and employee or personnel records. Criminal defense, juvenile, family and immigration projects, and anything involving minors, are out by default even when de-identified. Your logins, user list, permissions and integration keys are not part of the license.

Common questions

Give the number of projects, with archived projects included, and choose Matters as the unit. One project normally holds one case. If you run several project types, put the split from Project Type Counts in the description so a buyer sees the mix.

No, not by default. They are excluded from a package, and a buyer sees only the structure of the case, such as phases, deadlines and outcomes, not the treatment record. HIPAA restricts selling protected health information held by a covered entity or business associate (45 C.F.R. § 164.502(a)(5)(ii)), and whether it reaches your firm's copies is a question for your counsel. Not legal advice.

No. Sizing needs only a report you run yourself in Report Builder. Data Connector and DataBridge matter later, if a buyer licenses part of the record and the scope calls for a scheduled or warehouse-style pull. DataBridge is a paid Filevine product, so do not buy it for the intake.

Sources

Vendor documentation, checked . Screens and plans change, so if a step looks different in your account, check with Filevine.

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