Albertoit Law Office Manager

Albertoit Law Office Manager gives solo lawyers and very small law firms a simple, affordable way to manage clients, cases (matters), time, deadlines and invoices without paying expensive monthly subscriptions. Big legal practice tools like Clio and Smokeball start around $49 per user per month and are often more than a solo practitioner needs. This plugin brings the essentials into WordPress, where your data stays on your own site, your own server and your own database. Free features (nothing essential is locked)

• Clients: add, edit, delete and search clients (individuals or companies).
• Cases (Matters): organize work by case, with a unique case number, type and status.
• Case legal details: opposing party, opposing counsel, court, docket/file number and statute of limitations date.
• Case numbering: default format AIT-2026-0001 with a configurable prefix.
• Time tracking: log hours worked against a case, with an hourly rate and a billable flag.
• Live timer: start a timer against a case, then stop to save the entry or discard it.
• Deadlines: per-case deadlines with legal types (filing, hearing, trial, statute of limitations, contract, appeal, discovery, meeting, other) and an upcoming-deadlines dashboard.
• Invoices: build an invoice from billable time entries, add manual line items and disbursements, apply a tax rate, record the amount paid and see the balance due, then print or save it as a PDF.
• Private documents: attach confidential files to a case. Files are stored outside the public media library and are never publicly accessible.
• Activity log: an automatic, readable record of who changed what and when.
• CSV export: export clients, cases, time entries, deadlines and invoices to CSV.
• DATEV export (optional, off by default): export issued invoices as a DATEV-compatible EXTF Buchungsstapel (format version 700) for your German tax advisor, with configurable Beraternummer, Mandantennummer, revenue account and tax key.
• Privacy & Compliance screen: a data-management disclaimer, a processing note in English, German and Arabic, a DPA/AVV template, and client data-subject tools (export a client's data as JSON, or anonymise a client's personal data while keeping the audit trail).
• Translations: fully internationalized and translation-ready. A POT template is included; community translations are served through translate.wordpress.org.
• Data ownership: all data is stored in your own WordPress database. No external APIs, no paid services, no data sent elsewhere.

Who it is for

• Solo lawyers and attorneys.
• Small law offices with a very small team.
• Any practice that wants simple case, time and billing management inside WordPress.

Built for a global market Designed for solo lawyers worldwide, with Germany, the USA and the Arabic market in mind first. Anything jurisdiction-specific (tax/VAT, date and currency formats) is optional and configurable, never hard-wired.

1.5.6

• New: DATEV export (EXTF Buchungsstapel, format version 700) - export issued invoices as a DATEV-compatible booking batch file for your German tax advisor (Steuerkanzlei) to import into DATEV.
• New: "DATEV export" button on the Invoices screen, visible only when the feature is enabled.
• New: DATEV section on the Settings screen: enable/disable, Beraternummer, Mandantennummer, Erlöskonto (revenue account), Debitor base number, Buchungsschlüssel (tax key), batch label and a booking text template.
• Security: the export link is nonce-protected and the handler is permission-checked against the plugin capability; only issued invoices are included in the batch.

1.5.5

• Renamed the plugin to "Albertoit Law Office Manager" (slug albertoit-law-office-manager) so the distinctive brand term leads the name.
• Moved the invoice print-view styles into a proper enqueued stylesheet.
• Sanitized every field of stored attachment descriptors decoded from the case form, instead of only checking their structure.
• Removed the bundled .po/.mo translation files; the plugin remains fully internationalized and translation-ready via translate.wordpress.org.

1.5.4

• Added the ait_lmgmt_loaded and ait_lmgmt_admin_menu extension points, so an add-on can boot with the plugin and add its own screens under the same menu.
• Added the ait_lmgmt_is_pro filter: the "Learn more about Pro" link is dropped once the Pro add-on reports itself as active.
• Clarified this changelog: the paid layer described in the 1.2.x entries below is no longer part of this plugin - it ships as a separate add-on. This free build contains no Pro code, no license field and no gated screens.

1.5.3

• Renamed the admin menu label to "AIT Law Clients".

1.5.2

• Added a support block (PayPal donation) to the dashboard, settings screen and the admin footer.
• Added Settings and Donate quick links under the plugin name on the Plugins screen.
• Renamed the admin menu to "AIT Clients".

1.5.1

• Compatibility: tested up to WordPress 7.1.
• WordPress.org review: resolved all Plugin Check findings (0 errors, 0 warnings).
• Maintenance: removed the now-unnecessary manual load_plugin_textdomain() call (WordPress auto-loads translations for hosted plugins).
• Documentation: trimmed readme tags to the WordPress.org limit of five.

1.5.0

• Renamed the plugin to "Law Office Manager by Albertoit" with the text domain, slug and main file law-office-manager-by-albertoit.
• Hardened all custom-table SQL by switching identifier interpolation to %i in $wpdb->prepare().
• Write-guard files (.htaccess, index.php) in the private attachments directory now use the WordPress filesystem API instead of silenced direct writes.
• Schema upgrades now track a dedicated database version, so table creation only runs when the schema actually changes.
• Passes the WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS/PHPCS) with zero errors under the plain WordPress standard, with no blanket exclusions.
• Added a small, unobtrusive donation notice in the admin footer and settings screen, along with a link to the project website.

1.4.1

• Code quality and standards pass: the plugin now passes WordPress Coding Standards (PHPCS/WPCS) with zero errors and warnings.
• Added missing developer documentation (class and method docblocks) and translation placeholders comments.
• Replaced a deprecated time call in the live timer with the recommended API (no behaviour change).
• Confirmed the Free build contains no Pro code, no external calls and no tracking.

1.4.0

• Added legal matter fields: opposing party, opposing counsel, court, docket/file number and statute of limitations date.
• Added a live time tracker: start a timer with the case, rate and a description, then stop to save a time entry or discard it.
• Added expanded invoices: manual line items/disbursements, a tax rate with automatic tax amount, amount paid and balance due.
• Added legal deadline types (filing, hearing, trial, statute of limitations, contract, appeal, discovery, meeting, other).
• Schema version is now tracked separately so upgrades only run when the database actually changes.

1.3.0

• Added the Privacy & Compliance screen: disclaimer and processing information in English, German and Arabic, a DPA/AVV template, and a configurable retention period (default 10 years).
• Added client data-subject tools: export all data for a client as JSON, and erase a client's personal data by anonymising it while keeping the audit trail (plus a clearly-labelled permanent-delete option).
• Added retention review alerts: a badge on old cases and a dashboard card counting cases past the retention period.
• Added ready-to-adapt templates in the docs folder (privacy policy snippet, AVV/DPA template, retention note).

1.2.3

• Fix: the Pro Reports screen now registers its submenu (was returning not authorized).

1.2.2

• Fix: Reports screen no longer redeclares the inherited money helper with narrower visibility (another potential fatal).

1.2.1

• Fix: the Pro layer now loads after the admin base class, preventing a fatal error on activation.
• Hardening: the Pro loader is wrapped in a try/catch so a Pro-layer problem can never take down the Free plugin.
• Fix: Pro invoice branding no longer nests a duplicate header container.

1.2.0

• Added the Pro layer: Reports screen (paid revenue by month, outstanding invoices, billable and unbilled hours, billable time by case).
• Added Pro invoice branding: firm name, address and logo on printed/PDF invoices.
• Added Pro deadline email reminders (daily check, configurable reminder email and days-before-due, avoids duplicate sends).
• Added Pro license field in Settings. The Free plugin remains fully functional without a key; Pro screens show an upgrade notice.
• Expanded the POT template and the Arabic translation to cover all plugin strings.

1.1.0

• Added CSV export for clients, cases, time entries, deadlines and invoices (UTF-8, Excel-friendly).
• UI improvements: cleaner tables, framed empty states, header action buttons and better mobile layout.
• Added Arabic translation and a translation template (POT) for further languages.
• Added an in-admin "Support this plugin" section.

1.0.0

• Initial release.
• Clients, cases (matters), time tracking, simple deadlines, invoices with print/PDF, private case attachments and activity log.