Sensitive files, many teams… and every view logged by name

Why is managing a large office different?

Because the number of people who touch a file grows with the office, and with it the risk of unnecessary access and of mistakes no one can trace. A case management system in a large office must answer three questions at any moment: who is entitled to see this file? Who approved this payment? Who changed this date? Murafe answers them with tools the office runs itself — permissions, approvals and an audit log — without slowing down the lawyers’ daily work.

Separation starts at the foundation: every office on Murafe has its own database, its own file storage and its own address, so its data never mixes with another office’s. Inside the office every screen goes through the role’s permissions; even the statistics are calculated within the permissions of the person viewing them, so a lawyer does not see figures for files they are not entitled to open, nor reach a document they have not been allowed. Even the client in the client portal sees only the hearings, documents and account the office has chosen for them.

In a multi-team office, each case’s “case team” becomes the unit of organisation: it is set when the file is opened, copied to the appeal, cassation or execution file when that is opened, receives the alerts for hearings and appeal deadlines, and can have a chat group of its own. In “Statistics and reports” you choose a lawyer to see their figures alone, or leave the choice empty to see the whole office. A file does not disappear from the person who received it when it moves to another team, so the trace of who first received the client is never lost.

Who sees what: permissions in three layers

The first layer is the role: you create roles such as partner, lawyer, consultant, accountant and secretary, and set view, add, edit, delete and print for each section, with “Select all” to grant a whole section. The second is the scope of access: “View cases assigned to them” or “View all office cases”, plus “View confidential cases” for sensitive files. The third is employee exceptions: a permission given to one person alone or withheld from them without changing their role, with a “Reset to role permissions” button to undo the customisation.

Money and documents have permissions of their own, because access to a file does not mean access to everything in it. “View fees, paid and outstanding” decides who sees the amounts in services and consultations, “View office expenses” keeps salaries and rent apart from case expenses, and “Download documents” is separate from viewing them. Every printout has a “Print” column in the permissions table, so an employee may see a client’s statement of account without being able to print it.

Approval and accountability: a name and a time for every step

In a large office, money is not paid out on a verbal decision. The employee fills in an “Expense disbursement request” and the finance department is alerted; it agrees or disagrees, with a note, after reviewing the balance, the amount to be deducted and what remains, and senior management then approves the request or rejects it with the reason. Once it is approved, the accountant issues the payment voucher from the request’s page; the request is recorded as carried out and the voucher number is printed on it. In a “Litigation service request”, senior management sets the case team and the fee arrangement.

The audit log keeps all of it: additions, edits, deletions and sign-ins, document views and downloads, and voucher printing by number, with the user’s name, the time and the device. The office can switch off technical support’s access to its system, and every support visit is written to the same log. When an employee leaves, their account is suspended and their work remains, and any user is signed out automatically after the period of inactivity the office sets. Deletions are logged with a description of the deleted record, and data can be recovered by restoring an earlier backup.