If you're a FilePro firm, the last few months have probably felt like a pressure cooker. Since late 2025, the emails have been arriving — migration timelines, new account managers, windows that keep narrowing. You've been told the Electronic File Purchase portal is closing permanently, that compliance updates will stop, and that 31 December 2026 is the hard sunset date.
That part is true. FilePro is ending, and every firm running it needs to move. But here is the thing nobody seems to be saying loudly enough: you do not have to move where you are being pointed.
Are you choosing your next system — or being funnelled toward one?
I've spoken to dozens of FilePro firms over the past few months, and the story is almost always the same. The emails started arriving late last year. Account managers changed — sometimes more than once. Migration windows were offered for September and October 2026, which sounds like plenty of time until you realise how much preparation goes into moving a law firm's entire practice management system.
Many firms feel like they're being pointed at a single option. And when you're under deadline pressure, it's tempting to sign and get it sorted. I'd encourage you not to do that. Not yet.
Why I'm writing this
My name is Kelly Mills, and I've been working in Australian legal software since 1998. Fifteen of those years were spent inside FilePro — as a technician, an eastern states agent, and a state manager. I know the system inside out. I know the data structures, the trust accounting, the document templates, the way firms have built their workflows around it over decades.
I now lead the support team at Law Support Australia, and we build and support Law App — a cloud-based legal practice management platform built entirely in Australia.
I'm not writing this to tell you what to do. I'm writing it because I've been on the inside of FilePro long enough to know what these firms care about — per-file pricing, general accounting in one place, real Australian support — and because I've watched enough of them get rushed into contracts they didn't fully understand to know how badly that ends.
The decision you make in the next few months will affect your firm for years. It deserves more than a rushed signature on a contract you haven't fully thought through.
What to look for in a FilePro replacement
After fifteen years inside FilePro, I know exactly what matters to the firms that use it. These are the questions I would be asking any potential replacement platform — and asking for the answers in writing, not on a sales call.
This is the big one. FilePro firms are used to having their general accounting inside the same system. Many modern platforms don't offer this — they'll ask you to bolt on Xero or MYOB as a separate subscription. That means two systems, two logins, two sets of data to reconcile every month. If you're coming from FilePro, that's a step backwards, not forwards.
File fee on-charging is something FilePro firms understand well. The cost of running a file should be recoverable as a disbursement — not buried in your overheads. Make sure your new platform supports per-file pricing natively, not as a workaround.
You want to pick up the phone and speak to a real person who understands Australian trust accounting, Australian compliance, and Australian legal practice. Not a chatbot. Not a ticket queue offshore. The same people, every time, is a better answer than "we have an Australian office."
Your data has history. Your templates have been refined over years. Your trust accounting has its own logic. Migrating isn't just about moving files — it's about someone understanding what they're moving and why it matters. If the people doing your migration have never opened FilePro, that risk lands on you.
FilePro never locked firms in. You stayed because the system worked and the support team answered the phone — not because you'd be sued for leaving. That model has been replaced. Three-year contracts, often prepaid or financed, are now the industry default at LEAP and Smokeball. Shorter-term options, when offered at all, are usually priced so unfavourably that a 36-month commitment looks like the only sensible choice — some firms end up financing prepaid software the way you would finance a car. Ask any vendor why a flexible client relationship needs three years up front, and what they're so worried clients might do if they were free to leave. Law App is single-year contracts. No prepayment, no financing, no exit penalties. We earn the renewal every year — which is precisely the discipline that lock-in removes.
The fork in the road
The single most important difference between the available migration paths comes down to how you pay for the software — and whether your accounting lives in the same system or in a separate subscription.
Per user, per month — accounting bolted on
Bill grows with headcount. Three-year lock-in is common. General accounting requires a separate Xero or MYOB subscription. Two systems to keep reconciled every month. Implementation costs run into the tens of thousands before you go live.
Per file opened — accounting built in
One file, one charge — recoverable on the file as a disbursement. Single year contracts. Full general accounting included in the platform, not bolted on. One system, one source of truth, one monthly reconciliation. Australian-built, Australian-supported.
FilePro was per-file pricing. Of all the platforms available to FilePro firms right now, Law App is the only one that matches that model. Every other alternative charges per user per month.
What we built at Law Support Australia
Law App was built to be everything in one place. Full trust accounting compliant with every Australian state. Full general accounting — not an integration, not a bolt-on. Billing, time recording (including Quick Time), document generation, matter management, inbuilt searches, InfoTrack integration, and Peppol-compliant eInvoicing. All of it, in one system, on Microsoft Azure Australia East — your data stays in Australia, always.
We price per file opened, not per user per month. That means you can have as many staff logged in as you need, and the cost of the file can be on-charged directly to the client as a disbursement. For firms of any size, that changes the economics completely. The software pays for itself.
And because of my background, we understand FilePro data. We can help you plan your migration properly — not just technically, but practically. What to keep, what to archive, how to handle your legacy data, and how to make the transition without losing what matters. Law Support Australia also built the first bulk document extraction tool in the Australian legal market — used by FilePro consultants, SILQ Infinity consultants, and ActionStep consultants alike. Your data is in expert hands.
We've put together a full feature-by-feature comparison of Law App against your FilePro migration options — including ActionStep — with an honest, audit-ready breakdown.
Choose right, not just choose fast
FilePro reaches end of life. Compliance updates cease. The Electronic File Purchase portal closes permanently. Several hundred Australian law firms must complete a migration before this date. There are no extensions and no exceptions.
The deadline is real, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't. But you still have time to make the right decision rather than a rushed one. Talk to more than one vendor. Ask the hard questions. Look at the contract terms, not just the demo. And if something doesn't feel right, trust that instinct — you know your firm better than any salesperson does.
ActionStep's migration windows for September and October 2026 are filling fast. Once they fill, firms left behind get pushed into November and December — close to the sunset date, with very little margin if anything goes wrong. Whichever path you choose, lock in your migration window early, and build in time for parallel-running, data verification, and staff training before cut-over.
If you're a FilePro firm weighing up your options, I'd genuinely love to have a conversation. No pressure, no hard sell — just an honest chat about what you need and whether Law App might be the right fit. I've spent twenty-seven years in your world. I'd be happy to help you find the right way out of it.
- FilePro end-of-life — 31 December 2026, ActionStep acquisition announcement and customer notifications
- FilePro firm count — "several hundred Australian law firms"; ActionStep's own acquisition announcement referenced "over 400+ Australian law firms"
- ActionStep migration window scheduling — confirmed in Q1 2026 client communications to FilePro firms
- Law App per-file pricing model and full general accounting feature set: lawsupport.com.au/pricing
- FilePro alternative comparison: /resources/filepro-alternative-australia.html