How a Swedish law firm cuts a 130,000 kr licence by owning its case system
The case tool’s yearly bill had reached 130,000 kr. Instead of renewing, a Swedish law firm is moving to its own case system and CRM, built with Kapsel. Here is the business case and how we build it.
The bill that started it
The firm ran its cases in a general-purpose workflow tool. It worked well, but the latest invoice landed at about 130,000 kr for a single year, with a renewal due in March. The tool also knew nothing about legal work, and the data sat on servers in the US.
So the question changed from “which tool should we pay for?” to “why are we renting this at all?”
The business case
- Licence cost: about 130,000 kr per year, going to zero. A system the firm owns has no seat or licence fee, only hosting.
- Over time: three years at the same price would have been roughly 390,000 kr. That money stays in the firm.
- Kapsel’s cost: the build runs on a fixed monthly subscription, which can be paused once the system is live and nothing new is needed. The licence cost doesn’t come back.
- More than a replacement: the same project delivered invoicing and a client register that the old tool never had.
Invoicing that pays for itself first
We started with invoicing, where the data errors cost the most time. More than 2,000 clients were matched with the accounting system in one go. Lawyers now upload their work report and the invoice is drafted from it, including advance invoices and payment terms. Less admin per invoice, and fewer invoices that bounce because a client record was wrong.
No lead left behind
About half of the firm’s new enquiries come in by phone, around a quarter through the website form and a quarter through an AI chat on the site. Before, each source had its own way in. Now every source creates a case directly in the firm’s own system, so no enquiry depends on someone copying it across.
Built so nobody has to relearn their day
The new case board deliberately looks like the old one, which removes most of the training cost. On top of that come roles (admins, client support and lawyers who only see their own cases), a full history on every case, email notifications, and automatic document requests by case type, such as appeals of Swedish Migration Agency decisions.
How the switch avoids risk
Two people at the firm run the old and new systems side by side during a test period before the renewal date, and history is imported from an export. If anything is missing, it shows up while the old tool is still there.
Questions and answers
Is it cheaper for a law firm to build its own case system than to pay for a licence?
Often, yes. In this case the licence was about 130,000 kr per year. A system the firm owns has no licence fee, and the build can be done on a fixed monthly subscription that is paused once it is live.
What does a law firm get that a generic tool doesn’t offer?
A system built around its own case types, roles and invoicing: invoices from work reports, a client register in sync with the accounting system, and every lead source in one place.
How do you switch without losing anything?
Run old and new in parallel during a test period, import history from an export and switch off the old tool only when nothing is missing.