Thread V3 Release Notes 24th February 2025

Thread V3 Release Notes 24th February 2025

Release Highlights

New User Interface 

  1. Streamlined interface for ease of use, with fewer clicks. 
  2. New ‘To Do’ section, combining outstanding tasks, phone calls and documents for review. One easy place to plan and complete your workload.  
  3. More focused and intuitive layout, so that you can always find the information that you need.  
  4. Designed with accessibility in mind – built using WCAG 2 design principles.  

New ‘Matter’ 

  1. 'Files' have now become 'Matters', with a number of new features to make completing matters easier than ever! 
  2. Improved document preview functionality, so that you can view a document’s contents at a glance. 
  3. Improved document management, allowing you to assign a document to one or multiple users. 
  4. New Folder design, to make it easier to group and sort documents. 
  5. Email Folders now available within the Emails section of a Matter. 
  6. New ‘Kanban’ view within the Matter Tasks section, so that you can visualise and streamline your workflow.  

New Call Log 

  1. Track your conversation history with a Contact, not just individual calls. 
  2. Log time straight from the call record.
  3. Create tasks for calls to action any follow up required.

New Time Functionality 

  1. Log multiple time entries against a single item e.g. document or phone call, so you can see exactly how time has been spent.
  2. Record time using a timer when on a call, working on a task, creating a document etc.  
  3. New ‘Time History’ – view and edit an individual’s time across all matters for a specific, day, week or month.
  4. Billable vs Non-billable - differentiate between time logged and time that needs to be included in a bill on any time entry.

New Reporting Engine  

  1. New reporting suite focused on what you need most and including links to matters for more details.
  2. Financial and management reports to provide a full overview of a firm’s workload and billing. 

What Changed?

Dashboard

  1. Search - moved to the top of the left navigation menu
  2. Pie charts - removed
  3. Calendar - located in top right widget available across Thread
  4. 'Inbox' - renamed to 'My Mail' and moved to the navigation menu
  5. Quick Create button - now located at the bottom of the navigation menu
  6. Navigation menu - re-ordered (see below) and icons also clickable when minimised 
  7. User avatar (your initials/profile picture) - moved to the navigation menu
  8. User avatar - 'Info' moved to 'Personal Settings'
  9. Thread Assist - moved to within User avatar
  10. AI Assistant - moved to within User avatar
  11. Product Ideas - moved to within 'Thread Assist'

  1. 'Files' - renamed to 'Matters'
  2. 'Pending Docs' - moved to within To-do list and renamed to 'Document review'
  3. Key Dates - moved to Additional
  4. Contacts - moved to Additional
  5. Companies - moved to Additional
  6. Wills - moved to within Vault
  7. Deeds - moved to within Vault
  8. 'Phone Messages' - moved to within To-do list and renamed to 'Call logs'
  9. Reports - moved to reports icon at the bottom
  10. Expenses - moved to within 'Financial'
  11. Scanned Items - moved to Additional
  12. Tasks - moved to within To-do list
  13. Bills - moved to within 'Financial'
  14. Unassigned emails - moved to Additional
  15. Calendars - moved to Additional
  16. Undertakings - moved to within Vault
  17. General Document - moved to Additional

  1. User Hub - all items moved to within Settings cog icon at the bottom of the menu
  2. Template Desk - moved to within Settings cog icon at the bottom of the menu

User Hub (Admin Settings)

Menu changes
The 'User Hub' has been split to show admin settings sub-menus when you click on the Settings cog icon at the bottom of the navigation menu, while 'User Hub' is now listed as the 'Team Management' sub-menu where you will find Roles & Permissions, Users, and Audit logs.

In V2:
User Hub used to include: Admin settings, User management, Role management, and Audit logs.
Admin settings included: General, Files, System and Integrations submenus.

In V3:
Settings includes General, Matters, System, Team Management, Template Desk and Integrations
 - Team Management includes Roles & Permissions, Users, and Audit logs
 * Custom fields remain in the Template Desk

  1. 'Group Activity' - renamed to 'Document Folders'
  2. 'Filecode Pattern' - renamed to 'Matter Code Pattern'
  3. 'VAT Rate' - renamed to 'Tax Rate'
  4. 'Activity Status' - renamed to 'Document Status'
  5. 'Activity Type' - renamed to Document Type'
  6. 'Phone Message Settings' - renamed to 'Call Log Settings'
  7. 'Time Settings' - new sub-menu item added under System sub-menu
  8. 'Time Rounding Unit' - moved to System > Time Settings
  9. 'Use Global Billing' - removed

Added functionality:
  1. Time recording mode - within Time Settings; choose time recording mode for all users in your firm as automatic, manual or off (see more details on Time Settings)
  2. Mandatory Start/End time - within Time Settings; toggle on to not allow users to add time records without the start and end time.
  3. Time type - specify if time types are billable

Tasks

All your Tasks can now be located in 'To-do list' on the navigation menu. Tasks can be allocated to a matter stage within a matter, and be viewed by stage, status, priority or assignee in a kanban board or list. You can create tasks for specific items with a link to that item, e.g. a task to follow up on a sent or received email, call log, appointment etc. See Tasks for more details.

Document Review (Pending Docs)

Pending docs are now 'Document review' tasks located in To-do list on the navigation menu. Documents can have multiple assignees, and any document assigned to users will show in the Document review tab. Document status can be updated within the task or simply within the Documents tab within a matter. Documents for review will no longer rely on the status you give to a document but only show in the list if the document is assigned to a user, ensuring you only see relevant documents assigned to you. See Document review for more details.

Notes
All your current documents showing in the Pending docs, that have a status assigned to notify you, will now show as a document review task.

Call logs (Phone Messages)

Phone messages are renamed to Call logs, with expanded functionality, such as giving it a priority, linking calls to view the conversation history, and creating follow up tasks. Please see Call logs for more details.

Matter layout

A matter is now divided into tabs that can easily be accessed from the top of the matter.
  1. 'Overview' tab is the new 'Summary' page with added features such as upcoming dates, and ability to view and email matter contacts directly from there.
  2. All your matter documents and notes are located in the Documents tab. You will still see any existing emails here, while all future emails will only be in the Emails tab.
  3. Any matter emails from now on will only remain in the Emails tab, from where you can organise them into folders and log time spent working on them.
  4. You can now clone any existing bundle within the Bundles tab and include any email from the matter inbox to a bundle while in the editor.
  5. You now have Call log tab available within a matter to keep track of any phone conversation with a client or matter contacts.
  6. Tasks are more organised than ever, allowing you to group them, view only your tasks in Me mode, or view tasks in kanban board.
  7. Financial area of a matter includes time, expenses, bills, payments, client accounts and financial settings for the matter.
  8. All matter appointments and key dates can be managed in the Events tab, with a matter calendar view available.
  9. Set up the matter permissions, view audit log and choose your new email notifications preference in the Settings tab.

Time Tracking

Your Thread timer is no longer showing within the matter and is instead linked to specific actions such as documents, emails, call logs, tasks and matter notes.
  1. If you are using automatic time recording, your time will automatically record when working on those items, and time will save automatically to the matter Time tab, as well as your daily time sheet, where you can review it throughout your day.
  2. If you are using manual time recording mode, you can start timer on specific items when needed, or simply add a new time record manually. You will also get prompts after completing an action to remind you to add your time record.
  3. Perhaps you don't need to use timers, and will only log time entries where needed, or not at all. You can choose your time recording mode to be Off in your personal settings and simply add time records for any item where needed, if any.
All time records on Thread will show in a matter that it is linked to, and you will also be able to view them in Time History page.

Alert
All your existing time will show as a 'billable' time type. To set your time types as 'billable' or 'non-billable' go to your time type admin settings.


Outlook Add-in
When saving emails to Thread using Outlook add-in, your emails will now be saved directly to the Emails tab of a matter, while email attachments can still be saved to the matter Documents tab as well. See Thread for Email Outlook Add-in for more details.

Reports

Some V2 reports have been replaced with new and improved reports, and more added. 
  1. Management reports
     - Keep track of how your firm is progressing with matters, which matters have not been actioned in a while, how are matters distributed across your team and which matters bring you the most value. Quickly find any matters where you are missing a primary client.
  2. Financial reports
     - See all matter balances, bills issued, payments received, and cheque requisitions. Keep track of your client account transactions and balances. View NCF report (where applicable.
  3. User reports - Check all billable time across users, matters and clients, or filter by specific client or matter. View expenses logged, undertakings added, your own timesheets or all users' time on matters in your name. Find a list of all your clients' main details, and check if they are AML verified.

Notes
Please contact support@threadsoftware.com for any questions or assistance.
Find more exciting features coming in next phases of the release on Thread product ideas page, where you can also vote for existing ideas or submit your suggestions.



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