Resource Type: Success Kit

What is “Unity?”

The AI-Native Legal Solution for Seamless End-to-End Legal Operations

Unity is an AI-native legal operations framework that empowers legal teams with automation, analytics and strategic control over legal spend, compliance, contracts, and risk.

How Does Unity Differ from SimpleLegal?

Unity builds on the same trusted foundation as SimpleLegal—your core matter management, e-billing, vendor collaboration, and spend management functionality remains intact. The workflows and capabilities your team relies on today continue to exist within the Unity framework.

What’s new is the platform’s AI-native architecture and expanded functionality. Unity is designed to support intelligent automation, enhanced insights, and ongoing innovation—enabling new features and capabilities that were not previously available in SimpleLegal. In short, Unity preserves what works today while unlocking the ability to scale, automate, and evolve your legal operations for the future.

What is “Activation”?

As you expand your use of Onit with Unity, Activation marks the beginning of a seamless next phase—designed to align with your team’s evolving needs and future growth. Unity is Onit’s AI-native legal operations suite, unifying matter management, e-billing, vendor collaboration, and spend oversight into one scalable platform built for the future of enterprise legal.

Activation to the Unity Framework jump-starts your transition to AI-native Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) by embedding industry best-practice configurations from day one—so you can spend less time planning and more time delivering value. Rather than a system migration, Activation is a seamless upgrade of your existing SimpleLegal environment to the new Unity framework, providing a proven foundation while preserving the flexibility to customize and scale as your needs evolve.

What is the activation process?

The Activation process is designed to give your team time, visibility, and support as you transition to Unity—without disrupting your current workflows.

What Happens to CounselGO?

There are no changes to CounselGO as part of Activation. Your vendors will continue to submit invoices and collaborate through CounselGO in the same way they do today. There is no disruption to the vendor experience, no new submission process, and no additional action required from your firms. Activation to Unity does not impact how invoices are submitted or processed through CounselGO.

What Is Required from SimpleLegal Users?

To ensure a smooth and successful transition to Unity, we ask that your team take a few key steps during the Activation process:

1. Review Activation Materials

Carefully read through all Activation communications and resources provided to your administrative users, as well as the materials included in this Success Kit. These resources outline important timelines, expectations, and guidance for the transition.

2. Communicate Early with Your Team

Notify your broader team about the upcoming transition as early as possible. Proactive communication helps set expectations and minimizes disruption. A change management communication template is included below for your convenience.

3. Share Training Resources

While the Unity interface is intuitive and designed to feel familiar, we strongly recommend sharing the available training materials and resources with your team. Preparing users in advance will help ensure confidence and continuity once Unity Production is live.

4. Reach Out with Questions

If you have any questions or need additional support at any point during Activation, please contact our Support team, your Customer Success Manager, or your Account Manager. We’re here to help make this transition seamless.

5. No Technical Set up Required

You do not need to take any technical action for Activation to occur. On your scheduled Activation date, your system will automatically transition to Unity, and Onit will manage the move behind the scenes to ensure a smooth and seamless experience. Your Activation date and new Unity URL will be communicated directly to your administrative users in advance so your team knows exactly what to expect. Until then, you can continue working as usual.

Product Training and Enablement

To help your team prepare for the transition, we recommend sharing the Unity training resources in advance. These cover the updated interface, key navigation changes, and tips for getting started. 

Helpful Links

Unity Quick Start Guide
Navigating Unity ELM
Accessing Unity ELM
Ask Unity User Guide

Email Whitelisting Guidance

To ensure you receive all Activation and Unity-related communications, please ask your IT or email administrator to safelist Onit email domains and addresses. We recommend whitelisting the following:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
and [email protected]

Unity Activation and Product Overview Session

For teams that prefer a guided walkthrough, Onit is offering an educational session covering Unity activation, key updates, and what’s changing (and what’s not), followed by live Q&A.

Unity & SimpleLegal Implementation Communications Guide

Communication is critical to a successful activation. To best support your internal teams and vendors during the rollout of Unity, below is a template designed to guide awareness, adoption, and readiness.

This  template is intended to be flexible starting points. You are encouraged to tailor the language, timing, and details to reflect your organization’s voice and internal process. Clear, consistent communication will help ensure a smooth transition, minimize confusion, and set expectations ahead of go-live.

How to Use the Template

1. Identify the appropriate template(s) based on your audience (internal teams or vendors).
2. Copy and paste the selected email template into your preferred email system.
3. Populate any placeholder fields (e.g., [COMPANY], [go-live date], [project sponsor]) and adjust the content as needed.
4. Review the recipient list indicated in the To field and send the email using your preferred email system.
5. Best practice: When sending to a large distribution list, send the email to yourself and Bcc all recipients.

Internal Team Email Template

Updated Subprocessors for Unity

 As part of the Unity platform and its AI-powered capabilities, new subprocessors are used to support Spend Agent and Unity e-Billing functionality. These subprocessors are listed in Table 3 on Onit’s Sub-processors page: https://www.onit.com/sub-processors/

Unity includes AI-powered features, and the applicable terms are outlined in Sections 4.6 and 12 of the Terms of Service, as well as in the Product Terms for Spend Agent and Unity e-Billing.

For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the official sub-processors page linked above. If you have any questions about the additional sub processors or the use AI, please reach out to your CSM.

Commonly Asked Questions (Q&A)

Q: What makes Unity different from heritage Onit interfaces?
A: Unity introduces an AI-native, modern UI that unifies all Onit solutions—such as SimpleLegal, ContractWorks, ReadySign, CounselGO, and more—into a cohesive, scalable framework. This technical foundation allows us to continuously adapt, enhance, and update our solutions with greater speed and consistency across platforms.

Q: How does Onit ensure I’m not just activated, but adopted successfully?
A: Onit’s success model includes continuous Customer Success engagement, community programs, customer advisory boards, roundtables, and feedback loops under the OnitCX umbrella.

Q: How can I extend Unity to meet unique workflow needs?
A: Use Unity’s Workflow App Studio for out-of-the-box workflows or build custom automations with no code. Enhance operations further using AI Agent Studio.

Q: Where do I find training materials and release updates?
A: Head to the Resource Center. Stay informed via Onit’s blog and newsroom.

Q: What is Spend Agent, and why does it matter?
A: Spend Agent is an AI-native invoice review tool embedded in Unity. It automatically validates invoices against your guidelines, offers explainable AI feedback, speeds approvals, and strengthens vendor relations.

You are accountable for clean matters, accurate invoices, and defensible records. Your day is full of reviews, approvals, and questions that do not wait. Is this invoice within budget. Which open matters still have accruals that need to be captured for this month. Are these rates correct. Does this contract say what the business thinks it says.

Onit’s Q4 2025 product launch is built with those exact questions in mind. In practical terms, this quarter’s launch focuses on surfacing answers to those questions inside the workflows you already know and trust, backed by the legal expertise and breadth of Onit’s portfolio.

Budget awareness and dashboard enhancements

Turn invoice review into explainable automation. Spend Agent applies legal-specific AI to every invoice, making actions visible, automation configurable by vendor, summaries clear, guideline management simple, and savings trends transparent to Finance.

Key highlights: See the story of each invoice in seconds. At a glance, AI summaries and line level “Spend Agent Insight” notes help approvers act quickly and confidently, with clear guideline references firms can understand and address.

• Control where AI acts and how assertively. Vendor level Auto, Sentry, and Off settings let you align automation with your risk tolerance and firm readiness, with a complete audit trail for every change.
• Keep billing guidelines in sync with the business. Bulk upload and update across firms keeps enforcement aligned with new panels and rate agreements, while letting you fix only the entries that fail validation.
• Prove and defend savings to Finance. A focused Spend Agent dashboard view quantifies reviewed invoices, accepted reductions, and savings trends and highlights outlier invoices that drive leakage.

Spend Agent gives legal teams proof, not promise. Every review is faster, every decision traceable, and every dollar easier to defend.

Matter-level accruals and duplicate detection

Turn manual checks into reliable automation. Teams track accruals at the matter level for better forecasting and alignment with Finance. Reviewers get immediate duplicate alerts on invoices to prevent overpayments and speed approvals.

Matter-level accruals
Accruals are now visible within each matter’s financial tab. Teams can see unbilled estimates alongside approved invoices, removing manual tracking and reducing reporting friction. This enhancement introduces a new view of accruals, giving users clarity at the matter level rather than at the vendor level.

Duplicate detection
Stop duplicates before approval. Reviewers see in-line alerts on the invoice page when invoices or line items overlap, which reduces overpayments, shortens reviews, and improves billing accuracy without extra clicks.

Key highlights

• Access unbilled accruals in each matter for cleaner forecasting and faster reconciliation.
• Catch duplicate invoices and line items during review to prevent double payment.
• Accelerate month-end close with accurate, audit-ready data that Finance can trust.

Together, these updates eliminate repetitive manual work, create a single source of truth for spend, and give teams the confidence to close quickly with accurate data.

These enhancements bring accruals into the matter record and flag duplicates during review, so you get cleaner data and fewer surprises. They reinforce SimpleLegal’s commitment to practical automation.

Self-service user management and blocking controls

Put access control in the hands of your admins. Reduce support tickets, control access, and keep your directory clean with simple self-service actions in EBILLING.SPACE.

Key highlights

• Disable and reactivate staff users, so inactive accounts can no longer log in
• Delete staff users with no activity history to keep user lists clean
• Block lawyers, law firms, and staff users so they cannot be added to matters, invoices, or line items while still appearing in search and reports for audit purposes

These updates help legal operations maintain a cleaner, more controlled eBilling environment with less manual intervention and fewer access risks.

Smart mapping enhancement

ReviewAI now integrates more deeply with OnitX CLM with the introduction of Smart Mapping. ReviewAI can now populate extracted text-based contract terms directly into structured OnitX CLM fields.

Key highlights

• Contract clauses and key terms automatically appear in OnitX CLM data fields after review
• Playbook logic and approval rules apply more consistently across users
• Accurate, structured contract data supports stronger analytics and reporting
• Built for legal teams, scaling contract review across multiple business units

These updates turn manual term capture into reliable automation. Teams enforce approvals with precision, accelerate cycle times, and trust the data driving their legal operations

Vendor governance | client-initiated onboarding and rate card validation

Turn manual vendor and rate checks into reliable automation. Legal teams start vendor onboarding in the Vendor App and standardize timekeeper rates with rate cards, so activation moves faster and approvals stay consistent.

Client-initiated vendor onboarding
Clients can now start vendor onboarding requests in the OnitX ELM vendor app. The process includes required fields, duplicate checks, and status visibility. Vendor support completes final setup to ensure data integrity and compliance.

Clients launch requests directly in OnitX ELM BillingPoint with required fields, duplicate checks, and status tracking. Vendor Support completes setup to protect data quality and compliance.

Timekeeper rate cards
Vendors upload standardized rate sheets aligned to client classifications and matter context. The system validates incoming timekeeper submissions against the approved card and flags exceptions for review. Most in-policy submissions auto-approve.

Key highlights

• Accelerate vendor activation with guided intake workflows
• Maintain consistency and reduce manual rate verification
• Gain transparent, auditable insight into rate and vendor data
• Ensures data consistency and compliance while reducing administrative delays

These enhancements help legal teams onboard vendors faster, maintain rate accuracy, and ensure every relationship operates within clear and compliant financial parameters.

AI Contract extract | folder-level tag template association

Automate metadata where files live using AiCE. Map tag templates to folders, so new documents arrive with the right fields, improving AI extraction, discovery, and analytics.

Key highlights

• Configure in folder settings or during creation
• Bulk actions apply templates across many folders at once
• Visual cues identify folders with automated tagging
• Designed for teams scaling contract repositories and governance Uniform tagging enables accurate AI extraction and produces structured data that speeds search, strengthens reporting, and supports compliance at scale.

Why it matters

Legal, finance, and procurement teams share the same goal: accuracy and control. These enhancements improve data reliability, speed decision-making, and make legal operations measurable and transparent.

Onit’s Q4 2025 Product Launch Enhancements help legal departments like yours operate with clarity, consistency, and accountability.

Resources

Spend Agent

• Spend Agent overview datasheet
• Spend Agent release notes
• Spend Agent user guide

SimpleLegal enhancements

• SimpleLegal overview datasheet
• SimpleLegal release notes

ReviewAI smart mapping

• ReviewAI release notes

OnitX ELM enhancements

• Timekeeper rate card support user guide
• Timekeeper rate card support release notes
• Vendor Onboarding user guide
• Vendor onboarding release notes

ContractWorks AiCE

• ContractWorks AiCE datasheet
• ContractWorks AiCE user guide
• ContractWorks AiCE release note

Welcome to Faster, Simpler Timekeeper Submissions

CounselGO’s latest enhancements make it easier than ever for vendors and law firms to submit, edit, and track timekeeper information.

With improvements like a dedicated Rates tab, multi-timekeeper bulk entry, clearer visibility into submissions, and feedback on rejections, CounselGo users can streamline workflows, reduce errors, and accelerate client approvals.

Helpful Resources

Best Practices

• Use the new bulk upload option to add multiple timekeepers rates at once.
• Double-check submissions for errors before final review.
• Review feedback on rejected rates to quickly address issues and resubmit.
• Use inline edits to update timekeeper information like classification, name, etc without starting over.
• Keep profiles up to date to avoid billing or invoicing mismatches later.

FAQs

Q: What’s the new Rates tab?
A: The new Rates tab separates rate information from other timekeeper details for easier entry and review.

Q: Can I upload multiple timekeepers at once?
A: Yes! Use the web form, Excel, or CSV file to bulk upload multiple timekeepers and rates.

Q: How will I know if a rate is rejected?
A: You’ll now see detailed feedback, including rejection reasons, within your submitted timekeeper view.

Helpful Links

• [email protected]

Welcome to a Smarter Way to Manage Timekeepers

Timekeeper management just got easier, faster, and more accurate with SimpleLegal’s new Timekeeper Profile enhancements!

Now, you can centralize timekeeper information, streamline approvals with an improved rate submission workflow, and add multiple rates per timekeeper — giving your legal and finance teams full visibility into every timekeeper and their rate history.

With fewer manual steps and more built-in transparency, your teams can move faster, reduce errors, and ensure billing accuracy with ease.

Helpful Resources

Best Practices

• Review submitted rates carefully using the new streamlined user interface.
• Take advantage of bulk approval and rejection options for faster processing.
• Document rejection reasons clearly for vendor collaboration and transparency.
• Regularly audit your timekeeper records using the built-in history view.

FAQs

Q: Can I view multiple rates for the same timekeeper?
A: Yes! Each timekeeper profile can track multiple historical rates — giving you complete visibility over time.

Q: How do I see rate history for a timekeeper?
A: Each profile includes a full audit trail showing all submitted, approved, and rejected rates.

Q: Can vendors update submitted information without starting over?
A: Yes. Vendors can now edit specific fields without needing to resubmit everything.

Helpful Links

• [email protected]

Release Notes

• https://zendesk.simplelegal.com/hc/en-us/articles/31889060736279