Looking for an internet court documents business plan? You're in the right place.
A filing service has to answer questions a lender or an investor will raise at once. How much does the platform cost to build, and who pays for it? How many firms must sign before the staff costs are covered? What happens to the numbers when a court changes its system, or when volume comes in a fifth below plan? A template with empty tables won't show what a reasoned answer looks like.
This article walks through a complete sample plan for an e-filing and court-record retrieval service in Minneapolis, section by section, ending with the full financials. Treat it as a worked example of how the pieces connect.
What the plan gives you to work from:
- The executive summary: see how to put a platform business, its fee model and its raise on one page, so a reader knows what is being asked in a minute
- The alternatives table: learn how to describe the options a customer already has without quoting competitor prices you cannot source
- The fee model: find out how per-document fees, subscriptions and retrieval orders combine, and which one carries the business by Year 5
- The filing desk capacity table: check that the staff on payroll can handle the volume in the revenue line, year by year
- The start-up budget and funding: see how a platform build, a reserve and a term loan fit together, with the cash trough called out
- The five-year profit, cash flow and balance sheet: follow how each hire and each price rise shows up in the numbers
- The downside case: have an answer ready when asked what happens if volume is 20% short, with the steps management takes
The business is fictional. Take what fits your own service and change the rest, particularly anything that depends on a particular court's rules.
In this plan
To turn this example into your own internet court documents business plan, use the internet court documents business plan template.
Maple Bay at a Glance
Maple Bay is a Minneapolis company that files court documents electronically for small law firms and orders court records for them. It opens on January 1, 2027 with twenty paying subscribers and about twenty-three pay-as-you-go accounts. Founder Karin Holm owns 65%; two private investors hold the other 35%.
Revenue has three parts: a monthly subscription for each firm, a service fee on every document filed, and a service fee on every record-retrieval or certified-copy order. Court fees themselves pass through at cost and appear nowhere in the figures on this page.
The raise is $710,000: $150,000 of Karin's savings, $360,000 from the two investors and a $200,000 bank term loan. The platform build and equipment take $202,000. Legal work, onboarding fees, a security assessment and the launch campaign take $78,000. The remaining $430,000 stays in the account as a reserve, sized to the downside case in the financial plan.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $689,300 | $1,368,800 | $1,947,700 |
| Net income after start-up costs | ($291,835) | $41,100 | $92,478 |
| Closing cash | $249,875 | $299,130 | $399,584 |
The firm count goes from 20 in January 2027 to 85 in December, 125 a year later and 360 by the end of Year 5. Staff grows from 6 people at the end of Year 1 to 17 at the end of Year 5. Year 1 is a loss because the engineer, the filing desk and the first salesperson are paid before the fee volume arrives. Monthly EBITDA turns positive in September 2027, and every full year from Year 2 on is profitable. Year 5 net income is $320,332, or 9.2% of revenue.
Court e-filing rules, file formats and provider-approval steps differ from court to court and change over time. The plan treats each court connection as something to confirm with that court before building, and to re-test whenever the court changes its requirements. No court rule is stated as fact on this page.
A second run takes 20% off every revenue line. Ten planned hires start six months later, the second senior engineer is never hired, marketing falls 20%, Karin takes a 20% pay cut and the firm stays in its first office. Year 1 and Year 2 are losses in that run and Year 3 is close to break-even at $1,984, but year-end cash never falls below $142,730.
The firm's pitch is narrow. A firm gets one queue for filings across courts, a check against each court's current format before anything is submitted, and a named person at the filing desk when a filing is rejected.
What Maple Bay Files, Fetches and Charges
Legal name: Maple Bay, Inc., a Minnesota corporation. Owners: Karin Holm, 65%; two private investors, 35% combined. Location: a leased office of about 1,100 square feet in Minneapolis, with hybrid work for engineers and support staff. Start date: January 1, 2027. Stage: pre-launch. An outside development team is finishing the platform under a fixed-price contract. Karin's savings pay the deposits before opening, and the full $180,000 contract value is shown in the month-1 column of the start-up budget. Twenty firms have agreed to launch terms, and the lease is in draft.
The three fees
| Fee | How it is set | Year 1 share of revenue | Year 5 share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm subscription | $310 a month on average, from about $150 for a solo practitioner to about $650 for a firm with ten users | 26% | 38% |
| Document filing and service | $11.50 per document filed or served, court fees excluded | 53% | 51% |
| Retrieval and certified-copy orders | $38 per order on average, court copy fees excluded | 21% | 11% |
A subscription pays for the firm portal, user seats, the filing queue, deadline reminders and a link to the firm's case-management software. Accounts without a subscription pay the same per-document fee and use a simpler web form. Such pay-as-you-go accounts, mostly solo attorneys and independent paralegals, number about 23 on opening day, drawn from Karin's contacts and the launch announcement, and about 120 by December 2027.
What Maple Bay does not do
Maple Bay does not decide what is filed or when. The attorney signs each document and answers for every deadline. Whether any part of the service touches the practice of law, and what the terms of service may say about a missed deadline, are questions for Minnesota counsel before launch. The $18,000 legal budget in the start-up costs covers that review.
Rules that differ by court
Courts may differ in what they accept, how files must be named and bookmarked, what they charge, how they confirm receipt and whether filing providers need approval. Any of these can change. Maple Bay's response is structural: where a court publishes specifications, each connection is built to the current version, tested before a firm relies on it and re-tested when the court revises anything. Contract developers on a retainer cover the upkeep. The plan sets $60,000 aside for it in Year 1 and raises that to $80,000 by Year 5 as connections are added. Approval fees and timing may vary by court, and the plan carries only $6,000 of onboarding fees at launch.
What the first two years must show
- 85 paying firms by December 2027, up from 20 on opening day.
- 125 firms and $1,368,800 of revenue in 2028, with a profit after tax.
- A connection to each court system the first signed firms file in, working without manual workarounds.
- Staff of nine by the end of 2028, with the loan repaid on schedule after its twelve interest-only months.
Where Small-Firm Filing Work Comes From
Who files, and what it costs them
The plan targets small practices with steady court work, such as family law, personal injury, criminal defense, landlord and tenant, collections and estates. A filing generally means preparing a PDF to a court's format, submitting it through that court's system, paying a fee, watching for acceptance or rejection and putting the file-stamped copy in the matter file. In many small firms a paralegal or legal assistant does this work. The plan does not quote a count of Minnesota firms or court filings. Court-published filing statistics would size the market, and none were verified for this plan. The firm counts here are Maple Bay's own targets.
What a firm does instead
| Alternative | What it offers | Why a firm uses it | Where Maple Bay differs by design |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filing directly through each court's own system | Direct access where the court offers it; fees and terms vary by court | No vendor fee | One queue across courts, format checks before submission, deadline reminders |
| Filing tools inside case-management software | Filing from the screen where the matter lives | Convenience | Works with any case software, adds retrieval orders and a named filing desk |
| Other commercial filing and service providers | Filing, service of documents and copy ordering | Existing relationships and wider court coverage | Pricing built for firms of 1 to 15 people and a named filing desk |
| In-house filing by a paralegal | Full control | No new vendor | Paralegal hours go back to billable work |
| Runners and process-serving companies | Physical filing, counter requests and copies | In-person courthouse work | Online ordering first, with runner labor kept as a cost line for records that are not online |
The table describes categories and where Maple Bay positions itself against each, in the plan's own view. It is not a ranking, and no competitor prices are quoted because providers revise them often.
SWOT
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| A founder who has run a filing desk | No brand; every firm starts as a stranger |
| Twenty firms on launch terms before opening | Value depends on court connections that Maple Bay does not control |
| Rejection handling by a named person | Year 1 loses money and draws on the reserve |
| Opportunities | Threats |
|---|---|
| Firms moving from paralegal-run filing to a service | A court changing its system and breaking a connection |
| Pay-as-you-go accounts that convert to subscriptions | Case-management vendors adding filing to their products |
| Retrieval orders that bring in firms outside the subscription base | One missed deadline, and the claim that follows |
Inside the Small Law Firm
Three people shape the decision. The managing attorney signs the contract and cares about missed deadlines and client confidentiality. The paralegal does the filing and cares about how many screens each filing takes. The office manager pays the invoice and wants one monthly figure.
What triggers a change
A rejected filing the day before a deadline, a paralegal who leaves and takes the process with them, a first case in a court the firm has never filed in, or a partner who asks why filing fees do not appear on client bills.
What a firm asks of a vendor
Filings reach the court and the firm can prove it. Rejections are caught or fixed fast. Client files stay confidential. The invoice shows court fees and service fees separately and can be matched to a matter number.
Why pay when a court's own system exists
The plan's working figure is ten minutes saved per filing, from format fixes, status tracking and refiling after rejections. At about 21 documents a month that is roughly 3.5 hours for a paralegal. The twenty launch firms test that figure in the first quarter. If the saving is materially lower, pricing is revisited before the main sales push.
How firms behave over time
The plan expects 12% of paying firms to leave each year. Firms that connect their case-management software and use the deadline reminders leave least often, so onboarding concentrates on those two steps. Firms file about 21 documents a month on average in Year 1, rising to 23 by Year 5 as more of their filing moves onto the platform.
From Demo to Signed Firm
Karin runs demos herself through Year 1 and the sales and onboarding lead takes most of them from month 4. A demo lasts 30 minutes. The attorney then approves a test filing on a live matter, an onboarding call follows, the firm's case software is connected and the first live filing goes through within five business days of signing.
Year 1 needs about 71 new subscribing firms on top of the twenty that open the year, to reach 85 after about six leave. Fifteen of the 71 are pay-as-you-go accounts that move to a subscription without a demo. The other 56 come through demos at a 35% close rate, which is roughly 160 demos, or about 13 a month.
| Lead source | New firms in Year 1 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Referrals from existing firms and paralegal contacts | 17 | 24% |
| Search ads and directory listings | 13 | 18% |
| Bar association and CLE sessions | 14 | 20% |
| Outbound calls by the sales lead | 12 | 17% |
| Pay-as-you-go accounts moving to a subscription | 15 | 21% |
Subscriptions are priced by the number of users and the number of connected systems. The $310 average sits in the middle of the range. Fees rise 3% a year from Year 2. Pay-as-you-go accounts sign up on the website with no demo, through the same search ads, association sessions and referrals. They number about 120 by December 2027 after the 15 conversions, and average about 120, 150, 170 and 180 in Years 2 to 5. Each is contacted after its fifth month with an offer to move to a subscription once its monthly volume makes the subscription cheaper.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscribing firms at year end | 85 | 125 | 198 | 282 | 360 |
| New firms won in the year | 71 | 53 | 92 | 113 | 117 |
Year 2 adds fewer firms than Year 3 on purpose. Year 1 includes a burst of early adopters and the conversions, and Year 2 goes to reliability and to the second and third court connections before the main sales push.
Reaching Paralegals and Firm Owners
Year 1 marketing is $100,000: $40,000 of launch spend charged to start-up capital and $60,000 of operating spend. Against the 71 new firms won in the year, that is about $1,400 per firm, or roughly two and a half months of the $550 a month a new firm pays in subscription and filing fees ($310 plus 21 documents at $11.50). Operating marketing rises from $60,000 in Year 1 to $78,000 in Year 2, $100,000 in Year 3 and $110,000 in Year 5. The cost per new firm is about $1,470 in Year 2, $1,090 in Year 3 and $940 in Years 4 and 5, as referrals and repeat association sessions carry more of the load. These figures exclude sales salaries and the founder's time.
| Channel | Year 1 spend | What it is expected to do |
|---|---|---|
| Website, brand and demo materials (launch) | $20,000 | A site with a booking link and a page for each practice area |
| Bar and paralegal association sponsorships (launch) | $12,000 | Introductions in the first quarter |
| Event booth and printed material (launch) | $8,000 | Presence at one regional legal conference |
| Search ads and directory listings | $16,000 | Searches for e-filing help; about 13 firms plus pay-as-you-go sign-ups |
| Association events and sessions | $14,000 | About 14 firms |
| Webinars on filing practice | $8,000 | Registrations that feed the demo calendar |
| Referral credit for firms that introduce another firm | $10,000 | About 17 firms |
| Written guides and case notes from launch firms | $7,000 | Material that answers the first questions a paralegal asks |
| Demo environment and trial data | $5,000 | A sandbox that does not touch a real court |
Milestones: 20 firms in January 2027; 38 by May; 69 by October; 85 and $98,500 of monthly revenue by December.
Inside the Filing Desk
Office and working pattern
A lease of about 1,100 square feet in Minneapolis brings rent of $29,000 and utilities of $3,000 in Year 1. Staff share desks and work from home on set days. Year 4 brings a move to about 1,450 square feet, taking rent to $38,500.
How a filing moves
- The firm uploads a PDF or sends it from its case software.
- Software checks it against the target court's current format rules and returns a list of fixes.
- Roughly one document in five is flagged. A filing specialist reviews those, in about six minutes each.
- The document goes to the court through the connection and Maple Bay logs the time.
- When the court accepts or rejects it, the firm is told. The plan allows for about 3% of filings to be rejected, each taking about 15 minutes to fix and refile. A rejection caused by Maple Bay's error is refiled without a service fee.
- The stamped copy goes into the firm's matter file and the next deadline is added to its calendar.
Retrieval orders follow the same pattern: docket pulls and copies of documents available online are handled in the platform, and records held only at a counter go to a contract copy service. That labor is the main part of the retrieval line's 30% direct cost.
Filing desk capacity
A specialist is counted at 1,450 productive hours a year. Hours needed are flagged-document reviews (20% of documents at six minutes), rejection handling (3% at 15 minutes) and six minutes of preparation for each retrieval order.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Documents filed | 31,500 | 58,500 | 81,600 | 107,400 | 136,600 |
| Orders | 3,840 | 7,000 | 7,800 | 8,500 | 9,000 |
| Hours needed | 1,250 | 2,308 | 3,025 | 3,802 | 4,656 |
| Specialists, year average | 1.42 | 2.08 | 3.00 | 3.25 | 4.00 |
| Hours available | 2,054 | 3,021 | 4,350 | 4,713 | 5,800 |
| Utilization | 61% | 76% | 70% | 81% | 80% |
Utilization stays below 85% because peaks follow court deadlines and a filing that is rejected late in the day needs someone free.
Systems and security
Law firms send privileged material through the platform, so access is limited by role, data is encrypted in storage and in transit and every action is logged. An independent security assessment before launch costs $14,000, and a penetration test and compliance review run each year from Year 2. Larger firms may send their own security questionnaires; the compliance and security lead hired in month 30 answers them. Hosting, payment processing and filing-provider fees are direct costs; development tools, support software and monitoring sit in software subscriptions.
Insurance and licenses
Cyber liability, technology errors and omissions, general liability and workers' compensation cost $22,000 in Year 1 and $42,000 in Year 5. Counsel confirms the corporate and any court-specific registrations before launch. Larger firms may ask for an independent controls report; the plan does not budget for one, and the compliance and security lead from month 30 would scope it.
Vendors
Cloud hosting, a payments processor, a support-desk tool, contract developers for court connections and a copy service for counter requests. Each can be replaced, and the contract developers are the first to be brought in-house if connection upkeep grows.
Karin Holm and the Team
Karin Holm, founder and CEO
Karin has twelve years in litigation support at Minneapolis law firms, the last five as the manager of a filing desk that handled the firm's state and federal filings. She holds a degree in paralegal studies. Her $150,000 is her savings. She is leaving a salaried job to build the service she wished the desk had.
Lead platform engineer
The lead engineer joins at launch with ten years in document-workflow software. Together with the integration engineer from month 18 and a second from month 41, this role owns the court connections.
Where the team is thin
Three gaps stand out. Karin has not built a software company or a sales team, and nobody at launch has run a security audit. The plan answers each in turn: an advisor who has run a software company reviews the roadmap each quarter, the sales lead reports weekly on the demo pipeline, and the compliance and security lead joins in month 30 after an outside firm does the first assessment.
If Karin or the engineer is out
Both are single points of failure. Code and connection notes are documented from the first month, contract developers know the court connections, and key-person life and disability cover on both is bought separately.
Outside help
A Minnesota attorney reviews the terms of service and any practice-of-law questions. An advisor with software experience meets the team every quarter. An outside bookkeeping firm keeps the books.
Ownership and the bank
Karin holds 65% and the two investors 35% combined. The bank's term loan is secured on the firm's assets and Karin's personal guarantee, and it requires quarterly accounts.
Questions a lender will ask
| Question | Answer in the plan |
|---|---|
| What if a court changes its system? | Connections are re-tested on every change, upkeep contractors are retained and cash covers a gap |
| Who bears a missed deadline? | The terms of service allocate it; insurance and counsel's review apply |
| How concentrated is revenue? | Revenue is spread across 85 subscribing firms and about 120 pay-as-you-go accounts by the end of Year 1 |
| Is debt service covered? | Not in Year 1; 2.5x in Year 2 and 3.6x or higher after |
| Which courts are live at launch? | The connections the launch firms need, confirmed with each court before opening; firms filing elsewhere wait until a connection is tested |
| Is a security report available to larger firms? | The pre-launch assessment is; an independent controls report is not budgeted |
| What do the investors hold? | 35% for $360,000, implying about $1.03 million after the money is in; preference terms are for counsel to draft |
The Five-Year Model: Fees, Staff and Cash
A single model sits behind every table in this section. It runs for five years, with Year 1 broken out by month. Each fee, volume and wage appears first, so a total can be followed back to the figure that produced it. Court fees that Maple Bay pays on a firm's behalf are left out of revenue and cost alike.
Building the Platform and Funding the Gap
| Use of funds | Amount |
|---|---|
| Platform build: filing engine, firm portal and court connections | $180,000 |
| Laptops, monitors and secure office network | $22,000 |
| Business registration and court-system onboarding fees | $6,000 |
| Legal: entity, terms of service, privacy and vendor agreements | $18,000 |
| Independent security assessment before launch | $14,000 |
| Launch: website, bar-association sponsorships, demo materials | $40,000 |
| Cash reserve for the payroll gap and court-fee float | $430,000 |
| Total uses | $710,000 |
| Source of funds | Amount |
|---|---|
| Karin Holm's savings | $150,000 |
| Two private investors (35% combined stake) | $360,000 |
| Bank term loan | $200,000 |
| Total sources | $710,000 |
Karin puts in $150,000 and two private investors put in $360,000 for a combined 35% stake, so equity comes to $510,000, or 72% of the $710,000 raised. The stake implies a value of about $1.03 million once the money is in; preference and vesting terms are for counsel to draft. The $200,000 bank term loan runs seven years at a planning rate of 9.75%, interest only for the first twelve months. It rests on a lien over the firm's assets and Karin's personal guarantee, and a lender may ask for a government guarantee given how little tangible collateral a software platform offers. The rate is a planning figure and not a lender quote. The $180,000 platform contract and $22,000 of equipment make $202,000, and the four items expensed at opening make $78,000. The $430,000 reserve covers Year 1 operating cash use of $258,125, the thinnest point (September, about $195,000 after the collection lag) and $30,000 that the firm may advance for court fees before a firm's prefunded balance is topped up; filings that would exceed that limit wait for the top-up. The reserve is sized so that the downside case below still ends every year with cash in hand.
Volumes, Fees and Rules Behind the Model
- Subscriptions average $310 a month in Year 1, from about $150 for a solo practitioner to about $650 for a ten-user firm. Subscribing firms number 20 in January and 85 in December, an average of 48.75, which gives $181,400. Year-end counts are 85, 125, 198, 282 and 360. Those counts are net of 12% annual attrition, so gross new firms are about 71, 53, 92, 113 and 117 in Years 1 to 5. Fees rise 3% a year from Year 2, reaching $349 in Year 5.
- Documents come from two sources. Subscribing firms file 21 a month each in Year 1, then 21, 22, 22 and 23 in Years 2 to 5. Pay-as-you-go accounts, about 23 on opening day and about 120 by December 2027 at roughly 22 documents each, send 500 documents in January and 2,700 in December, 19,200 for the year, then 32,000, 39,000, 44,000 and 48,000 in Years 2 to 5. The account counts are net of the 15 that move to subscriptions in Year 1. Total documents are about 31,500, 58,500, 81,600, 107,400 and 136,600. The service fee is $11.50 in Year 1 and rises 3% a year. Court fees are excluded.
- Retrieval and certified-copy orders number 3,840 in Year 1, climbing from 100 a month in January to 540 in December, and then 7,000, 7,800, 8,500 and 9,000. The service fee averages $38 and rises 3% a year; court copy fees are passed through. Orders come mostly from firms already filing through the platform, so the line grows more slowly than filings.
- Direct costs are set per line at 7% of subscriptions (hosting and support tooling), 14% of filing fees (payment processing, filing-provider transaction fees and quality-control tools) and 30% of retrieval orders (copy-service labor and runner fees). That blend is 15.5% of revenue in Year 1, and the model holds the same percentage in every year. This is a simplification that leans cautious: the retrieval line shrinks as a share of revenue, and applying the three rates to each year's mix would give about $457,000 of Year 5 direct costs against the $543,605 shown. Gross margin is struck before filing-desk labor, which sits in the payroll line.
- Receivables average 12 days. Subscriptions and per-document fees are billed by card or bank debit, and larger firms are invoiced on 15-day terms. Payables to hosting, filing-provider and copy-service vendors average 20 days. Prepaid court-fee balances belong to the firms and are held outside the model. How they are held, and whether any money-transmission or trust-account rule applies, are questions for counsel before launch.
- Each salary carries a 27% load for employer payroll taxes, health contribution, workers' compensation and a retirement match. The salaries in the personnel table are launch-year rates, and 3% raises start in Year 2, charged on a separate line. Karin's $115,000 is inside payroll, so every profit figure is what remains after she has been paid. All 17 roles are full time. Engineering wages after launch are expensed rather than capitalized, which holds profit below what capitalizing some of them would show.
- Capacity is checked against the filing desk. A specialist offers 1,450 productive hours a year. About one document in five needs a six-minute review, about 3% are rejected by a court and take 15 minutes to fix and refile, and each retrieval order needs six minutes of preparation. Utilization is 61%, 76%, 70%, 81% and 80% in Years 1 to 5, and the busiest month, December 2027, needs about 177 hours against about 242 available.
- Rent is priced at about $26 per square foot a year, all in, for roughly 1,100 square feet, which is $29,000 in Year 1, and rises 3% a year to $30,800 in Year 3. The move to about 1,450 square feet in Year 4 takes it to $38,500. Utilities come on top. These are planning rates that a local broker would confirm. Errors-and-omissions and cyber cover is priced at $22,000 in Year 1 and rising to $42,000, because a missed filing is the firm's central risk.
- Court-connection upkeep is $60,000 in Year 1 and rises to $66,000, $72,000, $76,000 and $80,000 as connections are added. It pays contract developers to rebuild and re-test a connection when a court changes its requirements. The first connection is part of the $180,000 platform build. Re-certification and approval fees may vary by court and are not modeled beyond the $6,000 at launch.
- The platform build is capitalized and depreciated over four years, with computers and network equipment on the same life, so depreciation is $50,500 a year in Years 1 to 4 and nil in Year 5. The model taxes the firm as a C corporation at 21% federal and a Minnesota planning rate of 9.8%, which may change. The Year 1 loss offsets later profit in a simplified way, so income tax is nil until Year 4 and $129,206 in Year 5. No distributions are paid in the five years, and the loan runs its full term.
Revenue by Fee Type
| Revenue stream | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firm subscriptions | $181,400 | $402,300 | $637,400 | $975,700 | $1,344,300 |
| Per-document filing and service fees | $362,000 | $692,800 | $996,000 | $1,348,400 | $1,767,600 |
| Document retrieval and certified-copy orders | $145,900 | $273,700 | $314,300 | $352,800 | $385,200 |
| Total revenue | $689,300 | $1,368,800 | $1,947,700 | $2,676,900 | $3,497,100 |
| Growth on prior year | – | 99% | 42% | 37% | 31% |
Filing fees are the largest line in every year, at 53% of revenue in Year 1 and 51% in Year 5. Subscriptions grow from 26% to 38%, and that shift is the plan's aim: a subscription bills every month whether or not a firm files. Retrieval orders grow in dollars but fall from 21% to 11% of revenue. Revenue in Year 2 is 99% above Year 1 because Year 1 includes the climb from 20 to 85 firms; growth then slows to 42%, 37% and 31%.
Month by Month in 2027
| Month | Firm subscriptions | Per-document filing and service fees | Document retrieval and certified-copy orders | Total revenue | EBITDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2027 | $6,200 | $10,600 | $3,800 | $20,600 | ($43,101) |
| Feb 2027 | $7,400 | $13,800 | $5,300 | $26,500 | ($38,118) |
| Mar 2027 | $8,700 | $17,100 | $6,800 | $32,600 | ($32,966) |
| Apr 2027 | $10,200 | $20,600 | $8,400 | $39,200 | ($27,392) |
| May 2027 | $11,800 | $24,100 | $9,900 | $45,800 | ($21,818) |
| Jun 2027 | $13,600 | $27,900 | $11,400 | $52,900 | ($15,822) |
| Jul 2027 | $15,500 | $31,600 | $12,900 | $60,000 | ($9,826) |
| Aug 2027 | $17,400 | $35,400 | $14,400 | $67,200 | ($3,745) |
| Sep 2027 | $19,200 | $39,100 | $16,000 | $74,300 | $2,252 |
| Oct 2027 | $21,400 | $43,100 | $17,500 | $82,000 | $8,755 |
| Nov 2027 | $23,600 | $47,100 | $19,000 | $89,700 | $15,258 |
| Dec 2027 | $26,400 | $51,600 | $20,500 | $98,500 | $22,690 |
Revenue starts at $20,600 in January and reaches $98,500 in December as firms and pay-as-you-go accounts are added each month. EBITDA is negative from January to August and positive from September. Month-end cash is lowest in Sep, at about $195,000, once the 12-day collection lag is counted. Monthly detail is shown for Year 1 only; later years are annual.
Filing Desk, Engineering and Account Staff
| Role | Annual wage | Starts | Year 1 end | Year 2 end | Year 3 end | Year 4 end | Year 5 end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founder and CEO | $115,000 | Month 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Lead platform engineer | $135,000 | Month 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Filing specialist | $52,000 | Month 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Sales and onboarding lead | $68,000 | Month 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Filing specialist (second) | $52,000 | Month 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Client support specialist | $48,000 | Month 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Integration engineer | $120,000 | Month 18 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Account manager | $62,000 | Month 23 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Marketing and partnerships manager | $66,000 | Month 31 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Filing specialist (third) | $52,000 | Month 24 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Compliance and security lead | $100,000 | Month 30 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Client support specialist (second) | $48,000 | Month 35 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Integration engineer (second) | $120,000 | Month 41 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Account executive | $70,000 | Month 36 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Product engineer | $125,000 | Month 44 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Filing specialist (fourth) | $52,000 | Month 46 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Second senior engineer | $130,000 | Month 50 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Total payroll incl. on-costs | $485,987 | $704,427 | $1,027,642 | $1,439,016 | $1,783,292 |
Karin, the lead platform engineer and the first filing specialist are on payroll in January. The sales and onboarding lead starts in month 4, a second filing specialist in month 8 and the first client support specialist in month 11. Hiring then follows volume: an integration engineer in month 18, an account manager in month 23, a third filing specialist in month 24, a compliance and security lead in month 30, a marketing and partnerships manager in month 31, a second support specialist in month 35, an account executive in month 36, a second integration engineer in month 41, a product engineer in month 44, a fourth filing specialist in month 46 and a second senior engineer in month 50. That is 6 people at the end of Year 1, 9 at the end of Year 2, 13 in Year 3, 16 in Year 4 and 17 in Year 5. Every role is full time, and no wage is cut or converted to part-time anywhere in the base case.
Earnings by Year
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $689,300 | $1,368,800 | $1,947,700 | $2,676,900 | $3,497,100 |
| Direct costs (hosting, payments, filing-provider fees, copy-service labor) | ($107,148) | ($212,773) | ($302,760) | ($416,110) | ($543,605) |
| Gross profit | $582,152 | $1,156,027 | $1,644,940 | $2,260,790 | $2,953,495 |
| Payroll incl. on-costs | ($485,987) | ($704,427) | ($1,027,642) | ($1,439,016) | ($1,783,292) |
| Rent | ($29,000) | ($29,900) | ($30,800) | ($38,500) | ($39,700) |
| Utilities | ($3,000) | ($3,100) | ($3,200) | ($3,900) | ($4,000) |
| Marketing | ($60,000) | ($78,000) | ($100,000) | ($106,000) | ($110,000) |
| Insurance | ($22,000) | ($27,000) | ($33,000) | ($38,000) | ($42,000) |
| Professional fees | ($12,000) | ($14,000) | ($16,000) | ($18,000) | ($20,000) |
| Software subscriptions | ($42,000) | ($62,000) | ($88,000) | ($108,000) | ($124,000) |
| Court-system connection upkeep and re-certification contractors | ($60,000) | ($66,000) | ($72,000) | ($76,000) | ($80,000) |
| Annual penetration test and compliance review | $0 | ($14,000) | ($16,000) | ($18,000) | ($19,000) |
| Conferences, bar-association dues and CLE sponsorships | ($6,000) | ($9,000) | ($11,000) | ($12,000) | ($13,000) |
| Phones, supplies and postage | ($4,000) | ($5,500) | ($7,000) | ($8,000) | ($8,500) |
| Equipment replacement and new-hire kit | $0 | ($6,000) | ($9,000) | ($9,000) | ($12,000) |
| Bad debt allowance | ($2,000) | ($6,000) | ($10,000) | ($13,000) | ($15,000) |
| Annual pay raises (3% a year) | $0 | ($21,133) | ($62,583) | ($133,436) | ($223,819) |
| EBITDA | ($143,835) | $109,968 | $158,716 | $239,938 | $459,184 |
| Depreciation | ($50,500) | ($50,500) | ($50,500) | ($50,500) | $0 |
| Interest | ($19,500) | ($18,368) | ($15,737) | ($12,839) | ($9,645) |
| Income tax | $0 | $0 | $0 | ($27,691) | ($129,206) |
| Net income before start-up costs | ($213,835) | $41,100 | $92,478 | $148,908 | $320,332 |
| Start-up costs expensed at opening (legal, licensing, launch marketing) | ($78,000) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Net income after start-up costs | ($291,835) | $41,100 | $92,478 | $148,908 | $320,332 |
Year 1 loses $143,835 at the EBITDA line and $291,835 in net income after $78,000 of start-up costs. Year 2 turns profitable at $41,100 (3.0%), Year 3 earns $92,478 (4.7%) and Year 4 earns $148,908 (5.6%) after the first income tax of $27,691 and a move to a larger office. Year 5 earns $320,332, a net margin of 9.2%, because only one hire starts in the year and the platform is fully depreciated after Year 4. EBITDA margin runs 8.0%, 8.2%, 9.0% and 13.1% in Years 2 to 5. Payroll including pay raises falls from 71% of revenue in Year 1 to 57% in Year 5.
Cash In and Out
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash from operations | ($258,125) | $75,048 | $128,877 | $181,646 | $300,353 |
| Platform build and equipment | ($202,000) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Funding received | $710,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Loan principal repaid | $0 | ($25,792) | ($28,423) | ($31,321) | ($34,515) |
| Owner distributions | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Net change in cash | $249,875 | $49,256 | $100,454 | $150,325 | $265,838 |
| Closing cash | $249,875 | $299,130 | $399,584 | $549,909 | $815,747 |
Closing cash is above zero in every year. The lowest year-end balance is Year 1 at $249,875, and it rises to $815,747 by Year 5. Principal repayment begins in Year 2 at $25,792 and reaches $34,515 in Year 5, leaving $79,949 owing at the end of the plan. No distributions are paid, so cash builds; the Year 5 balance would fund a distribution or an early loan repayment if the owners chose one.
Assets, Debt and Equity
| At year end | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $249,875 | $299,130 | $399,584 | $549,909 | $815,747 |
| Accounts receivable | $22,662 | $45,002 | $64,034 | $88,008 | $114,973 |
| Platform build and equipment (net) | $151,500 | $101,000 | $50,500 | $0 | $0 |
| Total assets | $424,036 | $445,132 | $514,118 | $637,917 | $930,720 |
| Accounts payable (hosting, filing-provider and copy-service vendors) | $5,871 | $11,659 | $16,590 | $22,801 | $29,787 |
| Bank loan | $200,000 | $174,208 | $145,785 | $114,464 | $79,949 |
| Paid-in capital | $510,000 | $510,000 | $510,000 | $510,000 | $510,000 |
| Retained earnings | ($291,835) | ($250,735) | ($158,256) | ($9,348) | $310,985 |
| Total liabilities and equity | $424,036 | $445,132 | $514,118 | $637,917 | $930,720 |
Coverage and Break-Even Points
| Measure | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EBITDA margin | -20.9% | 8.0% | 8.2% | 9.0% | 13.1% |
| Net margin (before start-up costs) | -31.0% | 3.0% | 4.7% | 5.6% | 9.2% |
| Payroll incl. pay raises as share of revenue | 71% | 53% | 56% | 59% | 57% |
| Revenue per full-time equivalent at year end | $114,883 | $152,089 | $149,823 | $167,306 | $205,712 |
| Average monthly revenue | $57,442 | $114,067 | $162,308 | $223,075 | $291,425 |
| Monthly revenue needed to cover operating costs | $71,634 | $103,216 | $146,648 | $199,400 | $246,117 |
| Debt service cover (EBITDA / interest + principal) | -7.4x | 2.5x | 3.6x | 5.4x | 10.4x |
The last two rows of the ratios table compare average monthly revenue with the revenue needed to cover operating costs. Year 1 falls short, at $57,442 against $71,634. Year 2 clears the bar at $114,067 against $103,216, and Year 3 does so at $162,308 against $146,648, a cushion of about 10%. Debt service cover is negative in Year 1, when the firm loses money while paying interest, then 2.5x in Year 2 and 3.6x or higher from Year 3.
If a fifth less volume arrives
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $551,440 | $1,095,040 | $1,558,160 | $2,141,520 | $2,797,680 |
| Net income before start-up costs | ($289,055) | ($46,748) | $1,984 | $20,603 | $124,549 |
| Net income after start-up costs | ($367,055) | ($46,748) | $1,984 | $20,603 | $124,549 |
| Closing cash | $178,012 | $142,730 | $155,511 | $181,082 | $255,132 |
This run takes 20% off every revenue line in every year. Karin's response has five parts: ten planned hires from month 18 onward start six months later, the second senior engineer is never hired, marketing falls 20%, her pay falls from $115,000 to $92,000 and the firm stays in its first office instead of moving in Year 4. Even so, Year 1 equity falls to $142,945, Years 1 and 2 are losses and Year 3 earns only $1,984. Net income is below the base case in every year. Closing cash stays positive and never drops below $142,730, but the cover is thin, and Karin would open the conversation with the bank before the first quarterly covenant test in Year 2 rather than after it.
Sources
- Minnesota Judicial Branch, court website: the place to confirm each state court's current e-filing rules, formats and provider requirements. No rule from it is quoted in this plan.
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, federal court e-filing information: the place to confirm federal filing requirements. No rule from it is quoted in this plan.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Paralegals and legal assistants, Occupational Outlook Handbook: where current paralegal wage data can be checked. The filing specialist wage in this plan is a planning figure, and no BLS number is quoted.
- Minnesota Department of Revenue, corporate franchise tax: the 9.8% state rate in the model is a planning rate. Confirm the current rate and any filing elections with a tax advisor.
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