A custom file and case management system for sectors where the work is case-oriented: law firms and notaries, youth care and youth protection, the social domain, debt counselling, mediation, HR personnel files, legal-financial and fraud investigation. With workflow, e-sign, AI classification and an audit trail that delivers what it promises, built on the rules of your profession rather than those of a generic package.
For organisations where the work is case-oriented, such as a lawyer with client files, a child protection worker with a family, a debt adviser with a plan, or an investigator with a fraud case, the file is not an archive but the workspace itself. That is where work is planned, written, signed, invoiced and accounted for. A case management system is therefore at once case management, document management and collaboration, with the rules of your profession built in: professional secrecy, retention obligations, audit trails and legal bases for special category personal data.
That differs fundamentally from a generic document management environment: a DMS handles version control, OCR and search for individual documents, but it does not know that a deed belongs to a care order or that a debt rescheduling application must be handled within a statutory deadline. A case management system adds the case layer on top: status, deadlines, parties involved, roles, communication and finances, all structured, searchable and demonstrably accountable.
We build these systems to measure for organisations for whom an off-the-shelf package is either too broad or too narrow. Sometimes it is a law firm that finds its own way of working missing in BaseNet or Cleverdesk; sometimes a municipal youth care department that needs a dedicated case environment within case-based working; sometimes a mediator with no room for the overhead of an enterprise suite. In every case, our approach starts from your work process, not from a feature list.
The right level depends on the type of casework, the number of cases running concurrently, the weight of compliance requirements and the extent to which the system also needs to invoice, communicate and integrate with external parties. We advise on this in the first introductory call.
A focused case management system for a solo lawyer, a mediation collective, a debt relief team or a small HR department. Central storage per case, a simple workflow from intake to closure, document versions with e-signing, basic time tracking and an initial client portal for sharing. Enough to move away from loose folders, email threads and spreadsheets, without the overhead of a corporate platform.
The rules of your sector built in: for law and notarial practice, the Wwft intake, professional secrecy, retention in line with the professional body's rules, and integration with the KvK (Chamber of Commerce) and CDR; for youth care and child protection, the statutory deadlines, decision points and integration with Veilig Thuis (the Dutch domestic abuse helpline); for debt assistance, the Wsnp (debt rescheduling) flow, integration with BKR (credit registration) and municipal debt registers; for mediation, the sequence of steps set out in the code of conduct. Including a workflow engine, communication log and a watertight audit trail.
Mission-critical case management for firms and organisations with multiple offices or multiple clients, each of whom gets their own environment. Fully separated tenant data, client portals in your own branding, and integrations with accounting, e-signature providers, payment processors, CRM and the communication layer (email and SMS). Including AI classification of incoming documents, configurable retention and destruction rules per document type, and a formal handover of management to your own IT team.
Regardless of the level, we deliver a number of core components that every case-driven work process needs. We build these as separate modules, so you can scale later without redrawing your architecture.
An honest take: for a small practice doing standard work, an existing package is often faster and cheaper. We only come into the picture when one or more of the patterns below apply to your situation. In the intake, we'll discuss, without obligation, whether custom software is the right route or a lighter alternative.
Professional secrecy, NOvA file-keeping rules, notarial confidentiality, youth care deadlines, the Wgbo (Dutch Medical Treatment Contracts Act), Wwft checks (anti-money laundering) at intake. Standard packages cover one or two of these; getting the whole combination watertight often requires configuration that is cheaper in custom software than in a feature-rich SaaS.
A supervision order follows fixed review points; a Wsnp process has deadlines that must not lapse; mediation follows the MfN code of conduct. Where legal consequences are involved, you want a system that actively warns you, not a passive diary.
You receive judgments, orders, payslips, debt statements or letters every day. Sorting them by hand is work that takes time away from the case. AI classification and OCR do the groundwork, and a person decides when in doubt.
For law firms, debt assistance, youth care and HR: an environment where a client, family member or employee can upload, sign and ask questions. GDPR-compliant, safe for professional secrecy, and free of attachments that end up on a personal tablet.
For firms with several offices, or organisations that offer their system white-label: fully separated tenant data at database level, with central platform functionality. A design choice, not a plugin.
When time recording, case status and invoicing live in separate tools and you match them by hand every month. One system that handles the financial side saves a lot of work and provides better management information.
Which rules, file structures and integrations apply depends heavily on the sector. Here is a selection of the industries for which we have built or advised on case and file management systems in recent years.
Files protected by professional secrecy, with retention periods per file type and time registration that feeds directly into invoicing to the client or the Legal Aid Board (Raad voor Rechtsbijstand). We build Wwft intake, integration with the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) and CDR, e-signing with eIDAS qualified electronic signatures, automatic generation of deeds and drafts from file data, and a watertight audit trail.
For youth care providers, certified institutions and child protection teams, we build family and child files in line with the Youth Act (Jeugdwet): voluntary framework, supervision order (ondertoezichtstelling), guardianship, closed placement, each with its own deadlines and decision points. Includes integration with Veilig Thuis (the Dutch domestic abuse and child abuse advice line) and CORV (municipal messaging), and a strict role-based access model, as files contain special category personal data of minors.
For municipal social domain departments, Wmo counters, school attendance services or social assistance administration, we build dedicated case environments that fit within our broader case management platform. Integrations via StUF and Zaak-API, a file structure conforming to RGBZ, and specific workflows for custom support provisions, assessments or objections and appeals. With privacy governance in line with the requirements of a data protection officer.
For municipal debt advisers and trustees, we build case files covering the full route: intake, stabilisation, amicable settlement, referral to Wsnp (debt rescheduling under the Dutch Debt Rescheduling Act), aftercare. Integrations with BKR (the Credit Registration Office), CJIB (the Central Judicial Collection Agency), the Schuldenknooppunt (debt hub) and municipal benefits systems, plus correspondence templates for creditors and a debt overview that keeps itself up to date as soon as a creditor confirms.
For MfN-registered mediators and family mediators, we build case files in line with the code of conduct: registration, intake per party, mediation agreement, sessions, settlement or termination agreement. With separate mailboxes per case so that one party never accidentally sees the other party's documents, and integration with the Legal Aid Board (Raad voor Rechtsbijstand) for legal aid mediation.
For HR departments, occupational health services and outsourcing providers, we build personnel files with employment contracts, assessments, sickness absence reports, training records and leave administration. Strict role-based access (a line manager does not see what a confidential adviser sees), GDPR-compliant retention per document type, and integrations with payroll and occupational health systems. A separate track covers the sickness absence process under the Gatekeeper Improvement Act (Wet verbetering poortwachter).
For fraud investigators, forensic accountants and compliance teams, we build investigation files with a watertight chain of custody over evidence, statements, financial documents and their own analytical notes. Versions are stored immutably, every access or edit event is recorded in the audit trail, and the export to a judge's or prosecutor's file is reproducible.
Three modules that clients most often want to hear more about in a first conversation. Below is how we build them, and why we sometimes make different choices from a standard package.
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →A no-obligation conversation in which we map out the types of cases, review the compliance requirements (GDPR, professional secrecy, sector-specific legislation) and assess whether custom development is the right choice — or whether an existing package will do. Sometimes we advise the latter; that saves you time and budget.
A working session with your team, plus interviews with day-to-day users and, where relevant, a few clients about how the portal should work for them. We map out the case flow, identify the real pain points (where deadlines slip, where information is scattered, where the audit trail leaks) and record the scope in a first screen flow.
We document the data architecture (Postgres with RBAC, document store on S3-compatible storage with KMS encryption, full-text search and OCR pipeline) and the privacy and security design before we start building. This includes a data classification and, where the scope justifies it, a DPIA. For care or youth-care environments we check against NEN 7510; for legal practices we follow the NOvA guidelines.
A working build every two weeks. The case layer and role-permission model come first, then document management, then workflows, then the client portal, e-signing and AI classification, and finally the integrations. You test along the way, key users test along the way, and for portals we test with real end users wherever possible.
Case files that currently live in your existing system, folders, mailboxes or spreadsheets are migrated in phases: first new cases go into the new system, then historical files follow in a controlled process with OCR, AI classification and metadata enrichment. Your team works in the new environment while the archive is brought in behind the scenes.
A pilot group works in the old and new systems in parallel, differences are resolved, and screens are refined based on feedback. Training sessions for key users, short videos for end users, and go-live with a clear fallback procedure.
After go-live we monitor performance, security and usage. New workflow steps, additional integrations or a new case type are picked up in small continuous-improvement sprints, so your system grows with you.
What sets a case management system apart from an ordinary working environment is that compliance is not a coat of paint but the blueprint itself. We build the rules in so that they cannot be circumvented, not even by accident.
GDPR and special category personal data. A lot of case work involves special category personal data (health, criminal information, data about minors, financial circumstances). For every processing activity we record the lawful basis, restrict access to what is strictly necessary for the role, and maintain a record of processing activities that updates automatically. A Data Protection Officer can run a report without needing a developer.
Professional secrecy. For legal practice, notaries, mediation and healthcare-related cases, we build professional secrecy in as a system property, not as a policy. Encryption keys remain under your control (BYOK), backups are encrypted with the same keys, and access logs are themselves tied to the case. An administrator can see that a case exists, but not what is in it.
Retention obligations. We configure a retention period for each case type. For legal practice these periods range from seven to twenty-five years depending on the work; for youth care, longer periods apply, extending well beyond the child's coming of age; for healthcare, the retention requirement under the Dutch Medical Treatment Contracts Act (Wgbo) applies; and for debt assistance, the requirements of the NVVK. Records are automatically archived at the end of the period, and destruction is controlled and logged.
eIDAS QES and NEN 7510. For documents subject to a statutory written-form requirement, such as deeds and certain settlement agreements, we support qualified electronic signatures (QES) under eIDAS; for regular contracts, the advanced variant (AES). For case management systems with a healthcare link, we align with NEN 7510: explicit logging of access, session time-outs, and BIA classification. For ISO 27001 or NEN 7510 certification, we deliver the technical building blocks plus audit reports.
Our standard stack is deliberately conservative: we choose technologies that we know can carry a case management system for a long time, because retention obligations for some cases run for decades.
Backend on Postgres with RBAC. Postgres is our default database for case management systems: open source, widely supported, with row-level security for multi-tenant separation. The role-based permission model lives in the database itself, not only in application code, so even an ad-hoc query passes through the same access control as an end user.
Frontend in Astro or Next.js. For the case workspace and the client portal we choose Astro or Next.js, depending on the interactivity and SEO requirements of the portal section. For heavy data table screens we use React with TanStack Table; for the client-facing side we deliberately keep things simpler.
Document store on S3-compatible storage with KMS. Documents are held in object storage (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob or an EU-hosted variant). Encryption at rest uses KMS keys that you manage. For on-premises deployments we use MinIO. Versions are stored immutably, with object lock where the retention obligation requires it.
Search, OCR and speech-to-text. For search we use Postgres' tsvector for smaller environments, or OpenSearch or Meilisearch for larger ones. Documents are OCR'd using a combination of Tesseract and cloud OCR. Audio (statements, telephone recordings) is processed by Whisper or a comparable model, on-premises too if the privacy context requires it.
Authentication via SSO and MFA. Single sign-on with your existing identity provider (Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace, Okta, KeyCloak), with MFA mandatory for all staff. For clients using portals, magic links or DigiD; for municipal chain partners, eHerkenning.
The questions we almost always receive in a first conversation.
A no-obligation introductory chat of half an hour. We listen to your case scenarios, ask questions about your compliance and workflow requirements, and give direction you can act on, even if the outcome is that an existing industry package suits you better than custom development. You can find out more about our approach on the web development overview page.
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