BackVault: Real-Time Data Warehousing

Your data. Your infrastructure. Always in sync.

The Problem

Sophisticated enterprises eventually hit a ceiling with any SaaS reporting interface:

  • You need to join and aggregate across entities in ways that go beyond even a powerful search interface
  • You need to combine your legal data with financial systems, HR platforms, or other enterprise data sources
  • You have a BI team that lives in Power BI, Tableau, or SSRS — and they need direct SQL access
  • You own multiple firms and need consolidated reporting across all of them
  • You want a real-time, on-site copy of your data under your own control

Backdocket is a SaaS platform. We can’t hand you the production database — and you wouldn’t want us to. But we can do something better.

BackVault

BackVault keeps a local SQL Server instance — on your infrastructure — synchronized with your live Backdocket data in real time. Think of it as a read-only replica purpose-built for reporting. But unlike a raw database dump, BackVault delivers a reporting-ready data warehouse that mirrors every aspect of your Backdocket configuration:

What You Configure in BackdocketWhat BackVault Creates Locally
A custom field on a claimA new column on the corresponding table — strongly typed, indexed
A custom list on a contactA new table with all configured fields, foreign-keyed to the contact table
A new claim type with custom workflowsTables and relationships reflecting that structure — ready to query

Everything is strongly typed, foreign key constrained, indexed, and denormalized. This isn’t a data export. It’s a living, queryable data warehouse that evolves with your configuration — automatically.


How It Works

  1. Install — BackVault runs as a service on your local infrastructure, connected to a SQL Server instance you control.
  2. Sync — Backdocket pushes changes to your BackVault on a configurable schedule — as frequently as every minute. Organizations with public endpoints can enable webhook-based delivery for sub-second synchronization.
  3. Query — Connect any tool that speaks SQL Server: Power BI, Tableau, SSRS, Crystal Reports, Excel, custom applications, Python, R — anything.
  4. Evolve — When you add fields or lists in Backdocket, BackVault automatically extends the local schema to match. No manual migration. No IT tickets.

Who Uses BackVault

IT Directors & Data Teams

Direct SQL access to every data point in your Backdocket instance. Build dashboards, automate reports, feed data pipelines — with the tools your team already knows. No API rate limits. No CSV exports. No waiting on vendor support to build a custom report.

Managing Partners & Firm Owners

Every metric you need for firm governance — case velocity, financial exposure, staff productivity, intake conversion — available in whatever reporting tool your team prefers. Real-time data, not last week’s export.

Legal Groups & Multi-Firm Organizations

Whether you’re a holding company, a legal network, or a management group overseeing multiple firms — BackVault makes consolidated reporting possible. Each firm runs its own BackVault instance, syncing to a shared reporting infrastructure.

  • Roll up intake performance, settlement velocity, financial exposure, and operational metrics across your entire portfolio
  • Compare firms head-to-head on standardized KPIs
  • Identify underperformers without waiting for individual firms to submit reports
  • Every firm’s data, in one place, updated continuously

No other legal practice management platform can offer this — because none of them have a mechanism to get live, structured data out of their SaaS environment and into your enterprise reporting infrastructure.

Small Firms

Even if you never write a SQL query, BackVault gives you something valuable: a real-time, on-site backup of your entire Backdocket dataset. Your data, on your hardware, always current.


What Makes This Different

It’s a Data Warehouse, Not a Data Dump

Most platforms that offer “data access” give you a CSV export or an API you have to poll and assemble yourself. BackVault delivers a denormalized, indexed, relationally constrained SQL Server database that’s ready for reporting the moment it syncs. No ETL pipeline to build. No schema to reverse-engineer.

It Evolves With Your Configuration

Add a custom field in Backdocket on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, that column exists in your BackVault — typed, indexed, and populated with historical data. Add a custom list, and a new table appears with proper foreign keys. Your data warehouse is never out of date with your platform configuration. No other platform in the legal space does this — not even FileVine’s DataBridge, which shares raw data through Snowflake but doesn’t automatically extend the schema when you customize your platform.

It’s Real-Time — And You Control How Real-Time

Scheduled sync runs as frequently as every minute. Webhook delivery provides sub-second synchronization. You choose the mode that fits your infrastructure. Either way, your local data warehouse reflects your production state continuously — not hours behind, not overnight batches.

It Runs on SQL Server — Not a Specialty Platform

FileVine’s DataBridge requires your organization to purchase and maintain a Snowflake account — a separate vendor, a separate cost, a separate skill set. BackVault targets Microsoft SQL Server, the database your IT team already knows, already runs, and already has tooling for. Every BI tool, every reporting engine, every scripting language connects to SQL Server out of the box.

It’s Yours

The SQL Server instance runs on your infrastructure. Your firewall. Your backup policy. Your access controls. Backdocket never touches it — we only push data to it. You own the hardware, the access, and the analysis. For firms with regulatory or compliance requirements, BackVault provides demonstrable data custody — your data never leaves infrastructure you control.

It’s Included

BackVault is part of the Backdocket platform at $59.99/user/month. No add-on. No premium tier. No per-row sync fees. FileVine’s DataBridge is a separately priced add-on. Clio requires third-party products. Most competitors offer nothing at all.


How BackVault Compares

BackVaultFileVine DataBridgeClioSmartAdvocateOthers
TypeNative data warehouseSnowflake data shareThird-party add-on (SQL for Clio)Direct SQL (on-premise only)CSV exports or nothing
DatabaseSQL ServerSnowflakeSQL Server (via Faster Law)SQL Server (production DB)N/A
Auto schema evolutionYes — custom fields and lists mirror automaticallyNoNoNoNo
Data modelDenormalized, FK constrained, indexedRaw data shareDepends on third partyProduction schemaN/A
Sync latencyAs fast as every minute; sub-second via webhook10–20 minutesVaries by toolLive (it is the database)N/A
Additional vendor requiredNoYes (Snowflake account)Yes (Faster Law license)N/A (on-prem only)N/A
PriceIncludedAdd-on (custom pricing)Third-party license feeIncluded (on-prem only)N/A
BI tool compatibilityUniversal (anything that connects to SQL Server)Snowflake-compatible toolsSQL Server toolsSQL Server toolsN/A
Available in cloud versionYesYesYesNoNo

Technical Details

SpecificationDetail
Target databaseMicrosoft SQL Server (client-provided instance)
Sync modelPush-based, continuous
Scheduled syncConfigurable — as frequently as every minute
Webhook syncSub-second delivery to public endpoints
Schema managementAutomatic — mirrors Backdocket configuration changes
Custom fieldsAdded as typed columns to the appropriate entity table
Custom listsCreated as new tables with foreign key relationships
Data typesStrongly typed (varchar, int, decimal, datetime, bit, etc.)
ConstraintsForeign keys, indexes, denormalized for query performance
Access modelRead-only
Compatible toolsAny SQL Server client — Power BI, Tableau, SSRS, Crystal Reports, Excel, ODBC/JDBC applications
InfrastructureClient-owned and managed

“Can’t We Just Use the API?”

APIs require engineering resources to build and maintain a data pipeline — ingestion scripts, schema mapping, error handling, retry logic, incremental sync, and ongoing maintenance as the platform evolves. For most firms, that’s $20K–$50K in development and $5K–$10K/year to maintain. BackVault delivers a complete, structured, reporting-ready database with zero development effort. The schema manages itself. IT connects their BI tools and starts working.

The Bottom Line

Your data shouldn’t be trapped in a SaaS platform. BackVault gives you full, real-time, SQL-native access to everything in your Backdocket instance — on your own infrastructure, in a schema that’s ready for enterprise reporting from day one.

Only one competitor — FileVine — offers anything remotely comparable, and theirs requires a Snowflake account, doesn’t evolve with your configuration, and costs extra. Everyone else gives you CSV exports or makes you build your own pipeline from an API.

BackVault is a reporting-ready, self-evolving data warehouse on the database platform your team already runs. Included in your subscription.

See BackVault in Action

Schedule a live walkthrough with a Backdocket solutions engineer. We’ll connect BackVault to your SQL Server instance, run a sync, and build a live Power BI dashboard against your data — in under an hour.

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