Bill4Time Staff

10 Time Management Tips for Legal Professionals

November 8, 2023 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Legal professionals have a lot of information, tasks, and responsibilities to manage day-to-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute. Most successful professionals will say that legal time tracking software is paramount to staying productive and on top of things, but this is just one of many time management methods legal professionals can employ.

Why Is Time Management for Lawyers Important?

Time management for lawyers is important because of the benefits it brings to law firms. Properly managing time allows attorneys to stay productive, delegate tasks when necessary, create effective workflows, and — the most lucrative part — get paid accordingly.

10 Time Management for Lawyers Best Practices

Classic time management techniques and eliminating distractions are essential for legal professionals. Practicing law is like having multiple jobs with different bosses (the clients), priorities, and schedules. It makes time management a bit more difficult since every day — albeit, every minute — can change from the next. Getting into a consistent work rhythm may be hard, but it’s not impossible.

Below are time management tips that legal professionals can leverage to create a rhythm and be more productive:

1. Set Goals

Goals provide focus, a destination. Goals help provide clarity on where the firm is headed and how to best manage time and resources to get there. By setting goals, law firms are able to identify what is worth spending time on and what is best saved for a later time.

2. Prioritize

It can be difficult to determine which tasks to conquer first, especially when a flood of tasks all seem equally urgent. Ask these questions to help determine priority:

Why is this task being done?
How long will this task take to complete?
When does this task need to be completed?
How does this task help achieve the set goals?

Answering these questions should help prioritize tasks so the most important tasks are done first.

With prioritizing comes the possibility of procrastination. Don’t put off tasks. Remember that the best time to do something is usually now, not later.

3. Create Task Lists

Time management for lawyers is, at the most basic level, organization. A to-do or task list is an easy way to break down tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. Trying to remember everything mentally or across various sticky notes will inevitably lead to disaster. Just keep a simple daily, weekly, or monthly list of tasks that are prioritized to stay on track.

4. Establish a Schedule

A schedule helps prevent the misdirection of time and tasks. Legal professionals should decide if they are more productive early in the day or later in the afternoon or evening. A morning person should schedule high value tasks at that time. However, those with creativity that picks up as the sun sets, schedule those tasks then. Down time can be scheduled for less important items such as email or returning calls. Understand which rhythm fits best and schedule accordingly.

5. Tackle One Task at a Time

Most people actually spend more time on tasks when multitasking, according to research by the American Psychological Association. Multitasking can also reduce work quality as well. If there are multiple tasks to be done in quick succession, the research shows to group the tasks together by similarity. This approach minimizes the time spent switching between tasks and promotes better time management.

6. Use Legal Time Tracking Software

Not only can legal time tracking software increase firm productivity and efficiency, it can also help avoid costly billing mistakes. Digital time tracking is a game-changer for law firms looking to implement structured workflows into their everyday task management systems. The advantages of digital time tracking software include revealing inefficiencies, improving billing accuracy, and numerous other benefits directly impacting firm revenue and efficiency.

7. Eliminate Distractions

Distractions break concentration, lower productivity, and create a barrier to completing important tasks. And perhaps worst of all, distractions add to stress levels. Identify what distractions keep you from accomplishing core tasks and eliminate them. Use phone and computer settings to limit notifications during core hours of the day to be as productive as possible. Take control of these intrusions to maximize efficiency.

8. Take Periodic Breaks

While productivity is a focus, brains still need rest periods between tasks. If lawyers don’t take breaks, they’ll burn out more quickly. According to multiple studies on the efficacy of breaks on productivity, taking breaks gives the brain valuable time to rest and recharge. Without breaks, the brain wears out faster and takes longer to complete tasks.

Breaks are an essential component to effective time management for lawyers. Squeeze in short breaks between work by taking a five minute break every hour or so to rest. Give ample time for lunch to refuel both mind and body. This goes for both daily tasks and a healthy overall work-life balance.

9. Learn to Say “No”

Every high achiever will preach mastering the art of saying “no” to things that are not a priority. For lawyers, this skill is vital to maintaining control over their firm’s priorities. To learn how to say “no” effectively, legal professionals can start by prioritizing their firm’s goals. Understanding what truly matters allows them to make informed decisions about where to invest their time and energy.

Additionally, practicing polite assertiveness is key. Lawyers can decline non-essential tasks while explaining their commitment to the firm’s top priorities. By embracing these strategies, legal professionals can take charge of their workload and ensure they are managing their firm’s priorities, not someone else’s.

10. Delegate Tasks Accordingly

Sometimes it makes sense to delegate to others to help in accomplishing tasks. Lawyers who delegate properly can save time, reduce stress, and accomplish more when they assign tasks to the right people. Let go of control and grant authority and responsibility to qualified people. Promote accountability and ensure deadlines are satisfied. This can also boost the knowledge of those with less experience — think legal interns and new associates and staff.

How to Implement Effective Time Management for Lawyers

Leveraging these tips will help make the most out of every minute, every hour, and every day. Once time is better managed, then it’s time to better track time. Tracking time is easier with Bill4Time’s legal time tracking software. With an easy-to-use timer for on-the-go time entry, lawyers can enter time on a laptop or mobile phone so every billable minute is accounted for.

Knowing how much time a task takes is not only critical to getting paid, but also estimating future projects. And, time tracking ensures transparency with a client so they know how much was done when they receive the invoice.

Couple time tracking with invoicing for strong and efficient business operations. Then pair that with convenient online payment options. (Did you know that businesses that offer credit card options get paid on average 70% faster than those with traditional methods?)

Better manage time and account for every minute with Bill4Time. Try Bill4Time today with a free trial. Every minute that goes by, you’re missing out on increased productivity…and revenue.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in December 2015. Recent update: November 2023.

Law Firm Growth: How Compliant Legal Time Tracking Drives Success

November 7, 2023 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Compliant legal time tracking may not be on every legal professional’s radar, but it should be. Not only to comply with regulations and standards set forth by the ABA, but also to lead law firms towards success.

Legal time tracking software that ensures legal compliance is one of the easiest ways to implement this at your law firm.

How Compliant Time Tracking Promotes Law Firm Growth

With manual time tracking, compliance requirements seem tedious and time-consuming. Your schedule is filled with a ton of items on your to-do list and you don’t have enough time to get everything done.

Then you’re hit with more work when inputting your work.

You’re required to adhere to a specific format at a specific time, expected to follow a specific set of standards, required to use legal codes to document your work, and to format your time sheets in a specific way.

This is where things can get tedious and mistakes can happen — unless you have the right legal time tracking software at your firm. With the proper legal software, it’s significantly easier to adhere to these kinds of compliance standards, leading to happier clients and a growing bottom line.

To fully understand the impact, we’ll examine the three pivotal reasons that demonstrate why compliant time tracking is the essential growth tool your firm needs.

1. Legal Compliance Regulations Keep Staff on the Same Page

Imagine a scenario where you have 25 attorneys on staff. In the process of adding their time, they decide to use their own legal codes on their timesheets and invoices.

How does this affect your business?

Let’s say you want to audit your financials at the end of the quarter. You’d like to know whether your billables are on target and the firm is making money. But then you notice each attorney used their own legal codes or task naming conventions.

Your audit is exponentially more difficult, especially if some of your staff are no longer on the team. How do you go about decoding each attorney’s individual codes?

Many attorneys are either not using these legal codes as outlined by governing bodies or they’re using them incorrectly. Estimates state as many as 60 to 80 percent of attorneys get this wrong, despite there being reputable guides available to follow. This can lead to stunted law firm growth, and even decrease firm revenue and lower reputation — making compliant time tracking vital.

How do you implement this in your firm? What does it really mean?

Compliant time tracking means:

Everyone in your firm uses the same standard to track their time
It’s easier for firms to analyze, improve and collect on billables
There’s no need for staff to memorize messy naming conventions or unique customizations

Your firm is more productive, which means your firm is more profitable.

2. Increase Law Firm Growth With Legal Time Tracking Software

Collection realization rates are falling.

While hourly rates are increasing, collection realization rates are on a steady decline. There are a variety of reasons for this, but a commonly ignored reason is, you guessed it, compliance.

A standardized system (e.g. LEDES or UTBMS) means you and your clients are on the same page. Your clients understand what they’re being billed for and why. This means they’re more likely to be agreeable and more willing to pay their invoices.

Here’s why this matters.

More and more, sophisticated clients are using software to monitor your invoices. What are they looking for? Compliance with corporate parameters.

Are expense categories e.g. meals, experts, out of town travel, approved?
Are the partners/associates listed on this invoice authorized to work on this case?
Do expense percentages comply with their rules?
Are invoices in line with budget requirements?

Once a compliant time tracking standard is put into place and executed properly, law firms will be able to dive into reports and find insights to help increase profitability.

3. Compliant Time Tracking Helps Firms Gain Insights Into Profitability Metrics

There are very specific questions growing firms need answers to. Non-compliance makes it much harder to get these answers. In short, it makes it more difficult for your firm to grow.

What sort of questions?

If you have multiple offices, which office is most efficient? Most profitable?
Who are your most efficient/profitable partners, associates, paralegals and assistants?
Who in the company is non-compliant?
Which practice areas and tasks are most profitable?
Which clients are most profitable/unprofitable?

Compliance = standardized data.

With compliant time tracking, you have everything you need to extract the valuable data your firm needs to grow. Think about the problems outlined in reason one. This data is incredibly difficult to come by if your firm isn’t on board with compliant time tracking.

Compliance makes it easier to extract the valuable performance data your firm needs to grow.

Create a Compliant Time Tracking Strategy

Compliance can be difficult, but legal time tracking software can make it easy and automatic.

You’re busy. Your schedule is filled with a long list of tasks to do. So automating this part of your practice opens up time for you and your staff to focus on other tasks insteading of compliance — let your legal software do the work for you.

Compliant time tracking reduces expenses. It minimizes the amount of work you’re required to do (see: manual billing and invoicing). It keeps your team on the same page, providing you with the precious data you need to grow your firm.

Compliance creates standards. It increases staff competence. It restores client confidence. It keeps your revenue flowing in. Here’s the good news. Compliant time tracking doesn’t have to be difficult.

In fact, with the right software, it’s automatic, and you’ll see compliant time tracking for what it is.

Your secret law firm growth strategy.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in October 2018. Recent update: November 2023.

How Automated Time Management for Lawyers Can Increase Earnings and Productivity

October 30, 2023 By Bill4Time Staff 1 Comment

As a lawyer with extensive education and training, you are entitled to be paid what you’re worth. But what is that number? That’s actually up to you. Time management for lawyers isn’t only deciding the amount you charge per hour (but yes, you get to do that, too). It means the amount of effort, planning, marketing, networking, reputation building, blood, sweat and tears you put into your firm is entirely up to you.

But you’ll find the more of yourself you put into every minute of that hour you’re charging your clients for, the more you’ll get back. So what should you be focusing on? Using legal time tracking software to accurately track the time you spend working on cases will ultimately give the most return on your investments.

Benefits of Time Management for Lawyers

Time management is key to long-term success. With multiple clients and projects going on at once, staying on top of tasks is vital. When you plan and organize the time you spend on work-related activities, it leads to greater productivity and efficiency, a better professional reputation, less stress, and increased opportunities for advancement and new clients.

When time management isn’t a priority, it can lead to missed deadlines, poor quality work, and damage to your professional reputation — which ultimately could have negative consequences for your career. All this, of course, leads to high levels of stress. In fact, procrastination can actually harm your health, as this Canadian study on the impact procrastination can have on hypertension and cardiovascular disease suggests.

So how do you manage your time? Here are some easy tips to get you started.

Time Management Tips for Lawyers

1. Do the easiest tasks first to build momentum.

If you’ve heard of the snowball method for getting rid of debt, the same concept can be applied here. Take care of some of the easiest tasks first, knocking them out quickly and building momentum to tackle your larger tasks after.

2. Tackle the most dreaded task.

Do the thing that has been occupying your mind the most and causing the most stress. This will automatically make the rest of your day seem like a piece of cake.

3. Designate a specific window of time to make and return phone calls.

If you answer the phone every time it rings, nothing will get done. Saving all your phone calls (with necessary exceptions of course) for one specific time will cause fewer distractions and interruptions in your schedule.

4. Make the next day’s task list at the end of every work day.

Spending your last few minutes at the office prioritizing the next day’s schedule will make a big difference in your entire week.

Optimize Legal Billing and Client Satisfaction With Time Management for Lawyers

Now that you’ve organized your own time, in order to make sure you are getting paid for everything you’re entitled to, it is necessary to accurately track the time you spend working on clients’ cases and projects. Here are some pro tips:

Get in the habit of keeping meticulously detailed records and invoices. This includes writing full descriptive sentences with dates and times that account for every billable minute.
Strike a balance of sufficient descriptions. Not too much, not too little. Explain each task so even the most skeptical client can see the purpose and benefit. But don’t add so much detail that a client misses the implicit value message.
Avoid rabbit holes and other distractions. Phone calls are obvious, but what about email or text notification signals on your phone? Take advantage of useful settings on your phone, like Do Not Disturb mode. Set a timer of the time you expect to finish a certain task and hone in on the work. Focusing in on the task will lessen mistakes and increase billing accuracy.

No surprise, we agree that time tracking software like Bill4Time is the best way to accomplish this. Firms that actively measure data and track time have a much better understanding of their financials and the marketing return on their investment than those that don’t consistently measure and track.

So what should you be tracking? Smart firms track all activities, not just billable hours.

Why and How Do Lawyers Track New Business?

Lawyers can monitor new business by logging their time spent on new clients in legal time tracking software. When leads stop coming in at a consistent pace, business will inevitably slow down as well. Specifically, set up a project within your company files for new business and track the hours you (and staff) spend on all new business activities: prospecting, networking, phone calls, emails, etc. This is an important measure of the future success of your firm to ensure a positive ROI of the time spent.

Use Archives and Milestones to Guide Time Tracking

Time tracking software like Bill4Time can serve as an archive for client projects and accomplishments. When you track your time as projects (and use consistent labeling), you also create permanent, searchable records when the projects are done: key accomplishments, decisions, and approvals. This becomes an invaluable archive that can be used to document a history of a long-standing client relationship. Firms can also use this information to identify opportunities for upselling or expanding their services, ultimately boosting their revenue and growth.

View Reports to Increase Financial Productivity

Comparing time records with other financial measures can be a great management tool to spot problems early. For example, look at utilization rate (hours billed vs. total hours) to spot which associates are most productive. Look at realization rate (hours billed/hours collected) to detect if certain clients have unreasonable billing disputes, or certain associates have unreasonable charges. Look at collections-based stats (unbilled days/uncollected days) to determine if you’re too slow to send invoices after a matter is closed, or if a client is too slow to pay.

Use Legal Time Tracking Software to Improve Time Management for Lawyers

Analyzing all this data and information will allow you to see your business from a completely different perspective and bring to light all the things you are doing right and all the things that could use improvement. Time management and time tracking are the keys to a successful firm.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in July 2017. Last update: October 2023.

Consultant Time Tracking Apps: How to Make the Most of Them And What to Avoid

October 19, 2023 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Legal time tracking software is great for law firms, but what about consultants and freelancers? Consultant time tracking apps should allow you to easily and accurately capture your time. If you find yourself guessing your time, you may be losing out on revenue.

Accurate and reliable time tracking is arguably the most important metric a consultant or freelancer can track. If not done properly, inaccurate time tracking can lead to billable leakage, poor utilization rates, decreased productivity, and poor performance in the long term. If you’re using a time tracking app and you have the following red flags, you may want to take note.

Time Tracking Habits to Avoid

Red Flag #1: You Must Enter Your Time Manually

A common issue with consultant time tracking apps is manual time entry. Many apps rely on users remembering to track their time accurately. This may seem like a reasonable expectation at first, but it doesn’t take into account the other tasks a legal professional needs to handle.

Multitasking is a frequent occurrence in the legal industry, but there is a point where it goes too far and ends up impacting performance. Manual timekeeping isn’t as easy as it seems.

To dive into the science of it, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky coined the term planning fallacy in 1977. Planning fallacy, in short, is the psychological phenomenon where people are optimistic in guessing how long a task will take to complete, underestimating the true number.

Kahneman expands on this idea in his book, “Thinking Fast and Slow.” In the book, Kahneman states that we struggle with time estimation for two reasons:

We don’t consider how long similar tasks have taken us in the past.
We assume or fail to account for barriers, challenges, or complications that will delay our plans.

The planning fallacy affects individuals, groups, and entire organizations.

The trouble with this is the fact that consultants and their clients are often unaware of the problem. As optimism bias clouds our judgment, we fall into the trap of assuming that our tasks will go well.

Manual time tracking and entry forces consultants to make the mistakes discussed above. Consultants enter their projections ahead of time, ensuring that they neglect previous tasks and the amount of time taken to complete them. Or, they reconstruct their time from memory, losing a significant amount of revenue due to faulty judgment, errors in thinking, and inaccurate estimates.

In a perfect time tracking world, you should be able to start and stop your tracking, while the app measures the amount of time you’ve spent on a specific task or tasks automatically. You shouldn’t be forced to reconstruct or project time, which is a recipe for disaster.

Manual time entry has a direct impact on the amount of revenue you’re able to generate — even if you bill at a flat rate. This is why it’s so important to track time correctly.

You should be able to edit your time if you need to make changes, track meetings, and convert them to time entries automatically. Look for this in a mobile consultant time tracking app.

Red Flag #2: Uniform Time Tracking

Time tracking requires granularity.

In an ideal consultant time tracking app, you should be able to track billable vs. non-billable work automatically — track employees, contractors, and third-party time. You should be able to easily differentiate between the various types of timekeeping (e.g., tasks, projects, meetings, etc.).

Unfortunately, many consultant time tracking apps force users into a timekeeping model that may not be best for their business. This isn’t ideal, as it requires more time and attention when it’s time to analyze time entries for billing, invoicing, or internal analysis.

Red Flag #3: No reporting or analytics for consultant time tracking

There are lots of options for time tracking software consultants can use. However, many of these don’t provide management with the data and intel they need to make good decisions. Good legal time tracking software enables consultants to answer the following questions:

Where are we losing the most time?
Which employees are most productive, and why?
Which employees are the least productive, and why?
Which projects, clients, or tasks are most productive or profitable?
Which projects, clients, or tasks are minimally productive and unprofitable?
What is my profit per employee, partner, client, etc.?

Why are these questions important? They give your business the clarity you need to answer higher-level questions like:

How do we avoid unprofitable clients in the future?
How do we attract more of the clients we want and none of the clients we don’t like?
What 20 percent of projects produce 80 percent of our revenue?
What 20 percent of clients produce 80 percent of our headaches, conflict, or concerns?

These questions provide clarity.

However, a comprehensive look at your time entries isn’t enough. You’ll need to be able to break your reporting down into actionable, bite-sized chunks you can use to grow your consultancy.

Many time tracking apps are generalists in the sense that they provide you with a limited set of data on your team’s performance. They don’t provide you with the level of granularity and analysis your consultancy needs to grow.

Why Is Time Tracking Valuable for Consultants?

Time tracking is valuable for consultants because it can be easily translated to money. While many organizations feel they’re on top of their time tracking, this isn’t always the case. If your consultant time tracking app has any of the red flags I’ve mentioned, it may be time to switch.

These red flags lead to billable leakage, poor utilization rates, decreased productivity and poor performance over the long term.

Consultants need reliable time tracking software in order to run a productive business. Bill4Time is an affordable, efficient legal time tracking software that allows you to track time with ease, manage billing, create invoices, and effectively run your practice — all in one place.

As a consultant, you’re busy. The software you use should simplify everyday tasks and keep your law firm running without the hassle.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in April 2021. Recent update: October 2023.

A Guide to Time Tracking for First-Year Associates

October 16, 2023 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

While many fresh law school graduates come out with a wealth of skills, administrative skills may not be one of them. Time tracking for first-year associates is typically learned from other lawyers or internet searches. While leaning on experienced legal professionals is a great way to gather knowledge and learn quickly, you may find more manual ways of time tracking that aren’t as effective as legal time tracking software.

Spreadsheets, quick notes, or tracking your time at the end of the month from memory are not ideal for keeping accurate records. In addition to missing out on time you could bill, you may overbill a client, lose sensitive information, make a detrimental error, cost your firm money, or damage your reputation.

To combat this, first-years should also learn how to use legal time tracking software, as it can help with accuracy and transparency throughout the billing process. There are many different obstacles in place when it comes to time tracking, and learning these as a first year associate can be difficult, so let’s go over billable hours best practice and how legal time tracking software can help.

What Are Billable Hours?

Billable hours are time spent working on professional tasks that can be charged to the client for the agreed hourly rate. Lawyers aren’t unique in billable hours — consultants, writers, developers, graphic designers, and other professionals bill by the hour. You need to keep accurate records of how long you spent on each client’s task in order to charge billable hours. If your records aren’t precise and well organized, you could undercharge or overcharge.

Make sure you understand a firm’s billable hours expectation before signing on. Anything over 1,800 billable hours annually will likely be more than 40 hours a week total, with non-billable hours added in. Working more than 50 hours a week has an impact on mental health. Keep this in mind when accepting a job offer.

How To Identify Billable and Non-Billable Time

Billable time includes time working on tasks that are directly related to the work for your client. This may vary according to the specifics of the case, but it could include:

Direct work to complete the project
Time spent strategizing or planning
Time spent researching
Corresponding with the client, whether on the phone, through email, or in person
Attending meetings

Non-billable time is time that you’re doing work, but not directly for the client. This may include:

Developing professional skills
Social and team-building events or exercises
Networking events
Time spent correcting your errors
Invoicing, processing payments, or other administrative work
Time spent performing work outside of the scope of your client agreement

Sometimes, determining what’s billable and not can be more complicated. Here’s how you can evaluate if you can charge for your time?

Was my time used for my own professional needs or the client’s needs?
Was this work necessary to complete the project?
Was this task included in the client agreement?
Was my time spent related to the project or a result of an avoidable mistake on my part?

First-Year Associate Time Tracking Tips

Determine your invoicing schedule

Depending on the requirements of your firm, you may be able to set your own invoicing schedule. Many firms use a monthly billing cycle and bill on the same day each month, but you may be able to set weekly, biweekly, or end-of-project billing cycles.

Use digital tools to track time

Many lawyers are “old-school” and prefer manual time logs, but that’s not the most efficient or accurate way to track your time. Legal time tracking software and practice management software not only offer time tracking functions, but cut down on the time you spend manually filling out logs, client details, task details, and invoicing. The software also retains all your important client data in a secure, centralized location, so you can access it quickly and easily, no matter where you are.

Create time logs

Whether you choose a software solution or go manual, you need to create a time log to track your billable hours by the client. With a spreadsheet, this means creating columns for the clients, the tasks, the date, the time spent working — all of which cuts into your free or billable time.

With a cloud-based time tracking solution, you have an efficient time tracking feature with a digital timer and a list of clients. When you start a task, all you have to do is start the timer and it does the time tracking for you.

Include details on your invoice

Time tracking software should make your billable hours easy to track, calculate, and report according to the client and the project, which you can access easily. All of this information will go on the invoice, such as:

Business and contact information, such as the firm name and address, your phone number, and your email address.
Your client’s contact information
An itemized list of tasks or services complete within this time frame
Billable hours for each task or service
Payment terms
A deadline for payment
The total amount due, including any taxes or fees

Including all this information can be tedious and time-consuming. A digital timekeeping solution allows you to customize and generate invoices with detailed billing information quickly and easily. You can also create and edit batch invoices, and clients can review and pay invoices online 24/7.

How to Manage Non-Billable Time

It’s common for first-year associates to have goals or targets for the billable hours they want to have. Whether the goal is weekly, monthly, or yearly, if you’re not tracking your time, you may not realize you’re too far behind to catch up until it’s too late.

For example, if you want to reach a goal of 2,000 hours annually (with both billable and non-billable time), you would need to track roughly 40 hours each week, or eight hours a day. You may not work exactly eight hours each day, but this breaks down what you should average in a day, week, and month to reach your annual total hours goal.

If you don’t track your time, you tally up your billable hours for the quarter or at six months and realize your goal is now impossible. You didn’t reach your billable hours in the past few months, so now it’s unlikely you’ll have the time or work to reach those 2,000 hours.

Time tracking for first-year associates (and any lawyer) is the best way to make sure you stay on track with your goal. Here are some tips:

Track all of your billable time, even if it’s just a few minutes on a client call or drafting an email. It adds up.
Track everything in real time, rather than backtracking and hoping you have the time you started and ended a project correct.
Record your non-billable time. You won’t make money on it, but you can identify areas where you could be more efficient or tasks that you may be able to outsource.
Don’t procrastinate! It can be easy to do, especially if you get side-tracked with social media or other distractions. Keep your work time focused and save the idle time for when you’ve reached your billable goal for the day.

Time Tracking for First-Year Legal Associates

Time tracking can be challenging for any attorney — both digitally inclined and those not as tech-savvy. Without the right foundation, time tracking can be time-consuming and inaccurate, leading to losses in productivity and revenue. Bill4Time’s legal time tracking software captures lost revenue by tracking time anywhere, anytime, streamlining invoicing, and keeping accurate project logs.

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in October 2021. Last update: October 2023.

6 Advantages of Digital Time Tracking for Lawyers

October 11, 2023 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Legal professionals are always up against the clock — there’s always more that can be done in a day, but not enough time to do it all. As a result, many lawyers just put in the time instead of finding more efficient methods, like using legal time tracking software.

Some of the most common challenges law firms face are time wasted on administrative tasks, new client acquisition, cost control, and expense growth. Many of these time-consuming tasks can be automated with modern legal technology. As an industry that bills by the hour, these inefficiencies can mean significant revenue loss.

Lawyers do a lot of work on computers, so adopting modern technology practices only makes sense. Time tracking software can run in the background to properly track time and improve law firm processes.

Here are 6 advantages of digital time tracking for lawyers.

1. Tracking Potential Lost Revenue

Automated timekeeping tools take a lot of the error, stress, and — ironically — time out of the tracking process. These solutions can track both billable and non-billable hours, so lawyers can see where they’re losing valuable time on unrelated tasks that impede the workflow.

Data is important for improving law firms as a business. For example, a lawyer charging $200 an hour may not bill for an hour of overtime, which is $200 lost in a day. Assuming that happens at least once a week, that’s a potential loss of over $10,000 a year! Digital time tracking can ensure that this time is billed, and paid for, for more accurate revenue.

2. Revealing Inefficiencies

Legal time tracking software not only tracks the billable time that isn’t billed, but it reveals what lawyers spend their time doing. Many law firms have lawyers spending time on non-legal business activities, such as marketing, accounting, and administration.

If the digital time tracking shows a lot of time spent on non-billable activities, leading to a loss of revenue, a law firm can outsource those activities. For example, law firms can hire an accountant, administrative assistant, or marketing professional for in-house work, or delegate tasks to contract workers during busy periods.

Attorneys can also use legal technology solutions for automating more tedious tasks, like electronic payment processing and bookkeeping services to generate invoices. Ideally, law firms will choose software specifically designed for legal professionals to maintain compliance with rules of professional conduct.

3. Improve Billing Accuracy

Lawyers at both boutique and large law firms typically bill by the hour, but the time spent on client cases doesn’t always consider face-to-face meetings with defined timeframes or scheduled phone calls that run over.

Proper time tracking and billing must include the time spent on tasks like:

Telephone calls
Case research
Emails
Lead follow-up
Witness interviews
Trial preparation
Travel to and from meetings

Without clear and organized time tracking, lawyers may struggle to create accurate timesheets. This not only ensures that lawyers are billing for all their time but offers a detailed invoice for transparency and trust with the client.

4. Mobile Access

On-the-go lawyers struggle more with timekeeping, but legal software solutions offer mobile apps to help with tracking time outside of the firm. Many legal software solutions have corresponding mobile apps, which are perfect for on-the-go lawyers. Depending on the nature of a case, a lawyer may be running between the courtroom, the law office, lunch meetings, or the library for research.

Whether in the office or in the field, timekeeping apps track hours accurately and update in real-time in a secure, centralized cloud database.

5. Customizable Reporting

Different law firms face different challenges with efficiency and accuracy, so a one-size-fits-all approach may not work. Digital time tracking solutions offer customizable reports to pull data and view it in simple visualizations for managers and team members to interpret.

Managers can view just about any aspect of the firm’s performance, including work-in-progress, outstanding balances, time spent with a specific client, all calculated by user, client, or project.

6. Time-Saving Features

Legal time tracking software offers many features to improve efficiency and workflow, such as:

Automated timers that allow users to start and stop time, rather than tracking it manually. Meetings run over and people forget to stop the clock, so having a legal time tracking software ensures that the tracking is as accurate as possible. Some systems also allow tracking multiple tasks, so users can easily stop tracking time for one task and toggle to another quickly and easily.

Voice commands allow users to stop or start timers without needing to be near the computer. Most people speak faster than they type, so having voice commands captures time quickly and easily. Entries can be edited and synced to client management systems as well.

Built-in payment processing, which is included with Bill4Time, can save your firm time and money while other software systems use integrations or costly third-party software. If a law firm devotes a lot of time to billing and processing without a dedicated accounting process, having these features makes the processes smoother and more efficient.

Customization features that allow lawyers to create detailed reports and invoices for consistency and continuity. Personalized reports offer virtually limitless options for time and billing data, all with custom filters and optional views to get a holistic picture of the firm’s operations.

What Is the Easiest Way to Track Time as a Lawyer?

Legal time tracking software is the best way to track time as a lawyer. Implementing timekeeping solutions, like Bill4Time, helps law firms identify inefficiencies, choose tasks to outsource, track individual lawyers’ time, and bill clients accurately for better revenue and success.

Digital time tracking for lawyers offers limitless options for efficiency and accuracy. Bill4Time offers legal technology solutions for legal professionals to track time, manage clients, track expenses, and more. Schedule a demo today to see how digital timekeeping solutions can help!

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in November 2021. Last update: October 2023.