Whether researching a case, talking to paralegals, or heading to court, attorneys devote a lot of hours to their clients. But one more task they have on their plate is time tracking. While it may be one of the more mundane and, some may say, painful things on their to-do lists, time tracking is essential if you’re a legal professional who charges by the hour. Time is literally money, and undocumented hours can mean missing income and profits.
Let’s dive deeper into the importance of time tracking for law firms and legal professionals and how legal accounting software could help.
Why legal practices need accurate time tracking
Creates correct invoices
Tracking how much time you put into each task is vital for correct invoicing. Under-bill and you’re losing money; overcharge, and you risk client trust and potential disputes. Scrupulous tracking of hours and minutes worked means every dollar earned is documented, improving your bottom line.
Helps estimate scope and pricing
Accurate time tracking can help you assess the amount of effort spent on each project and scope future similar cases. Whether you’re drafting a straightforward contract or handling a complex dispute, you’ll be able to provide your clients with a better sense of how long their particular case could take.
Enhances resource management
Time tracking can help you understand the productivity of each team member. View employee timesheets and uncover ways to allocate resources more effectively while confirming that your legal pros are working their required number of billable hours.
Improves recordkeeping
Precise time records can help you comply with records management rules and regulations.
How is your law firm tracking time?
Sure, you could log your time manually…and if this is your current method, we probably don’t have to tell you how arduous that can be. Maintaining call logs and writing down the start and finish times of meetings and billable tasks takes valuable minutes that could be better spent doing other things. Not only can it be inefficient by potentially leaving billable time on the table, but it is less than secure as manual paperwork can be lost or end up in the wrong hands.
Six benefits of attorney time tracking software
Savvy law firms have found a solution to laborious time logging: attorney time tracking software. This timekeeping tool allows you and your legal team to leverage technology that can reduce errors, increase productivity, and take the stress out of the time-tracking process.
- Tracks time wherever you are
Lawyers aren’t tied to their desks. You may work on billable tasks in the office, at the client’s place of business, or from the courthouse. An attorney time tracking system with desktop and mobile app capabilities can help you clock in and out from your computer or smartphone with a few clicks wherever you are. No need to write your time on sticky notes, cumbersome spreadsheets, or random pieces of paper that could easily get misplaced.
- Simplifies invoicing and payroll
After recording your billable time, you can sync tracking data to your payroll and legal accounting software and other services. Generate invoices quickly and keep your books up-to-date with accurate payroll information, including vacation time.
- Reduces administration costs
Time tracking software minimizes the need for data entry and report generation so you can focus on billable tasks. Log into your system, create your billable jobs, hourly rates, and clock in and track time against a client. Set up multiple clients and switch effortlessly between them as needed. Super easy.
- Paperless protection against audits
Legal timekeeping software can provide a Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA)-compliant trail for your time entries.
- Runs reports on profitability, job costs, and more
A web dashboard provides an overview of information and can give you access to job costing reports, open invoices, billable and nonbillable hours, project profitability, and more. You’ll get insights on everything from how your team is working to comparisons between budgeted hours to actual hours so you can make more informed decisions.
- Strengthens bottom line
And let’s not forget the bottom line. Improved time tracking can potentially add more billable time to your invoices.
What are billable hours?
Billable hours are the hours clients pay the attorneys to work on their cases. Billable hours are critical for law firms, and a practice’s success depends on maximizing those hours.
Examples of billable hours for law firms
Some examples of the types of entries that may be considered billable tasks include:
- Performing research
- Writing memos and briefs
- Making phone calls
- Speaking to clients, witnesses, and opposing counsel
- Reviewing reports and discovery documents
When it comes to legal timekeeping software, it’s an open and shut case: it can be an indispensable asset to your law firm. It can reduce headaches, increase efficiency, and enhance time recording accuracy so you don’t miss out on a single billable hour. Consider what legal timekeeping software could do for you and how it could benefit your law firm.
