Time Tracking Tips for Lawyers

Time and lawyers go together like peanut butter and jelly. Time tracking is an essential part of any lawyer’s workflow, but it might not be easy to track time when you’re in the thick of things.

Here are a few tips to help you track your time more effectively:

1. Use a time tracking app

There are several great time tracking apps out there that can help you keep track of your time. Apps like Timely and Toggl make it easy to track your time on specific tasks, and they provide reports that can help you analyze your time usage over time.

2. Set a timer

If you’re working on a specific task, set a timer and work until the timer goes off. You will stay focused and avoid getting bogged down in distractions.

3. Make a list of daily tasks

At the beginning of each day, make a list of the tasks you need to complete. It keeps you organized, and you will not forget the small things. If you have a resume help service schedule, add it to your to-do list.

4. Track interruptions

It’s easy to lose track of time if someone interrupts you throughout the day. Ensure to track every interruption to bill your client for your time correctly. It will assist in avoiding any issues in case your client disputes an item on your invoice later down the line.

5. Use a time log

A time log can be a great way to track your time usage over an extended period. You identify any patterns in your workflow and make necessary changes.

6. Set deadlines for yourself

Setting deadlines can be a great way to stay on top of your workload. If you work with multiple clients, setting deadlines for each client is an effective way to keep everything organized and ensure that you don’t fall behind on anything.

7. Be honest about time usage

While it’s essential to track your time, being too conservative with your time estimates can lead to problems later. Make sure that you’re honest with your clients about how much time something will take so that everyone is on the same page.

Best Time Tracking Apps for Lawyers:

The best time tracking app for lawyers should be simple, easy to use and provide cross-platform compatibility. Here is a catalog of the best time tracking apps for lawyers:

1. Time Analytics

The tracker is easy-to-use and comes with multiple benefits, including improved profits, productivity, and efficiency in the law firm. Time Analytics desktop app assists lawyers with improved billing and invoicing processes.

Key features:

Manage your time and tasks more effectively with customized workflows.
Follow law firm-specific billing schedules and automatic invoice generation.
Track all projects for a customer and bill them together or separately by adding tags to your entries. Add as many labels as you need.
Track billable time for each project individually or create an hourly rate applied across multiple projects.
See time trends and manage bookings more effectively.
Create custom reports for your firm, clients, or individual cases.
Monitor cost and profitability to make data-driven decisions in your business.

Price

The Time Analytics software is free for individual users or 30 clients/projects. The other pricing plans include Basic ($4.99 per user/month), Pro ($6.99 per user/month), and Premium ($12.99 per user/month). There is a special offer on the table for more than 50 user subscriptions.

2. TSheets

The time tracking app, TSheets, is used by over 500,000 businesses worldwide. Employees can track time on their computers, phones, or tablets with the TSheets timer or app.

Key features:

Clock in and out from any device.
Integrates with over 100+ apps.
Get real-time updates on time worked.
Military time tracking.
Punch in and out for breaks.
Upload timesheets and invoices.

Price

There is a free trial available for TSheets, and the pricing starts at $8 per month/per user. The premium version is $10 per month/per user and offers additional features like GPS location, in/out alerts, receipt photos, and time value adjustments.

3. TimeDoctor

TimeDoctor is a time tracking app that helps you and your team stay focused on work. Over 10,000 businesses use it to track time, manage projects and increase productivity.

Key features:

Track time on the web, desktop, or mobile app.
Set alerts for when you’re working on specific tasks.
See the lost time.
Track time for specific clients or projects.

Price

TimeDoctor offers a basic $7 and a standard of $10 per month/per user.

4. Timely

Timely is an intuitive tool for time tracking, team management, and project planning. It’s easy to use with a fresh, new design that makes it simple to see what needs your attention without opening multiple tabs in your browser.

Key features:

See what everyone on the team is working on at any given time.
Track time on tasks and projects.
Create estimates and track actuals against them.

Price

Timely offers its customers monthly prices of $7 for the moonlight package and a $23 option for a professional plan.

5. Myhours

Myhours is a simple time tracking app that makes it easy to track time spent on projects. The mobile app lets you know how much time was spent on each project with just one click of a button.

Key features:

Track billable hours for multiple clients.
Set hourly rates for each client and override them when necessary.
Add notes, tags, and photos to each entry.

Price

Myhours pricing starts at €7 per month/per user. Your law firm team might enjoy a free plan when using the software.

6. Chrometa

Chrometa is a fully-featured time tracking app that helps you track billable hours and manage projects. It’s a complete solution for team management, billing, and productivity.

Key features:

See what your employees are working on at the moment.
Track time from any device using the cloud apps or Chrome extension.
Gets automatic time tracking for new emails, documents, and calls.

Price

Chrometa pricing starts at $19 per month/per user for the standard plan. The premium version might cost you $49.

7 AccountSight

AccountSight offers a single platform to replace the three manual tasks of accounting, job costing, and time tracking. It’s purpose-built for small businesses and priced accordingly.

Key features:

Create invoices with billable time and expenses.
Track time on phone calls and meetings.
See how much your employees work each month.

Price

There is a free version that limits you to 4 clients or projects. It would be best for a small group to pay at least $9 per month. For enterprises with 20 to 100 users, they might pay a lower amount of $8 per person to enjoy the unlimited privileges.

8. ActiTime

ActiTime is time tracker software that helps you get better insight into how your employees spend their time. It’s an easy-to-use desktop app that tracks application usage, projects and sites visited.

Key features:

Track work over the web or just select applications.
See key metrics like total work hours, idle time, and application usage.

Price

ActiTime offers a free plan that has limited offers. Those with 40 users might pay $7 per person monthly. While those with more than that but less than 200 might pay $6 per person. Entreprises with more than 200 users get customized pricing offers.

9. DeskTime

DeskTime is a time tracking app that helps you and your team track time spent on productive activities. It’s a simple, easy-to-use app with a powerful reporting engine that will help you see where your time goes.

Key features:

Produces custom reports.
It tracks offline time.
Tracks document titles.

Price

DeskTime is free for a single user. The most popular plan is the Premium which might cost you a monthly bill of $7.8 per user.

10. RescueTime

RescueTime is a time tracking app that helps you understand how you spend your time and make changes to be more productive. It runs in the background on your computer and phone, tracking all of your time spent on applications and websites.

Key features:

Track time on specific tasks or projects.
Get detailed reports on time usage.
Set daily goals and track progress.

Price

RescueTime offers a free trial. The premium version is $12 per month.

Getting accurate time tracking data is critical for businesses of all sizes to measure employee productivity or monitor project profitability. The ten apps in this post are some of the best options around that can help you do just that. Choose the one that best suits your needs and get started today.

The Purpose of time tracking for lawyers

You can use time tracking for several different purposes in the legal profession.

For lawyers, time tracking can help with the following:

Billable Hours: Time tracking can help lawyers track how many hours they spend on each case or project and generate invoices accordingly. It is beneficial for firms that bill clients by the hour.
Client Management: Time tracking can help lawyers track which clients they are spending the most time with and what types of cases they are working on for each client. You can use the information to generate reports for clients or partners.
Task Management: Time tracking can help lawyers track the time spent on different tasks such as legal research, document review, and drafting or seeking writing services from Careers Boosters. You can use the data to organize the workflow and identify areas to save time.
Expense Tracking: Time tracking can help lawyers track the time spent on phone calls and meetings, which can then be categorized as billable or nonbillable expenses depending upon the nature of the meeting.
Time Management: Time tracking can help lawyers identify how they are spending their time and where they might make changes to become more productive. You can use this information to generate reports or set goals for the future.
Project Profitability: Time tracking can help lawyers track the amount of time spent on each project and compare it to the amount of money billed to the client. This data can be used to determine whether a project was profitable or not.
Employee Productivity: Time tracking can help lawyers track how much time different employees spend on different tasks and identify areas where more or less time is spent. The information determines whether employees are productive and rewards the most merit employees.

Lawyers Time Tracking Common Mistakes

While time tracking can be a helpful tool for lawyers, many mistakes can be made when using it. The following are some of the most common ones:

Not Tracking Time Spent on Tasks: This is the most common mistake lawyers make when using time tracking software. Not tracking the time spent on different tasks makes it impossible to determine profitable projects.
Not Utilizing the Data: The data generated when using time tracking software can be extremely helpful for lawyers in many different ways. However, if this information isn’t put to good use, then there isn’t any point in tracking time in the first place.
Not Tracking Time for all Employees: It is vital to track the time spent by all employees, to get an accurate picture of employee productivity, not just a select few.
Not Tracking Time for all Cases: Lawyers should track the time spent on every case they are working on to picture how well each case was accurate. If some cases are excluded, this data may not be beneficial.
Basing Billable Hours off Time Tracking Data: Time tracking for a specific task doesn’t always mean that it should be billed out at the rates set by the firm. Billable hours should also consider how good each case is and whether a minimum amount of time needs to be billed for the firm to make a profit on it.
Not Allowing Adjustments: Time tracking software can assume that all tasks or projects were worked on for exactly as long as is tracked. However, this is often not the case, and there needs to be some flexibility built into the system to allow for adjustments.
Not Reviewing Time Tracking Data Regularly: You can get the most benefit from time tracking by reviewing data regularly and making changes in how work is done. If this doesn’t happen, the data is generated for no reason.
Inaccurate Tracking: To get an accurate picture of how time is spent during the workday, it is essential that time tracking software is accurate and not prone to human error.
No Communication with Clients about Time Tracking: Clients need to be made aware of time tracking and why. It will help to avoid any misunderstandings or adverse reactions.
Not Training Employees on Time Tracking: Employees need to be trained on using time tracking software to ensure accurate data.

Time tracking can be a handy tool for law firms with the proper planning. It can help to increase profitability, improve productivity and identify where time is being wasted or spent inefficiently.

Conclusion

Time tracking is a process that involves recording the amount of time spent on different tasks or activities. Lawyers can use it to track their working hours on different cases, projects, and tasks to improve productivity and profitability.

While some mistakes can be made when using time tracking software, these can be avoided by planning and utilizing the generated data.