The Importance of Time Tracking for Lawyers
As an attorney, whether you work in a major legal firm or manage a solo practice, you are obliged to meet billable hourly objectives and are compensated financially for doing so. To be profitable, law firms must track and manage billable, non-billable, and overhead hours to evaluate client, matter, and timekeeper performance. However, for the vast majority of law firms, reaching and managing the needed billable objective is an ongoing issue.
The Challenges of Capturing Billable Hours in a Remote Work Environment
Transitioning abruptly to working remotely can provide several obstacles, including frequent interruptions. To stay up, timekeepers must brush up on their time management abilities and discover the right collection of tools to satisfy their clients’ needs. In addition, they must discover effective strategies to accommodate their own work style while recording billable hours.
The administration of a law firm must review performance data to see if the solutions now accessible to timekeepers offer cloud-based, seamlessly connected, and user-friendly technology to alleviate the burden of timekeeping.
To achieve success, law firms must be abreast of ever-evolving technologies and compare existing solutions and workflow methods. Moreover, legal firms must employ cloud-based time, billing, and accounting systems that are the most efficient.
Because attorneys prioritize their work based on client expectations, demands, and deadlines, tracking billable hours is a despised burden and a low priority. It adheres to the same principle as the old proverb, “the cobbler constantly needs fresh shoes.”
The Consequences of Poor Time Tracking
In a legal office, as well as any other professional services organization where time monitoring is crucial, losing even.
Consider the billable hours lost as a result of inefficiency in time tracking.
- Timekeeper invoices $375.00 an hour
- Every day, the timekeeper loses.25 minutes of billable time.
- Timekeeper lost income value of $93.75 a day
- Timekeeper weekly loss revenue <$468.75>
- The timekeeper’s monthly income loss is $2,031.25
- Timekeeper’s annual revenue loss is $24,375.
- Five timekeepers’ annual missed earnings amount to $121,875.00
The numbers above demonstrate that losing merely 15 minutes each day results in substantial income loss.
How a Cloud-Based, Seamlessly Integrated Solution Allows You to Capture All Your Hourly Billing
Your timekeepers can conveniently enter, track, and manage billable, non-billable, and overhead time using a completely connected, cloud-based time billing software with a user interface built for easy time capture. In addition, with the availability of a native mobile application, your business will effortlessly capture more time.
This implies anytime, everywhere access to real-time measurements for up-to-the-minute reporting, as well as greater productivity and profitability for your business. By collecting this information, management can measure staff performance, utilization, and profitability with efficiency and precision.
Four Tips for Time Tracking to Capture More Billable Time
Provide Solutions
- Provide Solutions for time, billing, and accounting on the cloud
- Web and mobile device access functionalities
- Apps native to iOS and Android
- Ability to record and manage time whenever and whenever
- Capability to report and bill time at any time and place.
- Norms for descriptions and internal billing practices
Provide Options
- Timesheet entry
- A predefined timesheet, including activity codes
- Multiple timers
- Capability to attach supporting documents to fee entries
- Mobile app input time convenience
- Tracking journey time on a smartphone app is simple.
Do’s for Entering Time
- Record time while performing the job.
- Keep web solution active while at work Keep mobile app accessible when away from the office
- Track time on the road with a mobile app
- Timekeeping through an online or mobile app
- Casework scheduling and alarms
- Launch several timers for casework switching
- Start timer when the phone calls and compose an explanation
- Start time input when beginning casework
- Always verify that your customer, task, and billable hours are right.
- Track vacation time, sick leave, and extra
- DO TRACK TIME WHILE WORKING
Don’ts for Entering Time
- Do not manually record the time
- Do not allow employees to manually input time
- Do not include invoicing information in Excel or a spreadsheet for workers to copy and paste.
- Do not recreate and recapture from email conversations at the month’s conclusion.
- Do not rebuild and recapture prepared correspondence at the conclusion of the month.
- Do not replicate and recover information from phone records.
- DO NOT Attempt to Create or Recapture Time.
Final Thoughts on Profit Maximization Through Time Tracking
A flawlessly integrated cloud-based solution enables your legal firm the online and mobile choices to manage the firm, client, and matter data and assess staff performance from any location, on any device, at any time. In addition, a native mobile app that has been created with artificial intelligence, real-time dashboards, time and expense input, and productivity management makes it easier for on-the-go attorneys to capture billable hours.
Consequently, conquer your time-tracking difficulties by identifying and adopting the best solution for your organization using the advice provided below. Soon, missed billable hours will be a thing of the past, replaced by enhanced employee performance and increased revenue for your company.
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