Time recording that survives the bill

Attorney at Work quotes an ABA Legal Technology Report figure on late time recording. Time missing the same day loses 10%, the next day 25%, and the end of the week 50%.

Getting the time down is only the first test. Every entry then has to get past the partner reviewing the bill and the client reading it. An entry nobody can explain at either point ends in a write off or a query.

Time recording as you work

• Start a timer when you start the matter, even if you think the task will take ten minutes, as Nonbillable's tips put it.
• Six minute units throughout. One unit is a tenth of an hour, the same for everyone in the firm.
• The day's time goes in before you leave, never at the end of the week.
• All of it gets recorded. The billing review decides what to remove. Time cut before anybody records it leaves no trace of the work at all.

Short tasks are where time goes missing. A two minute email is still a unit. Each one records as it happens, rather than a day of emails rolled into one vague entry at five o'clock.

What gets cut at the partner's review

At the pre-bill review a partner decides what goes on the invoice. Entries that make that decision hard are the ones that lose time:

• time recorded against the wrong matter and not moved before billing closes;
• an entry with no narrative, or one that just repeats the task type;
• one entry covering several unrelated tasks, which nobody can trim without cutting all of it;
• a whole morning entered as one round figure, which reads as reconstructed.

LCN's guide to time recording adds the timing problem. Time on the wrong matter needs a transfer before billing closes. Once the bill has gone out, fixing it means going back to the accounts team.

What the client reads

The narrative is the only part of an entry a client sees. It has to say what was done, to what, and for what purpose. Nonbillable gives the model: "Call with other side to discuss and agree outstanding points on security agreement", not just a call with the other side.

1. The action comes first: drafted, reviewed, negotiated, advised.
2. Then the document, the party or the issue.
3. Say what the work achieved, when it achieved something.
4. Leave out internal shorthand. The client cannot decode it.

Three entries, rewritten

• "Emails" becomes "Reviewed vendor's amended special conditions and emailed client the two changes affecting settlement."
• "Research" becomes "Researched the notice period required to end the lease early, for advice to client."
• So "Call client" becomes "Call with client to take instructions on the settlement offer and its deadline."

Record time you will not charge

LCN's examples of non-chargeable time include business development and legal research. It records against a non-chargeable code rather than disappearing. It shows where the rest of the day went. It also says what a type of matter really takes, the next time you quote one.

What late entries cost in a year

Consider a lawyer charging $400 an hour who loses half an hour a day to late entries. Across 230 working days that is 115 hours, or $46,000 a year. These are example figures, not a benchmark.

Entering time costs time as well. Attorney at Work describes a partner whose own time entry consumed the equivalent of $30,000 of billable hours in a year.

The end of day check

1. Today's entries open, and each one needs a matter and a narrative.
2. Compare them with your calendar, sent emails and call log for the day.
3. Add anything missing while you still remember what it was.
4. Anything on the wrong matter moves now, never at month end.