by Monica Irelan Karas
This article was originally published in the Wisconsin Law Journal on September 27, 2006.
It is no secret that technology is everywhere and changing everything. Who would have thought that keeping track of billable hours would have ever become anything more than writing down what you did that day and turning it over to the billing department. Oh how times have changed. Today there are many different approaches to keeping track of billable and non-billable time. There are some that are better than others and there are some practices that are just plain counter-productive, like the attorney who will not enter his/her time until the end of the month, and then cannot seem to figure out where the time went.
As a former legal administrator and queen of end of the month reminders to ‘get all time in before billing,’ I can tell you that timekeeping can be a frustrating process for everyone involved. Yet, there are things that can be done to make timekeeping an occurrence that runs more smoothly. Some things are more obvious than others and some things may completely rely on the particular software a firm uses. Let’s examine some of the available remedies.
Starting with the obvious, consistency is key. As with most things in life, consistency will usually simplify things a bit. Where do you put your keys when you return home? If you hang them in the same place every night you will likely know where they are in the morning. Similarly, you should try to have a ritual of putting your time in at the same time every day, whenever possible. If an assistant is putting your time in for you, the same person should consistently enter it for you. That person will know if you have entered something twice (or three times) or if your entries have suddenly become inconsistent and are not making sense.
Enough, though, about the obvious, let’s talk tech. What can your software systems do for you? That obviously depends on what you are running, but some of the applications that are available today have a wealth of features intended to make the art of time entry quicker and easier.
Billing Matters™, the sister package to LexisNexis’ Time Matters® product, combines the two software pieces so that things such as a calendar entries in Time Matters can be sent directly to Billing Matters as a billing entry without having to be re-entered. Essentially, it is eliminating the step of having to enter the event into a separate system. Time Matters also has a feature called ‘set repeating,’ which gives the user the option to schedule the same event to repeat daily over any given period of time. So if you are involved in a class action suit in which Plaintiffs’ depositions have been scheduled everyday for two weeks or you are attending a conference in the Bahamas for three days, these events could be set as repeating events on the calendar so they happen every day for the duration selected. You can then send those repeating entries to the Billing Matters program without re-entering the information. This is something that is also easy for an assistant to do for you with little or no direction since all the information is already there.
Time Matters, being a case management system, offers a number of other features such as To Dos, notes, document and e-mail management. Like calendared events, any of these items can be sent to Billing Matters as the record is created or when it is completed. Automation features can also be implemented to assist in the billing process. For example, a To Do might be created to call the client or research arguments for your summary judgment brief. When you complete the task, you can remove it from the list of items needing your attention and automatically send it to Billing Matters by marking it done.
Software Technology’s TABS 3 product also has some time saving features. The timer feature can be turned on and off while completing a task. This can be helpful while doing any number of things from timing phone calls to keeping track of the time it takes to mark exhibits. The TABS 3 product will then take the time which the timer has logged and transfer it directly to your billing entry. Getting in the habit of doing this can be extremely beneficial. Our clients who have adopted a firm-wide policy of timing every task have seen billable time increase between 25 and 33% by using the timer feature alone.
Billing Matters and TABS are not the only products with these types of features. If you do not have either of those applications, almost all billing applications and many case management applications have similar features. Most time and billing software also offer sophisticated reports at the click of a button. Most have a wide array of standard reports along with others that can be customized to your specific situation. You can customize summary reports over any given time period, perhaps an attorney’s entire career with your firm. Others reports can determine totals across many criteria including timekeeper, timekeeper levels (partner, associates, paralegals, clerks, etc.), billing code (such as the Uniform Task Based Managed System, UTBMS, that may be required by your client or internal codes defaulted by your billing software), billable and non-billable time, individual client, etc. The possible combinations are nearly limitless.
These things are only a small snapshot of some of the features offered by software packages that make entering and keeping track of time more efficient and easier. If you are evaluating a new time and billing system, or this is the first time you are implementing one, these features are only a few of the many things to keep in mind while evaluating your options.
Another timekeeping dilemma faced by many firms and even solo practitioners is whether to track non-billable time. Doing so may be helpful in trying to figure out where your time is being spent. By requiring timekeepers to keep track of all of their time during the work day and not just the billable time, it helps to manage things such as lost time due to equipment failures, training and general research. Chances are, when you look at all of the time spent in a day, a week, a month, etcetera, and not just the billable time, you will notice patterns of inefficiency and opportunities to recapture otherwise wasted time.
Ultimately, when firms utilize software to help them track their time they are able to capture more time and sometimes even eliminate the double entry systems that many firms still use today. Additionally, those firms that track their non-billable time are able to make better business decisions with the information they capture. At the end of the day, most firms that move to a software-based time and billing system wonder how they ever lived without it. Once installed, they are able to capture more billable time and be more efficient while doing so.
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Information Technology Professionals provides a full range of services for Billing Matters and PCLaw from LexisNexis as well as TABS from Software Technologies, Inc. Call Jeff Krause or Joe Ulm at ITP for details or request informaton here.
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