Top Five Ways to Increase Your Billable Time

8/9/2019 Top Five Ways to Increase Your Billable Time

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Top Five Ways to Increase

Your Billable Time

(Without Working Longer Hours)by Seth Rowland

Chrometa, LLC

1029 H St.

Suite 103

Sacramento, CA 95814

(888) 340-6425

[email protected]

www.chrometa.com
mailto:[email protected]://www.chrometa.com/http://www.chrometa.com/mailto:[email protected]


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Top Five Ways to Increase Your Billable Time(Without Working Longer Hours)

Arecent survey found that law-yers work three hours for ev-

ery two they bill. (Google How Attorneys Track Their Billable Time,Maximize Your Billable Time, Jan. 5,2010.)

Picture a publicly traded companythat disclosed it had only billed (for-get about collecting) two-thirds of theitems it sold. The Board of Directorswould reprimand and probably ter-minate the CEO, CFO, and CTO forfailing to develop processes to pre-vent this catastrophe. Shareholders

would file class action suits. And yet,this scenario is essentially the currentstate of most, if not all, law firms.

This situation exists for many rea-sons, including: (1) administrativeoverhead, (2) reasonable accommo-dations to the financial circumstanc-es of clients; (3) write-offs for poorresults, and (4) write-offs for trainingnew associates. And then there isthe significant amount of non-billabletime spent by lawyers just reconciling

their time over two hours per weekon average. But none of these factorsexplain the majority of the unbilledtime. The reality is there is no legiti-mate business reason for the major-ity of unbilled time. So the questionarises how can you increase yourbillable time?

1. Practice Accurate TimekeepingIf you bill clients by the project orthe hour, you need to keep accuraterecords of time spent on each job.For hourly clients, keeping correcttimesheets ensures you get paid forall the work you do. Legal ethics rulesalso require you to accurately trackyour time.

A number of firms have switched toflat rate or fi xed fee billing. Technically,these firms dont need to track theirtime. However, until the use of docu-

ment assembly technology (so-calleexpert systems) becomes more com

mon, even these firms need to tractheir time to determine the profitabity of alternative billing models. Theneed to track attorney productivity awell as assess whether their fixed fepricing adequately covers their coof doing business.

For administrative work, keeping corect timesheets reflects the amouof time that you have invested bettering your firm. If you invest seeral hundred hours in developing set of automated templates, it is important to know how much humacapital was expended in developin

productivity tools. When your clienask why you charged $2,000 for aestate plan that took you two houto create with a document assembengine, you can point to the hundreds of hours your firm invested treach that level of efficiency anmore importantly the quality of thfinished product resulting from thinvestment.

2. Record Your Time ConcurrentlyAttorneys fail to bill from 10 to 25 pecent of their legitimate billable houas a result of bad recording habitbeing overwhelmed, disorganizatioand poor team management, writeDustin Cole, president of AttorneyMaster Class. This means that a firwith $1 million in gross billings leaveas much as $250,000 per year on thtable for work performed but nevbilled.

Page

For hourly clients, keeping correc

timesheets ensures you get paid

for all the work you do.

Legal ethics rules also requireyou to accurately track your time

Chrometa, LLC

1029 H St.

Suite 103


(888) 340-6425

[email protected]

www.chrometa.com


3/4


One reason attorneys fail to bill isthey dont remember and eth-

ics rules say not to invent. The so-lution is simple. When you finish atask, bill it. Note the time spent onthe task. Identify the client and mat-ter, and then briefly describe the workperformed. You can adjust and editthese entries before adding them toa bill and sending it out. Given thewealth of legal billing applications both software and Web-based appli-cations (software as a service) youshould be able to find a suitable solu-tion for your firm.

3. Use Your Calendar SoftwareEveryone has a calendar, paper orelectronic. Whether you use Micro-soft Outlook or a legal-specific prac-tice management application, youcan use your calendar as more thana scheduler. Instead, it can becomeyour first line of defense in planningyour day and recording your time.

Use your calendar to schedule workand to document work you haveperformed. This method works likea time sheet but its more concrete.For example, when meeting with aclient, calendar the meeting, includ-ing the start and the finish time. If themeeting runs over, adjust your calen-dar to reflect the actual time of themeeting. When drafting a document

or conducting research, run a stopwatch or timer and note your staand finish time. With many practicmanagement programs, you can covert these calendar items into a billinentry with a single mouse click.

4. Use Time Capture Software asSafety Net

Traditional time tracking systems rquire you to enter your time throughout the day. Sometimes, this methobecomes impractical even for thmost diligent among us. Its inevitabthat you will lose bits and pieces

billable time. It may seem small butadds up.

With time capture software, you caprevent these bits and pieces frofalling through the cracks. Time capture software works by automaticarecording your computer activity what you worked on, when, and fhow long. For example, it will tractime spent writing in a word procesing file, using a legal research Wesite, reading and writing email, an

much more.

You can generate a comprehensireport of your days activities to hecreate your time entries. You mabe surprised at what turns up no

just lost billable time but wasttime as well ( it happens to the beof us).

A growing number of mobile apperform the same function on smarphones. They capture all your tele

phone calls, which you can then covert into billing entries. Some of thesapps sync with practice managemesystems.

Cost recovery systems, a close couin of time capture software, can alshelp. For example, if you spend a loof time on your office phone, yocost recovery system can create

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Traditional time tracking systems

require you to enter your time

throughout the day.

Sometimes, this method becomes

impractical even for the most

diligent among us.

Its inevitable that you will lose

bits and pieces of billable time.

Chrometa, LLC

1029 H St.

Suite 103


(888) 340-6425

[email protected]

www.chrometa.com


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report of your phone logs and auto-associate telephone numbers with a

particular client file.

5. Spend Less Time Reconciling

Your Time You know the drill. You sit aroundfor a while and think about the workyou did for the past month. If you aregood you engage in this reconcili-ation at the end of each week. You

basically conduct forensic analysiby reviewing email and documentStaying late to reconstruct your timgets old pretty fast. Its pure admiistrative work (i.e., unbillable). Eveworse, it typically results in under-biing and lost revenue. By tracking yotime concurrently when possible, anusing cost recovery and time captusoftware as a safeguard, you can reduce and even eliminate the need reconcile your time.

ConclusionYou work hard. Youre entitled to e

ery penny you earn. While implemening the tips in this report may requichanging your routine a bit, theyno more onerous than trying to rconstruct your time and much lesprone to under-billing.

Seth Rowland, Esq. was named TechnoLawyer Consultant of the Year in 2002 for hiswork on document assembly and law practice automation. He is a nationally knowntechnologist whose company, Basha Systems LLC (www.bashasys.com), has helpedmany law firms build customized practice management and workflow solutions. Bash

Systems currently offers consulting services for Amicus Attorney, Time Matters,Advologix, HotDocs, Exari, and DealBuilder. Please visit Seths blog(www.bashasys.info).

Chrometa, LLC

1029 H St.

Suite 103


(888) 340-6425

[email protected]

www.chrometa.com

Time capture software works

by automatically recording

your computer activity

what you worked on, when,

and for how long.

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Top Five Ways to Increase Your Billable Time