The old adage “time is money” is especially true for law firms and other professional services organizations. Although the need for timekeeping is a given, the way in which your timekeepers keep time can vary drastically depending on your timekeeping policy, your attorneys’ habits, the firm’s culture, and of course, your timekeeping solution.

For many firms, timekeeping is a sore subject. Attorneys hate doing it because many of the existing processes and technology in place adds complexity to an already hectic day. Yet, timekeeping cannot be ignored because its accuracy drives financial performance, client satisfaction and attorney productivity.

Today’s attorneys are under a ton of pressure.

Facing a myriad of daily demands, the modern mobile attorney works daily to balance the demands of their work and personal lives. A typical day is comprised of activities aimed at keeping clients happy and maintaining trust, delivering on heavy caseloads, caring for kids or elderly family members. If it seems like attorneys are always working, it is because they are.

Timekeeping has long been a sore subject for attorneys. After all, many attorneys see timekeeping as a necessary evil, a means to an end, or a process that is inefficient, painful and downright annoying.

How does your firm’s time entry performance compare to other firms in the industry? In this post, we’ll discuss why time entry performance should be a top priority for firms and what you can do to improve your firm’s performance.

When reviewing your firm's financial health each month, how closely do you look at your time entry performance? If your answer is "never," you're not alone. Although most firms are looking to drive additional revenue, the time card rarely comes into focus as a means to achieve it. 

On this blog we often discuss the importance of adhering to good time entry practices. We emphasize the importance of contemporaneous time entry and stress the need for creating positive habits. We do this because we strongly believe that contemporaneous time entry simply produces better-quality timecards than any other method. This is important because good timecards don’t delay your invoicing, are less often questioned by your clients, get paid quicker, suffer less write-offs, and, ultimately, get you more money for the work you are already doing.

Introducing a new technology to attorneys can be challenging. After all, attorneys have been burned many times by solutions that are inefficient, overly complicated and ineffective. This has led to a perception that attorneys are unwilling to adopt new technology. At Bellefield, we've found this to be a major misconception. In our experience, attorneys enthusiastically embrace new technology - so long as it is actually adding value to their processes.

“Ding!” An email has just entered your inbox as “just a friendly reminder” that time entries are once again due (or perhaps past due). Upon reading this email, you might wince, groan, huff or roll your eyes. After all, this isn’t exactly what you imagined when you attended law school, is it?

Why is time entry such a dreaded task for attorneys anyway? We all know that the billable hour is the ultimate currency for law firms. Simply put, without time entry, no one gets paid. The truth is, however, the importance of timekeeping doesn’t make it any less painful.

Old-school time entry solutions are working against the goals of the modern law firm.

Unlike some of today's professions that have evolved out of the technology era, the practice of law has been around for centuries. From the moment that attorneys began recording time, the process has been pretty much the same. The attorney does the work and at some later date, he or she sits down to review logs, calendars, emails, etc. to estimate how much time was spent, matter by matter. When you consider it this way, it’s no wonder why time entry is a dreaded activity among attorneys! Reconstructing time takes hours of time away from doing what attorneys do best: practicing law. Even with the help of legal assistants, traditional time entry places a significant burden on the attorney.

Since attorneys started billing by the hour in the 1960s, time has been central to any conversation about billing. The need to keep time for hours worked has not changed, but the way that attorneys and law firms approach timekeeping has evolved dramatically over the years. In this post, we welcome Joe Bookman, founder of PinHawk, who has taken an active role in the evolution of timekeeping, to give us a firsthand account of how things have changed.

If you are familiar with this blog, you are aware that at Bellefield we are passionate about innovation in legal technology. As the first company to design and bring to market timekeeping for the Apple Watch, we understand the impact of wearables and mobile technologies have on an attorney’s productivity.

For many attorneys, time entry is a sore subject. However, it isn’t time entry that is the problem, but rather the way in which time entry is carried out. Time consuming and tedious, reconstructive time entry is likely to be procrastinated by attorneys who would much rather practice law than spend hours combing through call logs and schedules to determine how their time was spent. This estimation (and let’s face it, in many instances “guess work”) leads to several inaccuracies which have an adverse effect on the firm’s projections and bottom line. Even those attorneys who consider themselves in control of time entry processes face several inaccuracies bred from inherent inefficiencies. Suffice to say that even the best reconstructive timekeepers can’t match the accuracy and efficiency of contemporaneous timekeepers.

There are two things related to timekeeping that almost all law firms have in common:

Time entry can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be.

Recently, we were invited to participate in a mini-series, Talking Tech by Charles Christian regarding time recording, capture and tracking within law firms. Dani was on point, representing our team to address several important issues happening now in the legal technology. A few important themes emerged from the discussion, which we think are valuable here.

If you haven’t read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by best-selling author, Stephen Covey, you’ve at least heard of it. Covey sold over 20 million copies (in 38 languages!) of the famous book, which remains one of the best selling business books of all time.  This inspired many other titles of the same theme – kids, marketers, programmers and even law firm rainmakers. At this point, just about everyone is highly effective. Everyone, well, except timekeepers.

Of the many functions that attorneys carry out on a daily basis to win clients and cases, timekeeping doesn’t get any of the glitz and glamour. After all, when young law students daydream about their futures as attorneys, they don’t typically conjure up images of rockstar timekeeping. However, that doesn’t make timekeeping any less important to the firm.

Although timekeeping has earned a reputation for being a painful task that attorneys and staff dread, it doesn’t have to be - thanks to these two truths of modern timekeeping:

1. Mobile Timekeeping Apps now allow attorneys to enter their time in real-time, preventing the need for hours of reconstructive time estimating.
2. Mobile time entry, by design, is meant to work the way attorneys work.  This means that the time entry process fits into the attorney’s current workstyle of being mobile and on the go. 

When it comes to time entry in the legal industry, there are several misconceptions. Perhaps these misconceptions exist because people are afraid of change. Change is really hard, after all. Misconceptions can serve as a defense mechanism against the pain brought on by change. In the famous words of President John F. Kennedy, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Mobile time entry is the future. However, despite the notable benefits of embracing contemporaneous time entry, many firms resist. This resistance relies on - you guessed it - many commonly-held misconceptions about time entry and compliance at law firms.

In the legal world, everyone keeps time. But, how accurate are those time logs?

Has your firm ever measured the time elapsed between the time that the work was completed and when the time recorded? For most firms, the average is about 5 to 7 days.

Why does this matter? Well, because the longer it takes to record an activity the less you will remember. It will all even out eventually, right? Probably not.

It may not be your favorite thing to do and it is certainly not the reason that you became an attorney, but timekeeping is an important part of gaining and maintaining your clients’ trust. The good news is that timekeeping doesn’t have to be painful or a source of stress.

In the following list, we’ve identified the 6 most important timekeeping resolutions that you should commit to this year.