In the fast-paced world of modern law practice, one-size-fits-all time tracking simply isn’t enough. While fundamental time-tracking methods might capture the essentials, they often fall short in maximizing efficiency and profitability.
For lawyers aiming to boost their billable hours and streamline operations, it’s crucial to go beyond the basics. By putting advanced time-tracking techniques into place and strategically integrating their software, legal professionals can uncover hidden billable hours, reduce administrative burdens, and enhance overall workflow efficiency.
Here are six advanced time-tracking tips to improve your law firm’s time-tracking practices and find even more billable hours in the process.
Tip #1: Automate time-tracking workflows
The right workflows can be a life-saver for busy attorneys. By automating repetitive (but necessary) tasks, you can focus on value-added projects instead. One of the great things about today’s legal software is that you can create workflows for a wide variety of tasks, including time tracking.
First, make a list of all the tasks your law firm completes on a daily or weekly basis. Common items include client intake, document creation, scheduling, and case management. Then, leverage your practice management software to create workflow templates around time tracking.
Tabs3, for instance, has triggered responses that can be set up within the system once an action is complete. For example, you can set up a workflow that automatically creates a fee record with pre-filled information once a document has been created or an email has been journaled for your clients.
Tip #2: Implement detailed descriptions and task codes
Are your invoices clear, detailed, and easy to understand? If not, you run the risk of creating confusion, not to mention conflict, with clients.
To avoid this, increase transparency and organization with time-tracking entries that include detailed descriptions and UTBMS (Uniform Task-Based Management System) codes. These task codes help:
- Standardize how you categorize legal work and expenses
- Cut down on manual errors
- Ensure consistent billing data
- Analyze data so you can manage budgets and resources
Combining task codes with detailed descriptions in time tracking enhances various aspects of legal billing. Capturing the fullest amount of information associated with time tracked helps your firm to:
- Identify inefficiencies in your processes and activities
- Improve client satisfaction with clear billing practices
- Ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards
Tip #3: Review and analyze time-tracking data
Are there areas where your firm is falling short of time-tracking goals or billable hours? You won’t know if you don’t check!
To identify problematic patterns in workflows, institute regular reviews of time records. Ideally, reviews will take place on five levels:
- Daily review: tracked time should be reviewed daily to correct errors while the work is fresh on their mind
- Weekly review: higher-level staff should check all time tracked to catch errors and discover patterns that may be wasting hours
- Monthly review: assess which types of clients are the most profitable for your firm and identify high-level trends
- Quarterly review: check your budget against goals and see where your law firm can become more efficient
- Annual review: use time data to set billing rates and benchmarks for the next year to ensure profitability
Tip #4: Set matter budgets to stay on track with your time
Setting (and sticking to) matter budgets is another strategy for stepping up your time-tracking, as well as your firm’s profitability.
While matter budgets won’t impact how you track time, it’s a highly useful way to use your time tracked. By comparing actual time spent against budgeted time, your firm can monitor progress, identify discrepancies, and make necessary adjustments.
To create realistic matter budgets, start with historical data. The information allows you to project time requirements more accurately, allowing for better resource allocation and reducing the risk of inaccurate work estimates.
This also helps you evenly distribute workloads, preventing your staff from being over or underutilized and allowing you to maximize billable hours.
Additionally, your matter budgets can help control costs by setting limits on time and expenses. This promotes efficient resource use and reduces unnecessary expenditures. They enable better financial forecasting and planning, allowing firms to predict cash flows and manage finances proactively.
Tip #5: Train staff on best practices
Don’t expect your staff to understand time-tracking systems immediately. It takes time to implement new software. Set aside a few mornings to train staff on an overview of the software and best practices. Allow them to try it out in an environment where they can ask questions.
Make sure to highlight why they need to implement the new system. When your staff understands its importance, they’ll be more willing to learn how to use it.
Tip #6: Use a fully integrated time-tracking system
Choose a time-tracking system that fully integrates with your practice management software. This prevents data loss between the two systems and redundant manual data entry that eats up non-billable hours. It keeps your data consistent and allows you to make the most out of both systems.
When you use integrated time tracking software and legal practice management software, the benefits for your law firm include:
- Accurate insights via revenue forecasting
- Better transparency in billing practices, creating better relationships with clients
- Easy compliance with regulatory requirements
- Streamlined administrative work that allows lawyers to focus on billable tasks
Elevate your time tracking with Tabs3 Software
The right software simplifies time tracking and makes it easier for attorneys to practice law. Tabs3 Software offers an easy-to-use, seamlessly integrated suite of software products for law firms and legal professionals. Clients are so satisfied with our software that 9 out of 10 recommend Tabs3 to other law firms.
We can help you implement these time-tracking tips and find more profitability in your workday. Schedule a demo with our team today to learn how.