How To Choose the Best Attorney Time and Billing Software
09/15/2025 By Clare Sheehan
When searching for attorney time and billing software, keep in mind that the best solutions are the simplest and most efficient. All you need is a simple way to record billable time, generate invoices, and collect payments. A 2024 industry report showed that good billing software can yield a significant uptick in revenue, but only if you choose one that works. If you’re looking for legal billing software as a solo practitioner or even a midsize firm, the best software will simplify your time tracking, invoice generation, and payment collection. Below, we’ll examine what that looks like in practice and give you a few questions to ask each software provider about their solution as you’re browsing.
What Features Are Essential for Attorney Time and Billing Software?
The most essential qualities for billing software are security, organization, and flexibility. Here are some features that signal a software provider prioritizes those traits:
- Encrypted data storage to protect you and your clients’ information
- Workflows are made to handle trust accounting, LEDES, or UTBMS formatting
- Easy switching between timers for different rates, matters, and clients
- Convenient editing of all manual entries on your billable hours chart
- Reporting to help track time allocation — for example, billable hours vs. actual hours
- Seamless integration into your existing billing practices
- Templating that lets you create your general advocate bill format for faster invoicing
Look for software providers that specialize in legal billing and understand your needs as a law firm. General accounting software, while useful, often lacks the specific features and functionalities necessary to handle legal billing effectively.
How to Choose the Right Law Firm Time and Billing Software
Choosing the right software starts with understanding your pain points as a law firm. The right software will both anticipate and address those pain points, all at a price point you can afford. Are you a solo attorney looking for simplicity, or a mid-sized firm that needs multiple user access? Do you need help with generating invoices, collecting client payments, or both? What’s your current advocate invoice format, and how would you like it to change, if at all?
Regardless of who you talk to, make sure you come prepared with a list of current operational struggles; it’s then the provider’s job to come back with a list of solutions their software will provide. Look for software that streamlines time tracking, automates billing, and integrates with your existing tech, especially software with built-in payment processing.
Support is also a must for any software; your provider should not only have a great solution, but great customer service to go with it. The right choice isn’t always the flashiest one; it’s the one that makes your work day easier.
What Should Different Firm Sizes Consider When Choosing Software?
While some basics of choosing a good software are universal, such as security and price, some things do vary based on your firm’s headcount and available resources. If you’re a solo practitioner, simplicity and ease of use are the most important things to consider. Regardless of how powerful or nuanced a software is, if you can’t use all those features or they require a lot of plug-ins to work, you can easily get bogged down in useless technology slop.
The magic phrase you’re looking for is “all-in-one solution:” something self-contained, comprehensive, and mobile-friendly that you can access from anywhere. For small to midsize firms, your key considerations are user-friendliness and scalability. Small and medium businesses need to remain flexible and adaptable, scaling up or down alongside their caseloads — and that means your software needs to scale with you.
Thankfully, with the introduction of cloud-based technology, firms no longer need a ton of physical infrastructure to have software that works well. Most software providers offer multiple tiers of access, each with its own price point, that you can easily switch between. For example, Bill4Time offers four pricing tiers, each with its own set of features, starting at $27/month. Large firms and corporate enterprises need stability and connectivity above all else.
Software that is subject to constant updates and changes can be particularly problematic when you have to communicate those changes across dozens or even hundreds of staff. Speaking of communication, your software needs to enable as much communication as possible, whether through plug-ins, integrations, or dedicated communication portals — both internal and external.
To reiterate, all firms need software that addresses these traits, no matter their size or specialty. What we’ve laid out above are top priorities to consider, but that doesn’t make any of these qualities any less important for firms across the spectrum of size. It’s worth noting, though, that small to midsize firms likely stand to gain the most from using software. They lose about $1.5 million annually to billing inefficiencies, but research shows that software helps recoup about half of that. It doesn’t take software to know that’s a huge return on investment.
Improve Your Law Firm’s Time Tracking and Billing Processes With Bill4Time
Legal billing software adds a layer of security, convenience, and connectivity that both you and your clients will appreciate. And this software is no longer a luxury only the biggest and richest firms can afford; for as little as $27 a month, you can have software that’s not only robust but usable on any smart device, including your smartphone. That’s what we offer at Bill4Time.
Our software is a secure, streamlined solution that not only improves your lawyer billing process but also formats it for client comprehension, leading to better communication and quicker collections. You’ll spend less time double-checking your math and emailing back and forth explaining your invoice, which leaves you more time to focus on your clients’ cases and even grow your business. Give Bill4Time a try; sign up for a trial. If you want to see the software in action, you can also sign up for a free demo by clicking the button at the bottom of this blog.
