Time Tracking & Time Management for Lawyers

January 13, 2016 By Bill4Time Staff 1 Comment

“Time is a unique resource. It cannot be accumulated like money or stockpiled like raw materials. We are forced to spend it, whether we choose to or not, and at a fixed rate of sixty seconds every minute. It cannot be turned on and off like a machine or replaced like a man. It is irretrievable.” — R. Alec Mackenzie

Good time management is essential for lawyers. Lawyers who are organized and manage their time well are likely to succeed, have greater clarity of thought, are more efficient, utilize their legal skills more effectively and make a better impression on clients and colleagues than lawyers who demonstrate poor time management skills.

Good organization and time management skills are critical to a successful and satisfying legal career. These skills are also critical for lawyers to meet important ethical obligations to their clients. A lawyer’s duty to exercise good time management skills in professional matters is mandated by the American Bar Association’s “Model Rules of Professional Conduct,” which have been adopted by many of the state bars. Rule 1.3 on Diligence Conduct, lawyers are warned to avoid procrastination as “A clients interests often can be adversely affected by the passage of time or the change in conditions…” And in Rule 1.4 on Communication requires that “A lawyer shall keep a client informed about the status of a matter” and “promptly comply with reasonable requests for information.”

In addition to the ethical aspects, poor time management and disorganization may have other drawbacks for lawyers. Mounting stress from working in a continued “crisis” mode; frustration caused from not locating important documents or information; depression or dissatisfaction from not being as productive; and even potential exposure to malpractice claims. According to one consulting firm, the following traits have been identified as malpractice red flags:

Disorganized office and/or filing system
Fails to keep personal calendar
Does not make and follow a priority task list
Sloppy timekeeping

How much does poor time management cost? Even a few minutes each day spent searching for a file, telephone number, supplies or even a book can add up to a significant amount over time. If a lawyer has an hourly wage, let’s say $100 per hour and the lawyer loses only six minutes a day to poor time management, that adds up to $2,200 in annual lost billings. For a lawyer earning $200 per hour, the loss doubles. Just 30 minutes lost per day for a lawyer earning $200 per hour suddenly escalates to $22,000 in lost billings for one year alone. Now think about the the time you spend (or lose) each day?

So the old adage, “Time is money” is true.

One way to better manage your time (and money) is by tracking both billable and nonbillable time. This may seem daunting, but once you set realistic goals and make the process a habit, it can provide significant benefits for you, your firm and your clients.

For a lawyer who bills by the hour, timekeeping is crucial. Accurately capturing the quantity of billable time directly affects the total amount of time you must spend working in order to meet your billable time goals. Accurately describing your billable time allows you to create bills that clients understand and will promptly pay.

Again, the key is to track all time. If time tracking is discretionary, time will be missed. Deciding whether or not to track time just complicates the time tracking process. Tracking all time takes that away and makes the process more simple.

Tracking all time provides insight into your day. Often the gap is in non-billable time, whether it’s administrative or marketing, it’s time. Track this time and you will not be wondering if you missed something billable.

Non-billable time adds up. Tracking non-billable time helps lawyers pinpoint time spent on administration, marketing, community, CLE and other activities. Knowing how much time you spend on outside or firm activities is important. You may not even realize how many hours you spend on these activities until you track that time.

Tracking all time helps in setting realistic goals and helps in better time management. Knowing how much time you spend and on what will help you create greater efficiencies, increase productivity and provide the transparency you need to better communicate with your clients.

For easy and simple to use time tracking, look to Bill4Time. Bill4Time offers time billing software for lawyers that tracks time, provides invoicing, contact/project and document management and the convenience of online payment options. Try Bill4Time free for 30-days and see how much time (and money) you save!

Bill4Time Presents: How to Kill It In Social

January 11, 2016 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Bill4Time Presents:

How to Kill It In Social

A Webinar to help Small Businesses Master Social Media

Join us Thursday, January 28 @ 11am PT (2pm ET) :

Kristen Kuhns of GetSocialBiz.com will help you develop and execute a social media plan for your small business. Kuhns will share how to drive traffic and extend brand awareness by leveraging social media. You’ll learn how to better engage users and how to build a rapport; the importance of creating calls-to-action; and how to manage social & measure success.

Thursday, January 28 @ 11 am PT (2pm ET).

This free webinar will be about 40 minutes, followed by open question forum. Space is limited.

Kristen Kuhns is the founder of GetSocialBiz.com, a social media consultancy specifically focused on helping small businesses. Kuhns has an extensive background in technology, marketing and social media, and has founded several technology companies near Silicon Valley. She is the founder of two non-profits and her background includes 15 years as a Chief Operating Officer of a successful consulting firm. Currently, she devotes her time to helping small business owners drive traffic and extend brand awareness by leveraging social media. Kuhns is based outside of Sacramento, California but serves clients globally.

Tip of the Week: Applying Discounts & Write-Offs

January 8, 2016 By Kristin O'Neill Leave a Comment

Within Bill4Time there are many different ways to discount and write off balances. If you want to save entries and not charge for them you can uncheck your “Billable” box on your time entries. This allows you to save the entries to show the client the amount of hours worked at either $0.00 or No Charge.

On your Invoice you have two different options for writing down a balance. If you are discounting services you can use the Invoice Discount feature which will allow you to enter in either a Percentage or Flat Fee amount to deduct from your invoice total.

If you are writing up or down a balance you can also do this on the invoice by adjusting the total of labor and expenses. This can be pulled on the Invoice Write Up/Down report to see the original amounts and amounts adjusted.

At Bill4Time, we offer the features you need…and most of all, the features you use.
Easy to use, dependable and designed with you in mind—that’s Bill4Time. If you haven’t tried us, register for a free 30-day trial and
see for yourself.

How to Increase Billable Time (and Revenues) for Accountants

January 6, 2016 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

As an accountant, have you ever stopped to think about how many hours you bill in a year? Or how many hours you would like to bill in a year?

These numbers can be very different.

For many reasons, there is often a gap between the number of hours an accountant wants to bill versus the hours that are actually billed. While a difference of 50 hours may not seem like much, but at a rate of $250 an hour, this adds up quickly—to a total lost revenue of $12,500 annually.

The numbers tell the story. Time management is key to maximizing productivity and firm profits for accountants.

If you bill for your time directly or on an hourly basis, diligent timekeeping is paramount to getting paid for the work you perform. If you bill on a fixed fee basis, accurate timekeeping helps determine how profitable specific clients and projects are to the firm. And, if unprofitable, time tracking can help you realize the viability of a client for the long term.

There are many ways an accountant can appropriately increase billings.

Accurately Track Time. Maintain an accurate accounting of your time. Without this, you may lose significant billable time. If you work and are unable to bill for this time because you failed to track the time, you have just lost potential billable time and of course, revenue.

Accurate time tracking software also helps gauge the profitability of a given project, client or both through fixed fee engagements. After spending hours on a project or client, you can better determine if the engagement was worthwhile and if future endeavors are in your best interest. Solid time tracking not only tracks your time, but helps you determine how your time is best spent to ensure profitability.

Reconcile Time Daily. The longer you go without recording your time, the more difficult it is to recall how your time was spent. Therefore, rather than reconciling time at the end of the week or at month-end, reconcile your time at the end of each day. This way you can reconstruct and recapture time that would otherwise be lost and fade with your memory. Add this time to your calendar each day so you remember. At first this may seem like a chore, but after a few weeks, you will reap the rewards as your billable time will be greater, more precise and will generate additional revenue.

Stop Multi-Tasking. The phone rings. An email arrives. A package arrives. Interruptions occur constantly, making it tough to complete even one task to the end. Solution? Look at your list of “To Do’s” and choose the single most important task that day and work only on that task, uninterrupted until it is completed.

Granted, it’s easy to stop and check email, type out a quick response to an IM, answer the phone, check a website or divert your attention to a million other momentary distractions. But, it you can master the ability to focus on one singular task until it is completed, you will boost your productivity.

Better Leverage Your Mobile Devices. Your smart phone can do more than just receive calls, answer emails or keep you up-to-date with friends on Facebook. It can help you better manage time, respond to clients, share work related documents, invoice, manage projects and more. Basically, your mobile device can help you manage your business whether or not you’re at the office.
For instance, just because you have an on-site visit with a client, that doesn’t mean you have to forego accurately tracking billable time. Download a time tracking app and track your time while on the go. You’ll be surprised how much time (and revenue) you’ve lost by not employing a mobile time tracking app.

Or resend invoices or statements to clients using your smart phone. Keep tabs on your business’ financials. Know who has paid and who is delinquent. Every kilobyte of data available through your desktop is accessible through your phone or tablet. Your productivity will soar once you untether yourself from the office.

Finding the Right Solution
The trick to accurately tracking time is to find a solution that works for you. To increase billable time, accountants need to accurately track time using a system that complements your work style. Once you have found the right time tracking solution, you’ll benefit with improved efficiencies and enhanced productivity. Plus, you’ll get a more accurate picture as to which clients are great and which clients are a waste of time and resources.

Bill4Time for Accountants accurately tracks time and expenses at the office or on the go. Bill4Time billing and invoicing software makes invoicing easier and more efficient and the project management features keep you better organized. The Bill4Time client portal lets you offer clients convenient online credit card payment options so you get paid faster. Try it free for 30-days and see for yourself. It’s a win-win. You can easily track time, bill more precisely, receive payments and increase revenue in one simple to use system.

Narrow the gap this year in what you hope to bill and what you actually bill with Bill4Time.

CPA Practice Advisor Review of Bill4Time

December 23, 2015 By Bill4Time Staff Leave a Comment

Best Fit: Professional firms that want cloud-based time and expense management for time and expense tracking and billing, along with mobile apps that simplify daily use.

Strengths

Integration with QuickBooks, Outlook and Google
Apps for Apple and Android devices
Online payment acceptance
Management at the client, project and activities level
Features for accounting and legal firms

Potential Limitations

No accruals management

The cloud-based Bill4Time system offers flexible web-based management of time and expenses, which can be tracked against hourly billing, flat fee billing, projects, or staff. The program also includes accounts receivables management and invoicing features, strong reporting, easy time entry tools, and mobile apps. The system’s project management features give firms the ability to budget and track due dates, along with project and activity-based management tools that can track multiple engagements per client.

Basic System Functions:

The web-based Bill4Time system can be accessed via major browsers and
mobile devices, and is designed to track time, projects, activities and expenses, then includes AR management tools and invoicing functions. System interfaces are user friendly, and the program includes user-level security functions.

Mobile access tools make it easy to management time entry and expense functions, including adding markups and assigning expenses to specific clients, tasks and expense categories. Images of receipts can be uploaded into the program from either the user’s desktop or the mobile apps. Scanned or photographed copies of other documents, such as contracts, can also be attached to client engagement files.

Bill4Time offers versions for accounting or law practices, with WIPs and trust accounting options. Users can easily oversee the status of projects and client billables, with the system offering easy access to scheduling, reporting, accounting and other core function areas.

Users can select projects, staff, work codes and other settings from intuitive screens, and the client selection screen provides a sortable summary of client data, account balances and staff members engaged on a client engagement.

Time Management Capabilities:

Bill4Time provides several methods of time data entry, including timers, summary or detailed data sheets, widgets or the mobile apps. Billable and non-billable time can be entered and tracked, and the program can convert appointments from the calendar into time data entries that are logged against client engagements. The system also includes group calendaring functions. Professionals in areas that have sales taxes on labor can assign and track those taxes automatically.

Project management tools let users create and manage budgets at the client or project level, with showing progress against budgets and offering users the option of setting up alerts that notify them when budgets or client credit limits have been hit. Project-level billing features simplify tracking of multiple engagements per client, with each detailed separately on consolidated invoices. The program allows setting default billing rates at the client, project or staff levels. A separate contact management feature allows having multiple contacts at clients, prospects and vendors.

Bill4Time can also be used to track non-billable tasks, such as staff training and firm development, as well as vacation, sick leave or other PTO, but it does not offer true accruals management capabilities.

Invoicing Functions:

Invoices created through the system can be fully customized with firm logos, and can be electronically delivered (the preferred method, since this system is web-based). Online payment acceptance streamlines receivables management and usually speeds the time in which clients pay invoices. The program also includes client portals that can be customized, allowing clients to log in and securely access related files and documents, as well as paying invoices. The system includes multi-currency support. Expense tracking features enable flat fee or percentage-based markups, as well as tracking travel time. Users can control the level of details, account histories, billing rates and other information that is included on the invoices.

Management Features:

Client budgets and credit limits can be created, and reporting options allow comparisons of budget to actual, WIP summaries and other options. Accounting functions include AR management with WIP reporting, collections, payments and account activity.

The Bill4Time system offers dashboards that provide key business indicators, including pending time entries, projects, billable hours and other information. A broad collection of reports are available from a library that includes options for detail and summary activity, balance and payment reports, as well as WIP summaries, AR aging, collections, write-ups and write-downs, and trust and tax reports. Reporting can be focused on users, clients and projects, expenses, client histories, budgets, and user productivity and efficiency.

Integration & Data Management:

The reports and invoices generated through the program can be saved as PDF, directly emailed to clients, sent to the client portal, or exported to Excel for customization. The program integrates with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online to transfer labor, expense, payment and adjustment transactions and entries. The system’s scheduling system integrates with Outlook and Google. Client data can also be imported from CSV or Excel format.

Firms can accept online payments from clients via PayPal or credit cards, and payment links are included on digital client invoices.

Help/Support:

Bill4Time includes ample built-in support including field-level help options and links on each page of the program. The company’s online support center includes a knowledgebase, video tutorials, user manuals, webinars and how-to articles. Live technical support is included in system pricing, including email support, a t
icket-response system and by phone.

Summary & Pricing

Bill4Time is a user-friendly web-based time and expense management system that provides additional project and engagement tracking functions. The system integrates with QuickBooks and Outlook, and streamlines online payment acceptance.

The system is available in three general versions, with pricing starting at $15 per month for the Solo version which supports up to two users with 100 clients, 100 projects and 2GB of cloud data storage. The Pro version is $30 per month, with unlimited clients and projects, and 10GB storage, plus additional import and coversheet options. The Enterprise version is $75 per month, with unlimited clients, projects and cloud storage, plus additional reporting, data import and custom invoice template options.

Read the review in CPA Practice Advisor.

Law firm billing: 7 Tips to Successful Invoicing

December 18, 2015 By Andrew McDermott Leave a Comment

There’s an easy way to trigger a malpractice lawsuit.

Just sue your clients for non-payment.

According to Attorney’s Preferred Insurance, suing for fees often triggers a bevy of counterclaims against your law firm. Clients feel justified in asserting legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, and any other claims they think will stick at you.

Clients are angry when they receive attorney invoices

Not every invoice, just invoices they don’t expect. This is significant when you realize this tied directly to your client’s number one complaint.

Communication.

Research shows clients list “provides clear indication of likely costs/works to fixed fee” and “explains charging system clearly at outset” as two of the most important factors in the client relationship. This shows your client’s most important concerns revolve around money.

You’re concerned about money too, right?

You want to ensure that you’re paid for your hard work and the services you’ve provided to your clients. If you’ve done the work, you deserve to be paid. When clients don’t pay, it’s your right to do whatever it takes to ensure that you’re paid.

Successful legal billing begins with your invoice

If you’d like to ensure your invoices are paid promptly, completely, and consistently, it’s a good idea to focus your attention on the upfront work, the preventative maintenance that’s done before your invoice is sent out. Here are seven tips you can follow to ensure your invoices are paid on time.

Tip #1: Use arbitration clauses in your agreements

If you can, work to avoid lawsuits as it ties up your time and energy dealing with non-billable work. Litigation takes a significant amount of time, effort, and energy. They’re messy, public, and often unsuccessful. Arbitration is an excellent alternative because it’s confidential, closed to the public, and fast.

Tip #2: Identify and set billing guidelines upfront

Reach out to your decision-makers and accounting point-of-contact at the start of the relationship. Work to flush out the full list of billing dos and don’ts.

Work to establish guidelines on:

What’s required/permissible
What requires approval by the client
What’s forbidden/unacceptable
Stop words and hidden rules that immediately flag your invoices for review
Fee schedules and required retainers

Create a summarized set of billing guidelines. Then, once you’ve learned the rules, the billing guidelines your clients expect you to follow, obey them.

Tip #3: Bill clients regularly

According to attorney Andrew R. Jones, “attorneys who regularly bill their clients are in a better position as the issuing of invoices may create an “account stated” that entitles an attorney to fees.

For example, New York law is clear that an account stated is ‘an agreement between parties to an account-based upon prior transactions between them with respect to the correctness of the account items and balance due.'”

Tip #4: Create a written retainer agreement

This is obvious, but a written retainer agreement can help you avoid any ethics violations that compromise representation. This protects your clients from over-billing. It protects you from any accusations that your bill is too high or out of line.

Your retainer agreement should, at a minimum, include:

Specify the legal scope of the agreement, whether follow up will be necessary (appeals, enforcement, conflicts, etc.).
A conflict check to flush out any potential conflicts of interest. Your agreement should state that there are no conflicts or that you’ve made your clients aware of any potential conflicts and that they agree to waive any potential conflicts.
Fee schedule outlining your fees, expenses, and costs involved with representation.

Tip #5: Establish account stated

This is a callback to tip #3 as firms that bill their clients regularly (i.e., sending invoices out regularly), may create an “account stated” that shows you’re entitled to the fees you’re demanding.

For example, “Under California case law, an account stated is ‘an agreement, based on prior transactions between the parties, that the items of an account are true and that the balance struck is due and owing. Moreover, if a creditor provides a statement/invoice to a customer/debtor and no reply is made in a reasonable time, California law implies an agreement by the customer/debtor that the account is correct as rendered. ‘”

Here’s how that could work (depending on your jurisdiction).

You send out and receive payment for, periodic invoices
Any payment by your client establishes the implicit premise that a payment is due
Your client’s silence concerning a specific or recent invoice may be viewed as an implicit agreement

Of course, any client disputes may nullify the claim of “account stated.”

Tip #6: Choose the right clients

You’ll want to select the right clients ahead of time. It’s a good idea to focus your attention on clients who are both willing and able to pay for your services.

How do you do that?

You can run a credit check to assess your client’s trustworthiness. You can also follow step #3 by requesting and replenishing retainer fees ahead of time. Doing this reduces the odds of a billing dispute dramatically. It makes it easy for clients to trust that you’re looking out for them.

They’re more focused on the value you’re providing and less worried about you cheating them.

Tip #7: Optimize your timekeeping and time entries

Your firm makes money when you: (a.) Map/identify the obvious and hidden rules in your billing guidelines (b.) You verify that all time entries are real-time compliant and automatically recorded as-it-happens and (c.) every time entry, every line item, is specific, detailed, and precise outlining the who, what, and why of a particular task.

This creates structure.

Structure minimizes the invoice review process; collection realization rates go up. Your client is happy. Your staff is happy. Revenue skyrockets automatically, so your partners are happy.

Accuracy is the key to successful invoicing

Clients are angry when they receive attorney invoices they don’t expect. This is significant because it’s tied directly to your client’s number one complaint.

Communication.

When clients believe they’re treated fairly, they’re eager and willing to pay. When they’re ambushed by an unexpected invoice, billing disputes, and malpractice lawsuits are not far behind. What does this mean for you? Successful legal billing begins with your invoice.

If you’d like to ensure your invoices are paid promptly, completely, and consistently, focus on the upfront work and the preventative maintenance that’s done before your invoice is sent out. Create the right billing structure, and you’ll find your invoicing is an automatic success.