Time Tracking is an important procedure in the daily life of lawyers and solicitors. It holds fee earners accountable and eliminates wasteful procedures. But time tracking is also one of the biggest administrative challenges that lawyers can face, and many lawyers fill in timesheets ineffectively, reconstructing their time from calendars and emails. Here we outline the top 5 ways lawyers can track their time digitally with automated software, relieving them from remembering to press ‘start’ and ‘stop’ on their earnings!
1. Track Time Automatically As You Work
Automated time tracking software is a powerful digital tool. It means when fee earners begin a task, automatic time recording commences. For example, during the composition of a letter, the time will be recorded automatically until the fee earner marks the task as complete. Automated case management software includes advanced time tracking functionality which ensures all fee earners can capture all their billable time to the appropriate client, case or task, as they work.
2. Track Time Retroactively and Manually
Fee earners can also add time spent manually via case management software. Users can retrospectively record billable time spent away from the office, for example when attending court. Lateral’s case management solution has a simple “add time” button, which is the means by which time can be added to an appropriate custom time category manually. The system can also prompt fee earners, via alerts, to record time when creating notes, receiving post, or any number of other tasks.
3. Track Time on Your Mobile
Realistically lawyers don’t just work at their desks. In this mobile world, they should be tracking their time away from the office in meetings, travel and in court. Tracking time via a mobile device serves to meet the needs of rapidly evolving workplace circumstances, and is a must-have feature for all lawyers who have time tracking as a primary concern.
4. Track Billable and Non-Billable Time
By investing in digital time management tools lawyers can track their time by both billable and non-billable hours. This is important because it means you can streamline operations, improve overall efficiency, and experience higher profitability. Case management software is vitally important again in this regard. Since it can serve to automate non-billable administrative duties such as invoicing, which means lawyers can spend more time working on billable tasks and increase their profits.
5. Track the Time of Multiple Fee Earners
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) monitoring functionality is connected to the concept of time tracking. KPI’s can be used to reduce a law firm’s risk by regularly running and scrutinising data within the system. The features of the KPI monitoring functionality, which is standard in Lateral’s leading case management solution, include a fee earner management report, which details any fees which have been delivered, and this can be broken down by fee earner, or grouped by department. These fee earner reports are a vital tool for management teams to improve the efficiencies of their fee earners.
The implementation of solid digital time tracking tools can improve the efficiency of every lawyer. Book a demo of Lateral today and see first hand how our industry-beating case management solution can greatly improve your efficiencies.