4 Pro Tips for Drafting Billable Time Entries
How much do you love drafting billable time entries?
Oh, don’t we all love trying to figure out how to describe what we just did?
We spent four hours. We know it was valuable work to the client, but now we have to sit down and describe it.
Or worse yet, you spent .1 on a task that takes you .1 to figure out how to describe it.
In today’s blog, I’m going to give you four quick tips to help you draft better time entries. This is an example of something that I teach inside the Billable Hour Boot Camp.
Watch this paralegal training below!
Tip 1: Change Your Mindset About Your Billable Time Entries
What mindset? Well, the mindset that it’s an administrative task that gets done when you’ve finished ALL of your other work.
Entering your billable time is not just an administrative task that you’re burdened with that gets in the way of you doing your actual work.
If you’re a paralegal working in a firm that bills time to clients, then drafting billable time entries is part of your job, part of your “actual” work the same way that getting that contract drafted or that brief e-filed.
Learn more about the important numbers for paralegal billable hours.
Tip 2: Know ALL of the Ins and Outs of Your Timekeeping Software
I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve been inside a law firm doing a live session of the Billable Hour Boot Camp, and half the people in the room didn’t know that their firm’s time entry software could do XYZ function. They just learned the basics of it when they first started at the firm or when it was first rolled out at the firm. In other words, they just learned enough to get by and get the job done.
The problem with that is…you could be taking longer than necessary getting your billable time entries into the system. For example, using it to create shortcuts and templates so that it takes less time to input your time.
Also, the timekeeping system might have other functions that could help you track your time better, create reports on your non-billable time, etc.
My advice is to get to know the ins and outs of your timekeeping software just like you do all of the other software tools that you use on a daily basis. Get in there and watch those video tutorials. You’ll thank me, I promise.
Find out if you have the foundational technology skills to be successful in your paralegal career.
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Tip 3: Your Billable Time Entries Should Answer AT LEAST Two Questions
What are those questions: What and Why.
Did you know that journalists use the 5W1H method as the way to know that they have a complete story. Their story has to answer: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Who was involved, what happened, when did it happen, where did it happen, why did they do it or why did it happen, and how did this happen.
Think about some of those questions when you’re drafting your time entry.
How can I show the real value of the work that I did to the client? Well, first to the billing partner, so that it does get written off before it ever goes on the actual bill, and then how can I show the real value to the client.
So the main questions that your actual time entry needs to answer are the why and the what.
Why
Why did you do it and what did you do? Did you review something? Okay, but a client doesn’t really want to pay for you to review something just for the sake of you reviewing something.
Review an analysis of documents for the sake of what? Why are you charging me, the client, to review my documents that I gave to the attorney? That’s where the why comes in. And the why is really the most important question that you can answer because the why is what the client is asking.
Why should I pay my law firm’s paralegal to do XYZ? Why is she or he doing this work on my file?
What
Ask yourself what did I actually do? And one of the ways that you can answer that better and more efficiently and effectively is if you’re entering your time contemporaneous with doing the work, because then you remember all of “the what” that you did.
Here’s a perfect example: Review and analyze client documents.
An Example
Instead write: The review and analysis of client documents to remove any potential privileged and confidential information prior to the production to the plaintiffs.
That’s an important “why” that’s valuable to the client that their documents are reviewed and the privileged documents removed prior to the production to the plaintiff. So always add in a why.
Don’t ever just have “the what” in a time entry. When you’re describing the what, describe what it is that you’re actually doing.
Here’s another example.
Let’s say that you are reviewing and comparing licensing agreements and you’re reviewing a particular section in all of these license agreements for the client. Maybe they’ve got dozens or hundreds of these license agreements, and what are you reviewing them for? What is the substantive thing that might happen from that?
Maybe when you’re reviewing it, you’re also preparing a chart, some type of comparison chart, a licensing tracking chart, whatever it is. So think about maybe not only what you did, but what was the result of it?
When
Obviously, the when question is usually answered automatically in the timekeeping system when you’re entering it.
Include the Tangibles When Drafting Billable Time Entries
Did it result in something that the client could see, feel, or touch? Make sure to include that in your time entry because your time was spent on something tangible that the client can see. It might be a License Provision Comparison Chart that you prepared to better analyze those licensing agreements. Or maybe it was a timeline.
When you are reviewing those client documents, are you trying to get a handle on what happened when? Then prepare a timeline. Extract those dates and events into a case chronology. You get where I’m going here.
All right, so remember, ask the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how that will allow you to start drafting the time entry, but then make sure that every single time entry that you draft at least answers the what you did and why you did it. And the rest is going be easy. Well, not easy, but it will be easier for you.
Think about it from the client’s perspective. Why do I want to pay this lawyer or this paralegal to do this work for me?
Why Should I Care About Billable Time Entries?
If you’re like so many of us, you started your first position at a law firm maybe years ago even, and you were told you have to bill X number of hours to client files per year.
But no one told you exactly how to do that. They just expected that you would do it. Then you moved on maybe to another law firm, your second position, and no one told you how to do it there either. Even though your bonus might depend on it, your raise might depend on it, and your job security could depend on it.
You’re not alone. I’m telling you. I’ve been in the legal industry for over 30 years now. My entire professional life. It has given me the opportunity to meet thousands and thousands of legal professionals from across the country in all different roles, associates, junior partners, partners, paralegals, litigation support.
And I can tell you that in all of those years, I have never met a single person, not one, who went to work for a law firm and received comprehensive time entry training that made them feel confident that they were doing it correctly.
Learn why Billable Hours Matter More Than You Think They Do.
Billable Hour Training That Makes a Difference
I’m on a mission to change that with the Billable Hour Boot Camp because I believe that if your wallet, your livelihood, and your career depend on you getting X number of billable hours per year, then you should be given every tool possible to be able to do that.
Now you might be thinking, well, Ann, I don’t have any control over the amount of work that the attorneys give me. That’s what I’m going to show you in the course first. We’re going to start with five strategies that you do have control over, things that you could do. And in fact, first in the course, I start out with several strategies that show you how you are probably leaving billable hours on the table because you’re ghosting them.
It means you’re already doing the work, you’re just unknowingly doing things that make it to where those billable hours never make it into the timekeeping system. After that, we’re going to jump into looking at strategies that are going to get you more billable work if you’re short on billable hours, and those are going to come in handy even if you’re working from home.
The Art and Science of Drafting Better Time Entries
And then finally, we’re going to take a deep dive into what I call: the art and science of drafting better time entries. And we’re not going to talk about general improvements here. We’re not going to talk about things that you see out there saying don’t talk in a passive voice that everybody knows. We’re going to take a deep dive into it and show you how to master the art and science of drafting time entries.
In addition to the on-demand part of the course that you take at your convenience, I also hold live Q &A sessions – or coaching calls – throughout the year to help you succeed. You can ask me your burning questions, whatever you like, and we’re going to make sure that this is your best year ever. So if you work in a law firm, regardless of what your title or role is, whether you are a paralegal associate, litigation support, or legal assistant, if you have a billable hour requirement this course and coaching program will be the best investment you will ever make in your career.
Make This Your Best Year Yet
How so? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret I learned when I was a paralegal manager. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get a bigger raise and bonus for the paralegal who exceeded the annual billable hour goal and was bringing in more money for the firm – than it was for the paralegal down the hall that had great reviews, but crappy billable hours.
Go to BillableHourBootcamp.com to learn more about the course.
Okay, back to the tips, with one more. Remember:
1 – Change your mindset about your billable time entries.
2 – Get to know ALL of the ins and outs of your timekeeping software.
3 – Make sure that every one of your billable time entries answer the questions what and why.
Tip 4: If you’re struggling to describe it as billable, it probably isn’t.
If you are struggling to draft a time entry for something that you feel like was clerical, but you’re sitting there at your computer trying to come up with a way to describe it that makes it sound billable, it’s probably not billable.
So ask yourself: that .1 filing that you did this morning – is it the best use of your time spending another .1 or worse, a .2, trying to figure out how to describe that work in a way that makes it sound billable?
No. And I won’t even get into the ethics of it at this point. Just ask yourself, am I struggling to draft the time entry because maybe it wasn’t billable, and I’m trying to come up with a way to make it sound billable?
If you are a paralegal with a billable hour requirement, don’t miss out on enrolling for our Billable Hour Boot Camp. In just 5 hours, you’ll no longer stress about meeting that annual billable hour quota. PLUS, I’ll be here with you for an entire year to help you have your best year!
Meet the Author
Ann Pearson is the Founder of the Paralegal Boot Camp, and host of the Paralegals on Fire! Podcast Show, and passionate about promoting the paralegal profession.
Ann spent 20 years working as a paralegal manager and a litigation paralegal before opening the Paralegal Boot Camp in 2010.
Ann’s training programs focus on adding immediate value to a paralegal’s career and bridging the gap between what a paralegal learns in school and what they actually do on the job.
Visit the About Us Page to learn more about why Ann started the Paralegal Boot Camp.
