Why Lawyers Need Time and Expense Tracking Software

Small or large businesses are not the only entity that needs time and expense tracking software. Lawyers also do.  A reputable lawyer is known for constantly keeping up with multiple court appearances. For one to be able to do that, an effective time management system must be observed. Other than coming to court always on time, billing clients accurately will also add to your good points.

A lawyer can be assigned with multiple cases. There could be more than one court appearance in a day. Sometimes, when your license allows you to practice to other states, you can be travelling and be gone for a couple of days to attend to those other cases. Lest we forget, you also have to attend to meetings. Surely, you can’t possibly keep track of all your activities. You barely have enough time to eat lunch, let alone accurately taking note of your time.

This can cause you problems though. You either bill your clients more than the actual hours you spent on their case or you will be underpaid. You obviously don’t want that to happen. Underestimating your actual charges will grossly affect the flow of cash in your business. You also have other expenses other than your salary. You have office rental. You may even employ a staff. And if you overcharge a client, it can also cause conflict. Other than their legal problems, your clients don’t have to worry about how you bill them. You could be receiving irate phone calls early the next morning.  Such poor billing practices need to be corrected.

Using a time and expense tracking software is one solution that really works to your advantage. It will efficiently track all your activities to the last second and will produce accurate billing statements. Your clients will see everything on paper. There will be no questions about where your time goes.

You just need to choose one that has a very simple interface but with powerful capacities in recording and saving information. You can encode the information on the system, click the timer, start working, pause if necessary, and then stop. Once you pause or stop, it will show you the hours you have spent on the case and the corresponding amount (if predetermined). When the time comes that you need to send your clients the billing statements, you can just retrieve it from the system and send it to them either automatically using the templates available or you can convert it to another format like PDF or XML.

Surely, you would want to effectively manage time, earn your actual dues and avoid conflicts. Time and expense tracking software can help you with that.