How to Track Billable Hours as a Lawyer (Without Losing Time)

Most lawyers don't lose billable time on big tasks. A three-hour deposition or a full day of trial prep gets recorded. The time that goes missing is the five-minute email reply, the call that came in between meetings, and the draft that got interrupted twice. By Friday, nobody remembers those, and they never make it onto an invoice.

This guide explains how to track billable hours as a lawyer, where time usually gets lost, and what you and your firm can do to capture it. It covers the basics (what counts as billable, how 6-minute increments work), a daily tracking routine, how to write time entries clients will pay, and what firm administrators and billing teams can put in place so time doesn't slip through at the firm level.

What are billable hours?

Billable hours are the time a lawyer spends on work for a client that the firm can charge the client for. Each hour is billed at the timekeeper's hourly rate, and the total becomes part of the client's invoice.

Even firms that charge flat fees should track hours. Time records show whether a flat fee covers the work it takes, which matters the next time you set a price.

What counts as billable time?

Any work done on a specific client matter is usually billable. That includes:

• Legal research
• Drafting and reviewing documents, pleadings, and contracts
• Client meetings and calls
• Emails and letters to the client, opposing counsel, or the court
• Court appearances, hearings, and depositions
• Case strategy discussions about the matter
• Travel for the matter, if the engagement letter allows it

The engagement letter decides the details. If it says travel is billed at half rate, or that certain tasks aren't billed, that's the rule for that client.

What is non-billable time?

Non-billable time is work that keeps the firm running but isn't tied to a client matter. Examples include administrative tasks, internal firm meetings, training, marketing, business development, and fixing your own billing errors.

Non-billable time is still worth tracking. It shows where attorneys' hours actually go and helps the firm see whether billable hour targets are realistic.

How do 6-minute billing increments work?

Most law firms bill in tenths of an hour, also called 0.1-hour or 6-minute increments. Each tenth of an hour equals 6 minutes:

• 1 to 6 minutes = 0.1 hours
• 7 to 12 minutes = 0.2 hours
• 13 to 18 minutes = 0.3 hours
• 19 to 24 minutes = 0.4 hours
• 25 to 30 minutes = 0.5 hours

The pattern continues up to 60 minutes, which equals 1.0 hour. So an 8-minute call billed at $300 an hour is recorded as 0.2 hours, or $60.

Some clients, especially insurers and corporate legal departments, set their own increment rules in their billing guidelines. Always follow the client's guidelines and your engagement letter.

How do lawyers track billable hours?

Lawyers track billable hours in four main ways: rebuilding time from their calendar and email, logging it in a spreadsheet, running timers as they work, or using legal time tracking software. Many use a mix. The method matters less than when the time gets recorded. The closer to the work, the more accurate the entry.

Calendar and email reconstruction

Some lawyers go back through their calendar, sent emails, and call log at the end of the day or week and turn them into time entries. It's better than nothing, but it misses anything that didn't leave a trace, like research, drafting, a hallway conversation about a case, or a call from an unknown number.

Spreadsheets and billable hours charts

A spreadsheet or printed billable hours chart lets lawyers log the date, matter, task, and time as they go. It costs nothing, but every entry has to be typed again into the billing system later. That double entry is slow and leads to mistakes, and the sheet can't remind anyone that they forgot to fill it in.

Timers

A timer runs while you work on a task and stops when you stop. It's the most accurate way to track time because nothing is estimated. The weak point is forgetting to start it, or forgetting to stop it when you switch to something else.

Legal time tracking software

Legal time tracking software lets lawyers record time directly against a client and matter, with the right rate already attached. The entries feed straight into billing, so nobody re-types them. For firms with more than a few timekeepers, this is the most reliable option because the billing team can see who has entered time and who hasn't.

Where lawyers lose billable time

Lost billable hours rarely come from one big missed task. They come from small pieces of work that never get written down. Here's where they usually go.

Short emails and phone calls

A quick reply to a client, a call from opposing counsel, a two-minute check-in with a paralegal about a filing. Each one is 0.1 hours. They happen all day, they rarely show up on a calendar, and most lawyers don't think they're worth recording. Together, they often add up to more time than any single task.

Interruptions and task switching

You start drafting a motion, take a call on another matter, answer two emails, then go back to the motion. If you only record the motion, the call and the emails are gone. If you record the motion as one block, it may include time that belongs to other clients.

Work done away from the desk

Time spent at court, in a client's office, on the phone in the car, or reading a document at home is easy to forget because it happens away from where lawyers usually enter time.

Rebuilding time at the end of the week

When lawyers enter time on Friday afternoon, or at month-end, they work from memory. Memory is unreliable, and lawyers tend to round down when they're unsure. Entries rebuilt days later are usually shorter, vaguer, and lower than the time actually worked.

Writing down time before it's billed

Some lawyers cut their own time before submitting it because a task "shouldn't have taken that long." That decision belongs at pre-bill review, where the billing partner can see the whole matter. Cutting time at entry hides the real cost of the work, so the firm can't price similar matters correctly later.

Unrecorded expenses

Filing fees, courier charges, copies, and travel costs are part of the same problem. If they aren't recorded against the matter when they're paid, they often aren't billed at all.

What lost time costs

Small gaps add up fast. Here's a simple example. If a lawyer misses three 6-minute entries a day, that's 0.3 hours a day. Over 5 days a week and 48 working weeks, it's 72 hours a year. At $300 an hour, that's $21,600 a year in work that was done but never billed, for one lawyer. Multiply that by the number of timekeepers at your firm.

How to track billable hours as a lawyer, step by step

The goal is simple: record time while you still remember it, against the right matter, with a description the client will understand. These seven steps make that a daily habit instead of a Friday chore.

Step 1: Set up the matter and rate before you start

Before any work begins, make sure the client and matter exist in your time tracking system with the right rate, billing arrangement, and any client billing codes. If the matter isn't set up, lawyers park time in a general bucket or a notebook, and it gets lost or charged to the wrong client.

Step 2: Start a timer when you start a task

Start the timer when you open the file, not when you remember. If you get interrupted, pause it, start a new one for the call or email, then go back. Keeping one timer per task makes each entry accurate and keeps time on the right matter.

Step 3: Log short tasks right away

A 0.1-hour email or call takes seconds to record when it happens and is almost impossible to remember three days later. Log it before moving on. These short entries are where most lost time comes from.

Step 4: Write a clear description

Describe what you did, for which purpose, in plain language. "Reviewed and revised draft asset purchase agreement, sections 4 to 7" is better than "Document review." The next section covers this in more detail.

Step 5: Record expenses with your time

When you pay a filing fee or book travel for a matter, record the expense against the matter that day and attach the receipt. Expenses entered with time are billed. Expenses left in an inbox usually aren't.

Step 6: Do a 10-minute review at the end of each day

Before you log off, open your sent emails, your calendar, and your call log, and compare them with the time you entered. Anything missing gets added now, while you still remember it. Ten minutes a day is far less work than rebuilding a whole week on Friday.

Step 7: Submit time before the firm's deadline

Billing can't start until time is in. Submit your entries daily, or at least by the firm's weekly deadline, so the billing team isn't waiting on you at month-end. Late time slows down pre-bills, invoices, and the whole law firm billing process.

How to write time entry descriptions clients will pay

A time entry description tells the client what they're paying for. Vague descriptions get questioned, written down at pre-bill, or rejected by clients with billing guidelines. A good description names the task, the document or subject, and the purpose.

Here are some before and after examples:

• "Research" → "Researched case law on enforceability of non-compete clauses in Texas employment agreements"
• "Call with client" → "Call with client to review settlement offer and discuss response options"
• "Draft" → "Drafted motion to compel production of email records"
• "Emails" → "Emailed opposing counsel regarding deposition schedule for plaintiff's expert"
• "File review" → "Reviewed medical records received from St. Mary's Hospital for treatment timeline"

A few rules help:

• Start with an action verb: drafted, reviewed, researched, called, attended.
• Keep one task per entry. Combining tasks into one entry is called block billing, and many clients won't pay it.
• Don't include privileged details the client wouldn't want on an invoice that others may see.
• Use the client's required task and activity codes if they bill with UTBMS codes.

What the firm can do to stop losing billable time

Individual habits help, but most lost time is a firm-wide problem. Firm administrators, billing managers, and finance leads can put a few things in place so time gets captured whether or not every lawyer remembers.

Write a time entry policy

Put the rules in writing: when time must be entered (daily is best, with a weekly cutoff), the increment the firm uses, description standards with examples, and how to handle non-billable time. Include what happens when deadlines are missed. A policy that nobody follows up on stops being a policy.

Send reminders and check weekly

Run a weekly report showing each timekeeper's hours entered against their expected hours. Someone with 12 hours entered by Thursday afternoon either had a slow week or hasn't entered their time. Either way, the billing team knows who to follow up with before month-end.

Review timesheets before billing

Have a supervising attorney or billing manager review timesheets each week. They can catch entries with no matter attached, vague descriptions, unusually long or short entries, and time charged to closed matters. Fixing these weekly is much faster than fixing them during pre-bill review.

Run a simple lost-time audit

Pick three timekeepers at different levels, such as a partner, an associate, and a paralegal. For one day, have them write down everything they work on as they do it, on paper or in a notes app. The next day, compare that list with what they entered in the time system. The gap shows how much time your firm is likely missing and which kinds of tasks are slipping through.

Track realization rate

Realization rate shows how much of the time recorded actually gets billed and paid. Billing realization is the amount billed divided by the value of time worked at standard rates. If an associate recorded $50,000 of time in a quarter and $42,000 was billed, billing realization is 84%.

Low realization often points to vague entries that get written down at pre-bill, time charged to the wrong matter, or work that took longer than a flat fee covered. Track it by timekeeper, practice area, and client to see where time is being lost after it's entered. Our guide on how to calculate and improve your realization rate explains how.

Keep time tracking connected to billing

When time is tracked in one tool and billed in another, someone has to move it across, and entries get lost or duplicated along the way. Tracking time in the same system as billing and accounting means every entry flows into pre-bills and invoices without being typed again, and the firm can see unbilled time, or WIP, at any point in the month.

Ethical rules for tracking billable hours

Capturing more time is only good if the time is real. ABA Model Rule 1.5 requires fees to be reasonable, and ABA Formal Opinion 93-379 makes clear that lawyers can bill only for time actually spent. Most states follow these rules closely, but check your own state's version.

Bill only for time actually worked

Record the time the task took, rounded to your increment. Don't add time for tasks that didn't happen or estimate high to hit a target.

Don't bill two clients for the same time

If you spend an hour traveling for client A and work on client B's file during the trip, you can't bill both clients a full hour for the same 60 minutes. Split the time honestly or follow what each engagement letter says.

Avoid block billing

Block billing is putting several tasks into one entry with one total, such as "Drafted motion, called client, reviewed discovery: 4.5 hours." Clients and courts often reject it because it's impossible to tell how long each task took. Courts reviewing fee requests may reduce or deny block-billed time.

Be careful with minimum charges

Billing 0.1 hours for a task that took two minutes is standard. Billing 0.25 or 0.5 hours as a minimum for every email can be hard to defend unless the client agreed to it in writing.

How LawAccounting helps lawyers track billable hours

Lost time is partly a habit problem and partly a systems problem. When time lives in a spreadsheet and billing lives somewhere else, entries get missed on the way across.

With LawAccounting's Time and Expense Tracking, lawyers record time against the matter and track every cost the firm puts out, in the same place. Those entries flow into Billing and Invoicing, so the billing team works from the time lawyers actually entered instead of re-typing it. Because billing, Trust Accounting, and Financial Reporting are part of the same platform, firm administrators and finance leads can see what's been worked, what's been billed, and what's still sitting unbilled.

Frequently asked questions

How do lawyers track billable hours?

Lawyers track billable hours by recording the time they spend on each client matter, usually in 6-minute increments. The most accurate methods are running a timer while working or entering time right after each task in legal time tracking software. Some lawyers rebuild time from their calendar and email, but that tends to miss short tasks.

What is the best way to track billable hours as a lawyer?

The best way is to record time as you work, using a timer or quick entry in software that's connected to billing. Log short calls and emails right away, and do a 10-minute review at the end of each day to catch anything you missed.

How many minutes is 0.1 billable hours?

0.1 billable hours is 6 minutes. Most firms bill in tenths of an hour, so 1 to 6 minutes is 0.1, 7 to 12 minutes is 0.2, and so on up to 60 minutes, which is 1.0.

What counts as billable time for a lawyer?

Billable time is work done on a client's matter, such as research, drafting, client calls and emails, court appearances, and case strategy. Administrative tasks, internal meetings, training, and marketing are non-billable. The engagement letter sets the details for each client.

How much billable time do lawyers lose?

It varies by lawyer and firm, and there's no single reliable number. Lawyers who enter time at the end of the week usually lose more than those who enter it daily, because short tasks are forgotten. A one-day audit comparing a written log with entered time is the easiest way to measure your own gap.

How can lawyers recover lost billable hours?

Enter time the same day, log short tasks immediately, use a separate timer for interruptions, and review your sent email, calendar, and call log each evening. At the firm level, set time entry deadlines, run weekly reports, and review timesheets before billing.

Should flat-fee lawyers track their time?

Yes. Time records show whether a flat fee covers the work involved. Without them, a firm can't tell which flat-fee matters are profitable and which ones need a higher price.

What is block billing?

Block billing is combining several tasks into one time entry with one total. Many clients and courts reject it because they can't see how long each task took. Record each task as its own entry instead.

What is a good billable hour target for lawyers?

Targets are set by each firm and vary by firm size, practice area, and role. Whatever the target, it only means something if all billable time is being recorded, which is why firms should fix lost time before raising targets.

What is realization rate in billable hours?

Realization rate compares what a firm bills or collects with the value of time lawyers recorded. If a lawyer recorded