paralegal daily time tracking spreadsheet

#Paralegal daily time tracking spreadsheet software

Mobility – Time should be tracked immediately following completion of a task.

Here are some of the options you should look for when choosing the right legal time tracking system for your firm. The right features can take this task from tedious and inaccurate to quick and precise.

#Paralegal daily time tracking spreadsheet software

Effective legal billing software is your most valuable tool for effective time tracking. So, it’s a task that needs to be handled correctly every time. Time tracking is essential to client billing, which is essential to getting the firm paid. Once you’ve planned the hours of your day and completed your tasks, it’s time to make sure your tracking is complete. This works even better if you include your paralegal or secretary because two memories are almost always better than one. Daily calendar review – It only takes a few minutes to sit down and in the morning and review your calendar for your most important tasks.When the time approaches, your electronic device will remember and give you a reminder. Then enter important meetings and deadlines into the app as soon as you learn about them. Simply choose the one that best suits your needs. Electronic reminders – With countless task apps on the market, every phone, computer, and tablet can be used to generate task reminders.They’re a safety net for a memory that is often unreliable. That’s why reminders are such useful tools. Within a law practice, if that forgotten task is something as important as a court date or filing deadline, it could mean serious trouble for the attorney and your firm.

Time blocking applies here as well, with scheduled blocks of time for returning emails and phone calls, instead of addressing non-emergencies throughout the day.Įven people with incredible memories forget something at one point or another. I highly doubt that personal social media accounts need to be checked in the middle of the workday. Control distractions – Whether its unexpected telephone calls, a ridiculously filled inbox, or those funny social media posts, distractions can quickly throw your attorneys off their game and steal their time.So, let them contribute to the growth of the firm. You pay good money to compensate your support staff. Your firm’s attorneys may prefer to do everything on their own or perhaps they don’t trust support staff members to correctly handle certain tasks. Yet, many attorneys fail to recognize how the delegation of duties can maximize billed hours.

Proper delegation – Your support staff is there for a reason.

Experts say it helps you view your time more realistically and stay focused on the task at hand. Instead of a long to-do list that will likely never get completed, you proactively decide how much time will be spent on your weekly tasks. You essentially organize your workday into specified time periods for working on each task.

Time blocking – This is a planning strategy that many busy professionals find useful.

Secondly, it helps organize your tasks by urgency, so you can at least start the week with some feeling of control over your calendar. For one, you can organize your thoughts by writing down all the tasks and responsibilities swirling around in your head.

Weekly planning – The beginning or end of a work week provides a perfect planning opportunity.

By requiring, or at least strongly suggesting one or more of these strategies, you can help them better utilize the hours in their day. If they have no system of planning in place, they are likely missing out on opportunities to maximize their billable hours. Your lawyers handle countless daily tasks for numerous clients. I know it’s an overly used cliché, but it still rings true. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail. The first tools for efficient attorney time management involve proper planning.

With adequate planning, systematic reminders, and timely tracking, you can promote the efficient use and documentation of your firm’s valuable time. However, there are methods and tools that, when used together, can create a template of efficient time management and tracking within your law practice. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all process for meeting these goals. So, they understand how important it is to use each hour of the day wisely, and accurately track those hours for proper billing and profit maximization. Successful attorneys value their time just as much as they value their money.