Back to Basics: Make Friends with Your Timesheet

What psychosis do some lawyers have that makes it dreadfully painful to record time?

At the Solo and Small Firm Annual CLE this summer, Ann Guinn conducted a seminar section on Ethical Billing. She asked for a raise of hands showing how many people record their time contemporaneously with the work. Of course, all thirty-ish hands went up. Then she asked again, “How many of really, truly without fail always record your time simultaneously with the activity.” Two hands stayed up. According to Guinn, “Research has shown that attorneys who record time only at the end of the day often lose from 10-15% of potentially billable time through memory lapses and inaccurate guesses as to time worked.”

I have been an associate. I have heard stories. Here is how many lawyers record their time (and I am not referring to those two goody-goody attorneys who record their time religiously just like they floss their teeth). Caveat: the time-sheet delinquent probably blends methods and varies his or her routine.

• The Sticky Note System: This attorney writes brief and cryptic time notes on yellow stickies. Sometime later he or she collects the notes and turns them into a bill. Sometimes-maybe often-stickies travel off onto the backside of file folders into the wasteland of life. Time lost, just like lost socks in the dryer.
• The Cross Reference Approach: At the end of the month in offices all across America, lawyers are closing their doors and pulling up every email, letter and pleading prepared in cases to be billed. After tabulating a long list of activities, the lawyer begins the artful process of adding time to each task.
• The End-of-the-Day Lawyer: Considering the other two methods, this one has greater changes of accuracy, but still...this method comes with a 10-15% time loss per Ms. Guinn. With this method, the lawyers sits back at the end of the day and writes down what they can remember doing. This is the eye-ball-method of time keeping: eye ball the day, pick a time.
• The Fiction Writer Reenactment: This lawyer-often long after the fact-sits down and writes a creative story about what happened on a file, hopefully giving it some action and spice. Then the lawyer fictionalizes how much time this elaborate legal drama must have taken. This method integrates well with the Sticky System and the Cross Reference Approach.

Here is my question: If we KNOW it is best to record as we go, why don’t we record better?

One reason is control. Lawyers hate being controlled. Writing down time feels like being held accountable to Big Brother. Most lawyers dislike authority figures: we want to be the authority figure. Perhaps for some lawyers, the task of writing down time becomes insanely boring. Others may rationalize they are so busy that writing down their time will detract from their real work.

My personal opinion is that, for many attorneys, the time recordation system they are using has not been customized sufficiently to accommodate that lawyer’s proclivities. I cannot tell you how often I have started a new job or contract position and commented that I thought the time sheet method used was particularly bad. The common response: “Get used to it, that’s the way it is done at ________.” Well, come on. Wake up. If fifteen minutes of time is lost per day, at an hourly rate of $175 an hour, five days a week for 48 weeks a year, that is $10,500 per year. Lost. Wouldn’t you rather spend a few dollars on a workable time recording system to save $10,500 a year in revenue? How much could it cost a firm to cook up a smorgasbord of time recording options?

Here is a buffet sampling of customized time keeping methods. Does one work better for you?

1. Billing software-for the techie who likes to do everything on the computer.
2. Colorful pad system-for those artistic lawyers who cannot stomach another day looking at the same ugly time sheet. Maybe this series could come with a lawyer joke of the day, sort of like a Far Side daily calendar. I picture this method with a different colored pad for each day of the week. Perky-happy-yellow- Monday. Get- excited-for-Fri-day-green.
3. Check the box timesheet-for people who hate writing, but feel satisfied crossing things off, filling in boxes, checking off charts and graphs. Imagine a timesheet with microscopic print and all the attorney has to do is check the case name, mark the “Telephone call to” box and then circle a name and some descriptive words.
4. Calendar time sheet-for people who organize their minds by time of day. The lawyer tracks time on a calendar style time sheet writing activities at the time of day the activity happened. He or she can write that at 10:30 he or she was writing the summary judgment motion and at 11:45 the client called. At the end of the day the task is to fill in the missing time blanks.
5. Pre-fab metal time sheet gizmo with the carbon paper-for lawyers who like gadgets. This is a funky system with a metal holder for the specialty carbon paper. You write one time entry on each check-sized slip of paper, attached to the bottom carbon copy. You rip off the top copy and leave the bottom, which becomes a log of all time for the day. This system is fun for people who like to make little piles of paper.
6. Modified sticky pads-for the sticky lover. Face the reality, sticky lovers love stickies. Give them what their inner natures cry for: pre-printed custom- sized sticky pads with blanks for client name, activity and time billed.
7. One-client time sheets-for the lawyer who likes to recreate at the end of the month. This method works great for the lawyer who works on only a few client files at a time. Rather than jump from client to client on one time sheet, have several running time sheets one for each client. This way you can have what has been done on a particular file in one place
8. The daily score sheet-for natural scorekeepers. The best billers I’ve ever known were lawyers who treated their billable obligation as their most important work function. Client service and quality of work product were of less importance. Invariably, these attorneys make partner. The time sheet for the natural scorekeeper tracks the accumulated time total during the day. Example: it’s 10:30, grand total for day 2.3 hours, 5.3 more hours to bill.
9. The dictation method-for talkers. Dedicate a hand held-Dictaphone for time tracking. The lawyer merely notes the time he or she starts a project and then talks about what he or she plans to do or has just done. There is probably some dictation device out there that will even record the time the entry is made, and type the dictation.
10. The human timekeeper-for the ultra-lazy, ultra-dilatory time keeper. Send a secretary in every hour to ask about what has been going on. The secretary writes down the time. Or better yet, hire an $8.00 an hour office gofer to follow the attorney around recording time. If you recoup a half hour of time a day, you just paid this person’s salary. What attorney wouldn’t work harder if there was someone with a stop watch clocking every activity?
11. Tiny timesheet notebooks-for the person on the go. Buy a 79-cent miniature notebook, put it in your purse or pocket with a tiny pen, and record every where you go and everything you say. Great for the out-of-the office lawyer. The most affordable and portable time keeping method available.

So there you have it. If you have been busted by this article, hopefully I have suggested something to help you correct your wayward ways. If you are a person of influence at a place where time is billed, perhaps you better understand the plight of those who hate to record time. In either case, I hope I have made your Fridays and end of the month more stress-free. You can send me tips (as in small gifts of money) if you like.