Why do lawyers lose so much time from their records?
The hearing is in your calendar. The call afterwards, the email from opposing counsel and the evening read-through of a draft are not. The work is in the small things, and those are what you write down least.
On top of that you switch between matters all day. A quick procedural question from one client, a clause to check for another. ‘Just a quick look’ becomes half an hour, and a day later you don't remember which matter it belonged to.
A missed ten-minute call a day looks like nothing. Over a year it adds up to a real number of hours that were worked but never billed.
How do you structure clients, matters and activities?
The base is one matter per case under each client. Put the matter number in the matter's name, so the invoice and reports show straight away what it's about. Ongoing general advice for a regular client can go in its own ‘General advice’ matter.
Use activities for the type of work. They also separate billable from non-billable work, such as knowledge sessions, business development or a matter agreed at a fixed fee.
| Level | Example | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Client | Jansen Logistics Ltd | Invoice and overview per client |
| Matter (project) | 2026-0142 Jansen / lease dispute | Hours and budget per case |
| Activity | Correspondence, Drafting, Hearing, Meeting, Internal | Rate and billable or not |
Billing in units: how should you handle it?
Many firms bill in units. Six minutes (a tenth of an hour) is a common convention, but it's an agreement within your firm or with your client, not a fixed standard. What matters is that everyone at the firm applies the same rule.
Record the real time and round only according to that agreement. Your own records stay honest, and you can always explain how an amount came about. Rounding per task or per day gives different results; pick one and put it in your engagement letter.
| Real time | 6-minute units (rounded up) | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| 4 minutes | 1 | 0.1 |
| 14 minutes | 3 | 0.3 |
| 50 minutes | 9 | 0.9 |
What goes on the fee specification?
Clients want to understand what they're paying for. A specification with a date, time and clear description per line prevents most questions. Which details are required follows from your professional body's rules on fee specifications and from what you agreed with the client.
So write descriptions for the client from the start. Not ‘tel.’ or ‘misc. work’, but ‘call about deadline for statement of defence’.
- Date of the work.
- Time or number of units.
- Description the client understands, without internal shorthand.
- Fee earner, if more than one lawyer works on the matter.
- Rate per fee earner or activity, if they differ.
Confidentiality: who sees what?
Lawyers handle confidential information, inside their own firm too. That includes time tracking. Tools that automatically keep track of what you work on see window titles, documents and appointments.
So check where that data stays. The safest setup keeps the trail of your day on your own device only, and nothing about a client reaches the firm until you save an entry. The same applies to AI assistants; see Privacy and AI context.
Never mention another client or case in a time entry's description. The specification goes to the client who pays.
What else should you watch out for?
A few pitfalls come back at almost every firm:
- Reconstructing afterwards. At the end of the week you remember the hearing, not the three short contacts around it.
- The wrong matter. With clients who have several cases, time easily lands on the wrong matter. Check it during approval.
- Hiding non-billable work. Record it anyway, on a non-billable activity. Otherwise a matter looks more profitable than it is.
- Skipping approval. A second look before invoicing catches mistakes a client would otherwise find. See Approving hours.
How Half5 does it
In Half5 a matter is a project under the client, with its own hourly rate and optional budget in hours. Activities are ‘Billable’ or ‘Non-billable’ and can carry their own rate. Half5 stores the hours and minutes as you record them; a rounding rule in units is something you agree on and apply consistently.
The timeline keeps track of your day on your own device (programs and windows via the desktop app, meetings from your connected Google or Outlook calendar) and prepares ‘Suggestions’. It's end-to-end encrypted: only you can read your timeline, and Half5 can't. The firm only sees what you deliberately register.
With ‘Approve hours before invoicing’ on, only approved hours are billed, and another approver approves your own entries. Then you use ‘Create draft invoices from report’, and export the report to CSV, Excel or PDF as a specification.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to record time in six-minute units?
No, it's a common convention, not a rule. Record the real time and round according to your firm's or your client's agreement.
How do I log a short phone call?
Straight after the call, on the right matter, with a description like ‘call about settlement proposal’. Waiting until the end of the week loses most short contacts.
What if I work on several matters for one client at once?
Split the time by matter. If that's not possible, pick the matter where most of the work was and mention the other in the description.
Can my firm see what I work on all day?
That depends on the system. Choose a setup where only registered hours are shared and the trail of your day stays with you.
How do I handle a fixed-fee matter?
Record the hours on a non-billable activity. They don't appear on the invoice, but you can see whether the fee matches the work.
