Time tracking that fits Law Firms
Hours captured as work happens, mapped to the matters, filings and client consultations you already plan around.
Manual timesheets are reconstructions, and reconstructions lose money. Worktivity records hours automatically in the background, lets attorneys, paralegals and support staff correct them, and turns the result into timesheets, invoices and payouts data without a second round of data entry.
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Why law firms need time tracking
Time is the unit law firms sell, plan and pay against, yet in most organisations it is entered from memory on a Friday afternoon. The gap between what happened and what was recorded is where margin quietly disappears.
Legal work is billed in six-minute units and recorded, in most firms, from memory at the end of the day. The shortfall between hours worked and hours recorded never appears in any report, because nobody knows it is missing.
The economics are stark. A fee earner reconstructing a ten-hour day from memory typically records eight, and the two missing hours were worked, chargeable and simply forgotten. Across a firm, across a year, that is the difference between a good result and an ordinary one.
Worktivity's time tracking for law firms records the working day as it happens, so the fee earner's job becomes review and allocation rather than recollection. Time in research platforms, document review and drafting is captured automatically and attributed to matters, with idle periods separated so nothing indefensible reaches an invoice.
Worktivity captures the day as it happens across research platform, document, email and drafting, then presents it back for allocation to matters with narratives attached. The fee earner reviews and edits rather than reconstructs, which takes minutes instead of the daily half hour everybody postpones until Friday.
Worktivity closes that gap by capturing hours as they are worked, attaching them to the right project or client, and leaving a clear trail from raw activity to approved timesheet. What you bill and what you paid for finally describe the same day.
How tracked time reaches the invoice
Four steps, none of which involve a blank timesheet grid.
Hours captured, not remembered
The agent records working time in the background and separates idle stretches, so a timesheet starts from evidence instead of an empty form.
Everything mapped to work
Time attaches to the projects, clients and tasks that mirror your matters, filings and client consultations, which makes reporting a filter rather than a rebuild.
Approvals without chasing
Employees review and adjust, managers approve in bulk, and locked periods stop retroactive edits from reopening a closed month.
Billing and payouts in one pass
Approved hours flow into invoices and payouts exports with the breakdown clients ask for already attached.
Time tracking capabilities for Law Firms
Seven capabilities, two of them specific to how law firms work.
Matter-level time capture
Every hour is attributable to a client and matter, with narrative fields for the description the bill will carry. Reconstruction from memory becomes review of a record.
Billable and non-billable separation
Business development, internal training, supervision and administration are tracked distinctly from chargeable work, which is the only way to see a fee earner's true utilisation.
Automatic background tracking
Start once and the desktop agent handles the rest across Windows, macOS and Linux. attorneys, paralegals and support staff do not stop work in order to record work, which is the only way tracking survives a busy month.
Project, client and task mapping
Structure time the way you already structure delivery, so hours roll up to the matters, filings and client consultations your reporting is built on without manual re-tagging.
Timesheets and approvals
Generated timesheets arrive pre-filled. Employees correct, managers approve, and every change is logged with who altered what and when.
Idle, break and offline handling
Idle thresholds, break rules and manual entry for offline work keep the recorded day honest, including the hours that happen away from a keyboard.
Billable rates and invoicing
Set rates by person, role or project, mark hours billable or internal, and export invoice-ready breakdowns into your accounting stack.
What accurate hours are worth to law firms
The return shows up in six places.
Recovered billable time
Teams that move from memory-based entry to captured time routinely find hours that were previously written off, simply because nobody recorded them.
Estimates that improve
Every completed piece of work becomes historical data, so the next quote rests on what the work actually cost rather than on optimism.
Faster billing cycles
Closing a period stops being a week of chasing and becomes a review of data that is already sitting there.
Fewer client disputes
Itemised, timestamped breakdowns answer “what did we pay for” before the question turns into a credit note.
Cleaner payouts
Approved hours, overtime and leave arrive in a single export, which removes the spreadsheet stage entirely.
Audit-ready records
A complete trail from captured activity to approved timesheet stands up to internal review and external audit alike.
Where law firms rely on tracked time
Five places law firms put this to work in the first quarter.
Recovering the hours reconstruction loses
A firm that moves from end-of-day recall to captured time typically finds chargeable hours it had been writing off. The work was done, but it was never recorded.
Understanding matter profitability
Fixed-fee and capped matters need cost tracking as much as hourly ones. Hours by matter type reveal which work is worth taking and which is quietly subsidised by the rest of the firm.
Supporting billing queries and audits
When a client challenges an invoice or a cost assessment arrives, an itemised, timestamped record of the work performed is a materially stronger position than a narrative written weeks after the fact.
Fixed-price work that must not overrun
Watch consumed hours against the budget on every engagement and intervene while there is still room to act.
Distributed and shift-based teams
Track across time zones, devices and locations under one set of rules, then reconcile the lot in a single view.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the questions law firms ask most often about time tracking.
How much chargeable time do firms typically recover?
The gap between a reconstructed day and a recorded one is usually one to two hours, and it is chargeable work that was genuinely performed and simply forgotten. Rather than trusting a headline figure, run it on two or three fee earners for a month and compare their recorded hours before and after.
How does monitoring sit with client confidentiality and privilege?
Configuration decides it. Screenshot capture can be switched off entirely or restricted per team, applications can be exempted, and activity records can be limited to application-level metadata rather than content. Worktivity never reads document contents or message bodies. Firms handling privileged material typically run time capture with screenshots disabled.
Will fee earners accept it?
Adoption is highest where the pitch is recovery rather than oversight: the same system that records the day also stops chargeable work going unbilled. Fee earners see and edit their own time before it is submitted, so the review step stays with them.
Does time tracking require manual timers?
No. Tracking runs automatically once the agent is installed. Manual entry exists only for work that happens away from the computer: meetings, site visits, travel and calls.
Can employees correct their own hours?
Yes, and they should. Employees review and adjust their day before submitting it, managers approve, and every edit is recorded. That combination is what makes the data trustworthy rather than merely automatic.
Does it work offline?
Yes. The agent buffers activity locally and syncs when the connection returns, so travel, site work and outages do not leave gaps in the record.
Can we export to our accounting or payouts system?
Approved timesheets export as CSV or XLSX, and the API lets you push hours into your existing finance stack on a schedule.
Other Worktivity solutions for Law Firms
The same platform, pointed at a different question.
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Advanced productivity calculation and analytics tools for measuring team efficiency and performance metrics.
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How time tracking works in other sectors
The mechanics are shared; the reporting, policy and vocabulary are not. Compare with a neighbouring industry.
Consulting Firms
Management and business consulting firms needing time tracking for client engagements, project profitability analysis, and team productivity optimization.
Learn moreMarketing Agencies
Digital marketing agencies and advertising firms requiring time tracking for campaigns, client billing, and team productivity management.
Learn moreDesign Studios
Creative design agencies and studios needing time tracking for design projects, client billing, and creative team productivity monitoring.
Learn moreEngineering Companies
Engineering firms requiring time tracking for engineering projects, billable hours, and technical team productivity optimization.
Learn moreAccounting Firms
Accounting and CPA firms needing accurate time tracking for client work, billable hours, and compliance reporting.
Learn moreHealthcare Organizations
Healthcare facilities and medical practices requiring time tracking for administrative staff, billing, and operational efficiency.
Learn more
Ready to see where your hours actually go?
Set Worktivity up for your team this afternoon. The configuration that law firms need is already mapped out. Fourteen days free, no card, and the data is yours either way.
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