Whether we are self-employed specialists or employees in companies, our employers and customers want to make sure that they pay us fairly for the work we do. This approach turned time tracking into one of the essential tools of any modern professional. The same applies to individual attorneys and consultants as well as for law firms.
Many lawyers who bill their customers by the hour still prefer to reconstruct their time logs at the end of the day, week or even month when they need to bill their clients. Even if you don’t share your time records with customers, you need to keep a time log. Modern time tracking software offers industry-related features that allow you to automate most of your daily routine, increase your productivity and gain more trust among your customers. So, what are the best options for today?
Best Time Trackers for Lawyers
1. actiTIME
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
- Project Management
- Reporting
Price: Free for up to 3 users with limited functionality.
Paid tiers start at $5 per user per month. 30-day trial period.
Best for: Individual consultants, lawyers, attorneys, barristers, solicitors, law firms, government institutions.
Overview: actiTIME is a flexible time tracking software available for browsers, iOS and Android apps, and on-premises software.
actiTIME allows you to build your own “client — project — task” scope, create and assign tasks with time estimates and statuses, analyze your performance, build reports and use them to bill your customers.
With this tool, you can track time from your computer that automatically syncs your data with your actiTIME mobile app. There you can start a timer, submit time entries manually, review your time-track, or even track time in offline mode and sync the data later.
The reporting feature allows you to create customizable charts and spreadsheets, download them in numerous formats, create and edit branded invoices using the submitted data.
To automate most of your time tracking, billing, reporting routines, you can use actiTIME integrations. With QuickBooks accounting system integration, you can import your timesheet data and use it for invoicing, tax calculations and payroll. Or use Zapier to connect actiTIME with 2000+ apps without any coding skills.
Integrations: QuickBooks, 2000+ Zapier integrations, API and more.
Deployment: Web-based, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS.
2. PracticePanther
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
- Document Management
Price: Starting at $39 per user per month. 7-day trial period.
Best for: Law firms, government institutions.
Overview: PracticePanther is a legal case management software with time tracking functionality.
PracticePanther offers a dashboard where you can track time and appointments, manage your calendar, monitor unpaid invoices and more. As long as it’s a cloud-based solution, it allows you to sync files across the platforms, see their change history, protect them with passwords, delete and restore them.
Use tracked time logs to create billings and invoices, keep track of the unpaid ones. Promote transparency to your clients by giving them access to their invoices and previous payments.
Integrations: QuickBooks, Dropbox, LawPay, Zapier integrations, and more.
Deployment: Web-based, Android, and iOS.
3. Bill4time
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
- Document Management
- Project Management
- Reporting
Price: Starting at $27 per user per month.
Best for: Individual consultants, lawyers, attorneys, barristers, solicitors, law firms, government institutions.
Overview: Bill4time is a legal practice management system that offers time tracking and billing for lawyers.
Bill4time offers a number of ways to track your time. You can capture billable and non-billable time and track internal non-client time. You can start one or several timers on your laptop and continue with your smartphone.
The client portal allows you to accept payments from multiple popular options like PayPal and LawPay. Clients can access their portal through desktop apps or smartphones and see their billings, invoices and payments.
Integrations: QuickBooks, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and Box.
Deployment: Web-based, Android, and iOS.
4. Chrometa
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
Price: Starting at $19 per user per month.
Best for: Individual consultants, lawyers, attorneys, barristers, solicitors, small law firms.
Overview: Chrometa is a background time tracking software and records everything you do without toggling anything.
Chrometa captures time entries, uses rules and keywords to sort them according to clients or matters and allows you to further export them to Clio, QuickBooks or another billing system. To make sure that this tool assigns your time logs with the utmost accuracy, you can tag files, folders and URLs with clients or matters, or create custom keyword-based rules.
If you spend some time away from your computer to attend a meeting or to make a call, Chrometa records your time away. When you are back, it’ll ask you to record your activities.
Its mobile app also captures your data, sorts it according to the date, time spent, the person you spoke to and syncs it with your Chrometa account.
Integrations: PracticePanther, Clio, Xero, Freshbooks, QuickBooks, Asana, Trello, and more.
Deployment: Web-based, Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
5. FreshBooks
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
- Reporting
Price: Starting at $6 per month.
Best for: Individual consultants, lawyers, attorneys, barristers, solicitors, law firms.
Overview: FreshBooks is an all-in-one accounting and invoicing software with time tracking features.
Start a timer and get down to business, fill in timesheets manually, use mobile apps or Chrome extension timer — bank every billable hour the way you like. Review your team’s timesheets in a few clicks and get a quick summary of their daily activities with a simple and intuitive calendar dashboard.
With FreshBooks, you can track time against a specific client or project and use your time logs to build billings and invoices and send them to your clients.
Integrations: Shopify, Squarespace, Zoom, Gusto, SSuite, Fundbox, Stripe, Bench, and more.
Deployment: Web-based, Android, and iOS.
6. TimeCamp
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
- Reporting
Price: Starting at $5.25 per user per month.
Best for: Individual consultants, lawyers, attorneys, barristers, solicitors, law firms.
Overview: Timecamp is a powerful time tracker for individual professionals and teams that deliver products and services to their clients and require smart billing and invoicing features.
Time tracking with TimeCamp is fully automated. When you switch between the tasks and matters, the software looks for project-specific keywords and logs your time accordingly. If you need to add, adjust or delete time entries, TimeCamp allows you to do that too.
Set up billing rates to measure the cost of your work. Define project time or cost budgets to stay notified on when they are about to overrun.
If you’d like to invoice your clients right from the app, you need to feed it your time data, set up tax rates and send out invoices via email or a private link. You can also export your invoices to Xero or QuickBooks.
Integrations: Xero, QuickBooks, Google Calendar, iCal, Trello, Evernote, and more.
Deployment: Web-based, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS.
7. Timely
Key features:
- Mobile apps
- Integrations
- Billing & Invoicing
- Reporting
Price: Starting at $5 per user per month. 14-day trial period.
Best for: Individual consultants, lawyers, attorneys, barristers, solicitors, law firms.
Overview: Timely is an automatic time tracker that records all the time you spend on different clients and cases.
It tracks your web and desktop activity, mobile calls and GPS location as a mobile app, and syncs all the data into a single timesheet for billing. If you manage a legal team, you can see what case your people are working on, how much time is spent on different clients or internal communication.
Timely integrates with multiple accounting systems, so you can export your time logs, create bills and invoices seamlessly.
Integrations: FreshBooks, QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, Stripe, Trello, Wrike and more.
Deployment: Web-based, Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
Still Not Sure Where to Start?
Market of time trackers offers hundreds of various solutions. If you are still not sure where to start, we offer you a 30-day trial of actiTIME time tracking software with rich project management capabilities, billing & invoicing features, a free plan for individuals and teams of up to 3 users. If you are looking for a reliable solution for your law team, we can also save you some time and show you a live product demo.
