Recording time and capturing all billable work is a challenge for many lawyers, and failure to accurately do so can result in a loss in revenue for the firm. “If you don’t record everything that you do, you’ve no idea what it really costs to deliver that work,” explained Alan Conway, Practice Group Leader for the Operations and Finance Practice at Intapp. “Not only are people not recording everything that they’re working on; they’re not billing it, either.”
During a session organized by ROOX and Intapp, Hugo Farinha, Chief Operating Officer at ROOX, spoke with leading members of the law firm market in Portugal about the importance of timekeeping and the different ways their firms address this task. Conway then demonstrated how Intapp Time can help firms overcome timekeeping challenges to improve efficiency and profitable delivery.
The roundtable portion of this event was conducted in Portuguese; quotations were professionally translated by native speakers and verified by event organizers.
Understanding Current and New Matters
Firms rely on timekeeping to correctly bill clients as well as properly monitor the budgets and profitability of current projects. Additionally, timekeeping plays a crucial role in terms of creating pricing strategies and taking on new clients and matters.
“The timely recording of time [worked] is essential for us to make assessments based on previous experiences for the budgeting of a new task,” explained João Amaral, Partner of Miranda & Associados. “We can have a better perspective of how much time we’ll actually spend on that task and then propose to customers.”
The ability to provide accurate initial cost estimates to clients is a major advantage for firms looking to win new business. By having this timekeeping information, lawyers and pricing professionals can provide better estimates for both current and future projects.
Investing in Timekeeping Technology
Although accurate timekeeping impacts profitable delivery, many lawyers feel that this task is, ironically, too time-consuming. “Lawyers work effectively and passionately on their clients’ subjects, and they view timekeeping as an administrative task that isn’t in line with their work,” said João Brito da Silva, General Director at Telles Advogados.
Manual timekeeping processes can mean hours of unbillable time for lawyers — time which could be spent working on client matters or other pressing projects. Brito da Silva advised firms to invest in connected firm technology to automatically capture time and free lawyers from this tedious task.
“By capturing times from different platforms, you can see all of your work and its interconnection with all the tools that you currently use,” said Brito da Silva.
Brito da Silva and his team implemented Intapp Time, a comprehensive, cloud-based solution designed specifically to help law firms improve their timekeeping practices. “Intapp Time brings great value to a lawyer’s daily life,” he said. “It’s completely centered on the lawyers and helps them with these tasks.”
Jorge Machado, Managing Director at CCA Law Firm, also implemented Intapp Time, and was more than pleased with the results. “During our implementation of Intapp Time, we feared that our older lawyers would have greater difficulty with the technology or with the adoption of it,” he said. “But they love it. They use all the different features, such as timekeeping by voice command.”
Machado added: “Intapp Time supports our lawyers so they can work in an easier, faster way without making their lives harder or putting additional pressure on them.”
Improving Timekeeping Practices with Intapp Time
After the roundtable discussion, Conway demonstrated Intapp Time and the various ways it helps lawyers accurately record time. The easy-to-use software employs AI-based capture technology coupled with smart reporting to ensure everything is recorded in a clear manner. “Our software can monitor lawyer activity and present it in a way that helps lawyers to reconstruct their time sheets,” Conway said.
Conway also demonstrated how Intapp Time promotes compliance. “If a lawyer wanted to create a time entry and submit it to the billing system, and if it contained an error, the software would automatically alert the lawyer to that,” Conway said. “That reduces the likelihood of any bills containing any errors sent out to clients.”
Implementing AI-based technology can greatly help firms improve timekeeping, compliance, efficiency, and profitable delivery. It also allows lawyers to focus their time and energy on what’s most important: their clients and their matters. By investing in timekeeping solutions, firms can increase client satisfaction and ultimately retain and attract more business.
Learn more about Intapp Time, or schedule a demo.
Watch the webinar replay to learn more about improving timekeeping practices.
(Please note, the roundtable portion of this event was conducted in Portuguese.)