Law firm billing systems
- The gap, a month
- $28,224
- Value at target
- $183,456
- Value actually recorded
- $155,232
- The gap, a year
- $338,688
Every figure printed on this site is arithmetic on the worked example we publish: 6 fee earners, a blended charge-out rate of $280 an hour, 5.2 recorded hours each per working day, 21 working days a month. Change any of those on the worksheet and the numbers change with them. Nothing here is a market statistic and nothing is quoted from a third party.
The figures above start from a worked example ($28,224). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Law firm billing systems worked example (CSV)
Law firm billing systems all start from the same raw material: hours recorded against a matter. This worksheet is that raw material on its own: a week of recorded time for a firm your size, priced at your blended rate, with the gap between target and recorded hours shown as money rather than as a percentage. It is the number worth putting in front of fee earners, because a percentage is an argument and a figure is not.
Set the firm's shape
Fee earners, blended charge-out rate, target recorded hours per day. The defaults are the worked example this site publishes: 6, $280 and 5.2.
Enter what was actually recorded
By fee earner, for the week. The worksheet does not judge the difference; it prices it.
Read the gap as money
One unrecorded hour per fee earner per week is $87,360 a year on the worked example. That is the sentence that changes recording behaviour, not the timesheet reminder email.
Law firm billing systems: common questions
Is this a time-recording tool? No. It prices time that has already been recorded somewhere else. Recording it is what the paid plan keeps.
What is a reasonable target? That is a question for your firm and its mix of work, and any number this site gave you would be a guess dressed as a benchmark. The worksheet takes yours.
Why price the gap rather than report the percentage? Because a firm has argued about the percentage before and nobody moved. The money is the same fact in a form that is harder to discuss away.
Partnro Pro
Keeping what you make
Keep this month's answer, and every month after it, without rebuilding the spreadsheet each time.
- Download the finished sheet as a file
- Send it without the Partnro line on it
- Save a matter's bill and reopen it next month
- Put your firm's name and logo on it
- Export every matter, timesheet and bill at once
- Bills emailed to the client from the matter they came off
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$79per month, whole team
Start Partnro Pro PricingThe plan renews monthly on the day you started it, at the same price you signed up at. We tell you by email before any price change, and a change never applies to a term already paid for.