Thank you to Bellefield Systems, the creator of iTimekeep, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. again this month. iTimekeep is one of the most useful apps on my iPhone, and along with Microsoft Word, it is one of those rare apps that I use almost every day on multiple computing platforms: PC, Mac, iPad, and iPhone. iTimekeep greatly improves time entry and time management for attorneys. Billing time is one of the most annoying aspects of a law practice, so the ability to transform this task from a daily drudgery to something that can be done much more easily is a huge win. I posted a full review of iTimekeep two years ago, and last month I discussed how I use iTimekeep on my iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac. Here are are two additional reasons that I recommend that you incorporate iTimekeep into your law practice.
Track your performance
I have always found it more efficient to enter my own time, but I know that others jot down their time in some other way and have an assistant handle the time entry process. But the iTimekeep app is an incredible app for all attorneys, regardless of whether you enter your own time, because it makes it so easy to track your own performance.
First, the main screen of iTimekeep shows you a list of your most recent time entries. For each day, a number indicates the total number of hours (billable and non-billable) for that day. Scroll to the bottom and you can tap a button to load seven more days. This is a quick and easy way to make sure that all of your recent time was correctly tracked. And if you see a particular day that only has a few hours recorded or that doesn't mention a task that you know that you did that day, that's a red flag that you may be missing some time from that particular day.
Second, there is another way that iTimekeep can tell you if it looks like you may be missing time. In iTimekeep, you give yourself a daily goal. Mine is eight hours. Select the option in iTimekeep called Missing Time, and it will show you any days on which you were short of your daily goal. Usually, if I was short of my daily goal, there was a good reason for it that I already knew about, such as I got to work late or left work early because of something going on with my kids. But if there is a day when I should have recorded eight or more hours, it is useful for iTimekeep to alert me that I was short so that I can go back and figure out what I forgot to record.
Third, there is a Dashboard feature that you can use to get an overview of a week, month, or year. It shows you the number of hours (both billable and non-billable) that you worked, the average number of hours you billed every day, any missing time, and time entries with errors, any time entries that are incomplete, etc. This is a quick and easy way to see your overall progress, and you can do it on your iPhone, iPad, PC, or Mac.
Using all of these tools, it is easy to track your progress throughout the week, the month, and the year, not to mention fix anything missing before you forget about it. Indeed, even if you are not normally the person who enters your own time, if you see that a time entry is missing, or if something looks wrong in an entry, it just takes you a few seconds to add the missing time or fix the incorrect entry. You can spend less time fixing any mistake yourself then it would take you to explain to someone else what is wrong and how to fix it.
Capture all of your time
Discovering, and fixing, a missing time entry is good, but of course it is better if all of your time is entered correctly in the first place. And it's the word "all" in that sentence that is sometimes tricky because attorneys frequently perform tasks throughout the day that we can forget to record, such as a short phone call or an email exchange. One of the best features of iTimekeep is that it gives you the power of anywhere timekeeping. If you are in front of your computer, you can just use the iTimekeep website in your browser of choice. But if all you have is your iPad or your iPhone, iTimekeep is there for you when you need it — with a simple, easy-to-use interface and ample security to protect your time entries.
Thus, iTimekeep makes it as simple as possible to enter time contemporaneously with the event. When you finish up a phone call, you can take a few seconds and immediately enter the time in the iTimekeep app before you forget about it — even if you are out of the office.
You are doing the work anyway. You might as well get credit for it. And over the course of a month and a year, those small time entries can really add up.
Conclusion
Everything about the time entry process is better with iTimekeep. You spend less time entering your own time, and you do so more accurately and efficiently. And because your iPhone is probably always with you, it is incredibly easy to enter time contemporaneously or record an entry from earlier in the day whenever and wherever you think about it. Additionally, reviewing prior time entries is simple, and iTimekeep will even alert you when you appear to be missing time from a day. Thus, even if you don't enter your own time, iTimekeep makes it incredibly easy to see what time was recorded for you so that you can fix any mistakes earlier in the process. Thanks to iTimekeep for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for improving my own law practice.
