Thank you to Bellefield Systems, the creator of iTimekeep, for sponsoring iPhone J.D. again this month. iTimekeep is a fantastic service for attorneys because it allows you to eliminate all of the miserable parts of timekeeping. Here are three specific ways in which iTimekeep is a big improvement for me, and can be for you too if you click here to try iTimekeep for attorneys.
Eliminate the burden of reconstructing time entries
iTimekeep is everywhere that you are. If you are in front of your computer at work, you can use iTimekeep in your browser. If you are in front of your personal computer at home — Mac or PC — you can similarly use a browser to enter your time. If you are working off-site at someplace like a coffee house on your iPad, you can use the fantastic iPad app. And, if you are on-the-go, you can use the iPhone app.
Having iTimekeep everywhere is important because it means that you can enter your time as you are doing tasks, no matter where you are located. And this matters because it vastly reduces the need to reconstruct your time entries. For example, if you take a client call while you are out of the office, just take a few seconds using the iPhone app to log the call, something like: "Telephone conference with Mr. Smith re revisions to contract in light of change in legislation." This way, at the end of the day (or the week), you don’t need to waste time trying to reconstruct everything that you did, such as remembering who you talked to on the phone and what you talked about.
I find it so easy to enter time in iTimekeep that my time entries are complete, but you don’t have to use the product that way. You could also have an entry that just has a few words in it along with the time. Then, later on, either you or a secretary could clean up the time entry. The point is just to get something recorded contemporaneously so that you don’t have to reconstruct from scratch at a later time when the work that you did is no longer fresh in your mind.
Stop losing time
A related advantage of being able to enter the time anywhere, especially when you are not in front of a computer, is that you are more likely to log everything that you did. Tasks that involve small time increments that take place while you are on the go are often not captured when you are not doing contemporaneous time entry. By using iTimekeep, you don’t lose that time.
iTimekeep also helps you with missing time. You can tell iTimekeep the minimum number of hours that you typically record in a day. (I have mine set to 8.) Then, using the missing time feature of the app, you see at a glance if there are any days in the month in which your hours were low. For example, this past Friday, I left work early to take my daughter to a volleyball game. (She won!) When I tap the Missing Time button, the app alerts me that I recorded only 7.1 hours that day. In this case, there is a good explanation, so I don’t have anything else to add. But if there were not some special circumstance, the app would help me to realize that I failed to complete my time entries for that day.
Sometimes, the time entries that iTimekeep helps you to save are small — a 0.1 here, a 0.2 there — but they all add up over time. Moreover, your timesheets are not just a way for your clients to pay your bills; they are also a way to tell your clients the story of everything that you did for them during the month. By having a more complete timesheet with all of the 0.1 entries, the story of what you did for the client is more complete. Thus, iTimekeep helps you to give your clients a better picture of what you did throughout the month, improving your relationship with clients as well.
Stop using overcomplicated and difficult to use technology
iTimekeep is simple to use, requires no training, and provides a consumer-grade experience where attorneys can track time in a consistent way across devices. Unlike some other software developers, the developers of iTimekeep have a laser focus on making the experience for the attorney entering and reviewing time as great as possible. That’s the whole reason that iTimekeep exists and has been so successful over the years.
Also, the iTimekeep user experience is consistent across platforms, whether you are using it on a PC, a Mac, an iPhone, an iPad, or Android. This is similar to how you can learn how to use Netflix on one platform, like a TV, and then you already know how to use it on another platform, like an iPad or computer.
Because it is so easy to use, you can give iTimekeep to all of the attorneys in your law firm and they can start using the service right away. And every time that iTimekeep updates the service (which happens frequently), the focus is always on making the product even more valuable while still keeping it incredibly simple to use.
I frequently talk to attorneys who use iTimekeep. The tech-savvy attorneys love it because it is such a powerful tool. But even the attorneys who don’t live-and-breathe technology like I do tell me how much they like using iTimekeep — and I know that they wouldn't be doing so if they found the app to be complicated.
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. Thanks to iTimekeep for sponsoring iPhone J.D. this month and for improving my own law practice.
