1.4

Tracking Billable Hours

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INTRODUCTION

Keeping track of billable hours during this program will help you to develop great habits for your career as a paralegal.

 

Lecture Notes . . . Billable Hours • Earlier in this chapter, students chose (or were assigned) clients. • Every time you work on a project on behalf of your client in the following Segments, attempt to keep track of your hours. Note: Every law firm will use its own system. Having familiarity with at least one form will certainly benefit you. When you are working on either writing or research assignments, practice keeping track of billable hours! Time Sheet  • The time sheet in your manual represents the standard information that would be required in any time-management system. • The first column of the time sheet is where the current date is recorded.  • The second column is the client name. • The third column is the client file number. This is not the number assigned by the court. It is an internal law firm-generated number for maintaining a file system. You should use one of the examples provided in the book. Every firm will use their own system, of course. • The fourth column is the description of the work performed. Be brief, but descriptive. A good rule of thumb is, after you have finished the entry, ask yourself this simple question: If you were the client, would you mind paying for that work? • The fifth and last column logs the amount of time spent on the task. The time, for most firms, is recorded in tenths of an hour. Thus, 1.0 is one hour. 1.1 is one hour and six minutes. 1.2 is one hour and 12 minutes, and so forth. Every tenth of an hour is six minutes. • You can use the examples of the time sheet on these pages (in the manual), or you can create your own. This is a very important part of your training as a paralegal, so remember to keep track of your work each time you perform a research or writing task in this class.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Time Sheets



The Good

Notice the accurate hours and the detailed descriptions.



The Bad

Not a very accurate time sheet. Very little attention to detail.



The Ugly

Obviously created after-the-fact. Don't let your time sheet look like this!

Time Sheet Download
Click here to download a Time Sheet that automatically adds up your billable hours. If you do not have Microsoft Excel on your computer, just install the equivalent OpenOffice.org software. It is free and a very useful software bundle. The Calc software in OpenOffice is the equivalent of Excel.

This time sheet will also be available later in the site as assignments arise, but it is recommended that you use one time sheet for the entire program, adding hours descriptions and hours as you progress. By the end of the program, you should have an impressive example of billable hours.

Your First Time Sheet Entry
Download the above Time Sheet and make your first entry. You have most likely chosen, or been assigned, a client. Even if it just took a few minutes to review your client's facts, keep track of that time.

Enter the date, the client's name, and a client number (which you can make up or take from examples in the manual).

Your description will be something like, "Received my client assignment from instructor. Reviewed client's facts to become familiar with issues surrounding representation." Remember, the more detailed, the better.

The time you spend reviewing your client's legal matter will not be too long. Most likely under 6 minutes. If so, your time will be 0.1. If the time was between 6 and 12 minutes, your time will be 0.2. If it was between 12 and 18 minutes, your time will be 0.3, etc. In other words, every ".1" (tenth of an hour) equals 6 minutes. So even if the work only took 1 minute, the least amount of time you can bill is 0.1, (six minutes).

Download the Time Sheet and give it a try.

 

 

Lecture Notes . . . The client file folder is not used until later in the program when you are working on research and writing assignments. You will be reminded to keep your documents organized, and to index your file. You would be well advised to take this seriously and to start developing good filing habits. Those habits will be noticed by your supervising attorney.