Please note the following tips and tricks for recording time entries in Practice Management.
Understanding How Time is Logged in Practice Management
Note: Information in this section depends on whether an admin user has set your system to include a task's tart time in your time entries. This setting can be found by going to Admin > General settings > Timekeeping > Track 'start' time.
In Actionstep Practice Management, when you create your first time record for the day, the start time for the record will be time specified in the user's calendar preferences.
Each new time record starts when the previous time record ends, and the end time is calculated by adding the recorded time to the start time.
For example, Dave might record his first time record (Time record A) at 3 pm for an hour. Then Dave records Time record B for 30 minutes and Time record C for another hour.
Despite recording the time at 3pm:
- Time record A uses the day's start time of 8:30 a.m.
- Time record B has a start time of 9:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m. plus 1 hour from Time record A)
- Time record C has a start time of 10:00 a.m.
This works this way so a user can manually enter in their day at the end of the day, and as long as they enter the time chronologically, the time records are populated as they go. In some cases, this may not be 100% accurate, so users can still view and edit the start time field as needed.
Time records do not display an end time. The end time is calculated based on the time entered as described above. However, users can enter a time of day into the Hrs worked or Hrs to bill field as an end time and when clicking away from that field, Trace will convert it into hours based on the time record's start time and the time they entered. So, if Dave has a time record with a start time of 9:30 a.m. and he enters 11:15 into the Hrs Worked field, it will be converted to 1.75 hours.
To learn more, see Setting Up Timekeeping in System Preferences (Admin) and Adjusting Calendar Preferences.
Entering Time as Units
An admin user can use the Minutes per 1 unit setting (in Admin > General settings > Timekeeping) to specify a standard billing increment for time entries. For example, if your firm bills in 6-minute increments, an admin can set one unit to equal 6 minutes. Users can then enter 5u to record 5 units (30 minutes), rather than calculating and entering the equivalent time in hours. This can make time entry quicker and easier while helping your firm record billable time consistently using its preferred increments.
One thing worth noting: Actionstep ultimately stores the entry as a fractional number of hours, so certain unit lengths—such as 5 minutes—can be affected by the system’s time precision and rounding settings.
See Setting Up Timekeeping in System Preferences (Admin) and Creating a Time or Fee Entry for more information.
Understanding Rate Labels and How They Can Be Overridden
Law firms set billing rates to ensure profitability, establish their identity, and meet client expectations. When you complete work for the firm, you can use rate labels to quickly identify the value of the work you performed. Actionstep allows each system role, timekeeper, billable participant, entry quick code, or matter to have its own rate.
When choosing rate labels as you create time entries, you should understand the hierarchy of how these rates are applied, as well as how these rates can be overridden. This hierarchy is covered in Understanding Rate Label Hierarchy and Historic Rates.
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