Time and case management run in two systems at many law firms. Time tracking in one place, cases in another. On a monthly basis, everything is manually consolidated – often by a case manager or a bookkeeper who spends a whole workday aligning the time entries with the cases.
It's not a problem until you measure it. But when you do, it turns out to be expensive. Very expensive.
Where the money disappears
When time tracking and case management are separate, billable time leaks in three places:
Forgotten time: Lawyers record time retrospectively – often Friday afternoon or Monday morning. Between 5 and 15% of the actual billable time is never captured. Just this alone is worth DKK 200,000 per lawyer annually in a typical setup.
Wrong case: When a lawyer has to select the case from a long dropdown two days later, the time is allocated incorrectly. The client pays for one case while the work was done on another – or vice versa.
Reconciliation work: Every month, someone in the firm spends hours matching time entries to cases, identifying discrepancies, correcting, and approving. This is unpaid work that is not billed.
Time tracking that is not linked to the case at the moment the work is done is an approximate record. Not an accounting.
What changes when time tracking and case management are one system
It’s not about automating registration to save the lawyer trouble. It’s about capturing the right time on the right case as the work happens.
Time follows the action
When a lawyer opens a case and starts working – on a document, an email, a call – the system knows what is going on. Time is recorded automatically in the background, linked to the right case, ready for approval later.
No manual matching
When time and case are one, there is no reconciliation. No “which case was this actually?”. No partner guessing which work corresponds to that hour.
Real-time overview of case economics
The partner sees the status of a case and not only what has been done – but also what it has cost, how much remains in the budget, and whether the case is on track to be billable or not. Decisions are made earlier. Corrections happen in real time, not in hindsight.
Better data for pricing
When all time is correctly recorded on cases, the firm for the first time has real data on what different types of cases actually cost. That insight is invaluable for next year’s pricing, fixed-fee agreements, and evaluating profitable client segments.
The most expensive time is the one that is not recorded
Many firms underestimate how great the potential is. A calculation to bring into the evaluation:
10 lawyers × DKK 200,000 per lawyer in lost billable time per year = DKK 2 million. Every year. Every time.
That’s the difference between having a good year and a fantastic year. That’s the annual salary for a junior partner. That’s a whole new office location.
When time and case management are one system, the firm wins that money back. Not by pressuring the lawyers. By removing the friction that made the time disappear in the first place.
It starts with an honest measurement
If you want to know how much you lose today, do the exercise for a week: ask all lawyers to record time in real time, not retrospectively. Compare with a typical week from last month. The difference is what you lose, every single week.
When the number is on the table, the decision to combine time tracking and case management is rarely difficult.