AI time capture and billing preparation for firms
AI time capture suggests draft time entries from calendars, emails and the documents each professional worked on, which the professional reviews and submits. Pre-bills are then assembled and checked against engagement terms, rate cards and billing guidelines before a partner approves them. Nothing is billed without a professional's review.
Time capture and billing preparation · one run
Rules · Model · Person- 1
Gather activity
Rules - 2
Suggest entries
Model - 3
Review and submit
Person - 4
Check the pre-bill
Rules - 5
Prepare the narrative
Model - 6
Approve the bill
Person
- What goes in
- Calendars, email metadata, document activity, engagement terms, rate cards and billing guidelines
- What comes out
- Suggested time entries, and checked pre-bills ready for partner review
- Who approves
- Each timekeeper submits their own time; the billing partner approves pre-bills
Where the time goes today
What professional services teams tell us about this work.
Time is rebuilt from memory on Friday
Entries written days later are shorter and vaguer, and some work never gets recorded. A description like 'research and emails' will not survive a client query.
Pre-bills fail on rules
Block billing, a rate that is not on the engagement, tasks over the cap in the client's guidelines, an entry on a closed matter. Billing staff find these by reading line by line.
Write-downs hide their reasons
A partner cuts a bill and nobody records why. The same cause returns next month.
How the automated workflow runs
Each step is fixed rules, a model reading or drafting, or a person on your team. The people steps are where approvals sit.
- 1
Gather activity
Collects calendar events, sent and received email threads and documents opened or edited, by matter, with the professional's permission.
Rules - 2
Suggest entries
Drafts an entry for each cluster of activity: the matter, a task description in the firm's style and a suggested duration based on the activity span.
Model - 3
Review and submit
Each professional edits, merges, splits or discards the suggestions and submits. Entries are never submitted on their behalf.
Person - 4
Check the pre-bill
Compares submitted entries with the engagement terms, rate card, task codes, caps and the client's billing guidelines, and lists exceptions with the rule each one breaks.
Rules - 5
Prepare the narrative
Rewrites descriptions to match client guidelines and drafts a short cover summary for the invoice from the entries.
Model - 6
Approve the bill
The billing partner reviews the pre-bill with its exceptions, adjusts, writes down with a reason code and approves.
Person
Want to see how a project like this is scoped and delivered? Read how we work.
Controls and approvals
- Suggestions are drafts visible only to the timekeeper. Nothing reaches the billing system until they submit it.
- Matter and client permissions apply. Activity from matters behind an ethical wall is never collected for suggestions to other users.
- Write-downs and adjustments on a pre-bill need a reason code and an approver's name.
What we leave to people
We do not submit time or decide what is billable. Some professionals find suggestions intrusive, and they can opt out. We start with email subjects and metadata rather than message bodies, and never read content beyond what matter permissions already allow.
Systems it connects to
Examples of tools we work with for this workflow. Anything with an API or a controlled interface is in scope.
- Clio
- Karbon
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- NetSuite
- Microsoft 365
Activity is read from the calendar, mail and document systems each professional allows. Submitted entries and pre-bills move through your practice management and billing system, which stays the system of record.
What to measure
We set a baseline from your own records in the audit, then report these every month.
Illustrative example
Ten timekeepers who each lose 20 minutes a week to reconstructing time, plus a billing coordinator who spends 6 hours on pre-bill checks. We would measure the gain as submitted hours that began as suggestions, before and after launch, and we do not forecast revenue recovery without your data.
| Measure | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Time recorded within a day | Share of hours entered within one business day of the work. |
| Submitted hours that began as suggestions | A measure of use, with an edit rate to show how much each suggestion was changed. |
| Pre-bill exceptions per bill | Rule breaches found by the check, before the partner reads the bill. |
| Write-downs by reason | Adjustments grouped by reason code, reviewed monthly. |
Common questions
Can AI track lawyers' time automatically?
It can propose entries from calendars, email and documents. The professional reviews and submits each one, because they are accountable for the time they bill. Automatic submission is something we advise against.
Does it work with Clio or our billing system?
Entries are created in your practice management or billing system through its API where one exists. We confirm what your plan allows during the audit, since time entry features vary by product and tier.
Is reading email and documents a privacy or privilege problem?
It can be, which is why we apply matter permissions and ethical walls, start with metadata and subjects, keep suggestions visible only to their owner, and let each person opt out. Your ethics lead signs off on the scope.
Will it increase billable hours?
It should reduce unrecorded time, but we do not promise a revenue lift. We measure the share of time recorded within a day and the hours that came from suggestions, and you judge the effect from your own numbers.
Related
- SolutionFinance operationsInvoice processing, payables, receivables, reconciliation and month-end reporting, automated with approvals.Read more
- BlueprintQuote-to-cash systemPre-bill checks and invoicing correspond to the invoicing stage of quote-to-cash, driven by the terms in the engagement.Read more
- IndustryAI for professional servicesClient intake, document collection, engagement letters, deadlines and billing, automated.Read more
Other professional services workflows
Tell us how your professional services team handles this today.
A 30-minute call with an engineer. You will leave knowing what a system could do for that workflow and what it would take to build.
What happens next
- 1
Strategy call
We learn how the workflow runs today and what a good outcome would be.
- 2
Workflow audit
We map the process and measure where a system would save the most time.
- 3
Proposal
A written scope, timeline and fixed price for your first system. No obligation to build.