The importance of good time recording

Produced in partnership with Robert Mowbray of Taylor Mowbray LLP

Practice notes

The importance of good time recording

Produced in partnership with Robert Mowbray of Taylor Mowbray LLP

Practice notes

This Practice Note is intended for law firms. It explains why time recording is so important. It also explores best practice around time recording and considers the impact on write-offs if more time is captured.

Why do law firms need to record time?

The primary reason for recording time is to understand the cost of the work being undertaken. It is therefore necessary to record all time spend on a client’s matter—whether this time can be billed is a separate issue and must only be considered at the point of billing.

Law firms often confuse time recording with billing. As a consequence, many lawyers discount their time twice:

•
at the point of recording, and
•
when the lawyer comes to bill the client

Increasingly, clients do not usually want to pay on a time basis as this might encourage inefficient working. It is now common for work to be charged on a fixed fee basis, which leads fee earners to question whether it is necessary to record their time. This is missing

Robert Mowbray

Partner, Taylor Mowbray LLP

Robert is an accountant who has worked in and with professional service firms for 30 years and who is an expert on law firm profitability and management. He has provided training and consultancy services to over 1,000 firms across 30 countries. His clients have included everything from the largest City and Global firms, through large regional firms and down to the most entrepreneurial smaller firms. He is regularly asked to help with a wide range of issues including time recording, pricing and fee negotiation, project management, accelerating cash flow, strategy, profit sharing arrangements and improving the quality of management information . Robert is the author of “Maximising the profitability of law firms” and was the author of the Law Society’s annual financial benchmarking survey from 2006-2009. He is the author of “Law firm finance and administration handbook – A practical guide for COFAs and finance professionals” and writes the annual NatWest financial benchmarking survey. He has been voted “Trainer of the year” by the Legal Education & Training Group and is an Industrial Fellow of the Business School at Kingston University. Robert trained in the early 1980s with PWC and spent 20 years as a partner at Macintyre Hudson LLP before setting up Taylor Mowbray LLP with Janet Taylor in 2009 to be a niche and independent advisor to professional service firms.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Fees definition

What does Fees mean?

Means the fees and other amounts payable under this agreement, including those specified in clause 6

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