> Time tracking software for lawyers: contemporaneous capture of every matter, decimal hours you bill in tenths, no block billing, and no screenshots. [Home](https://billnotch.com/) / For lawyers For lawyers # Time tracking software for lawyers who bill in tenths of an hour Time tracking software for lawyers has one job most trackers get wrong: catch the billable minute the moment it happens, so the day is recorded as you work each matter instead of reconstructed from memory after it. BillNotch captures it automatically and hands you clean entries to bill in tenths. [Start tracking free](https://app.billnotch.com/register) BillNotch records the matter you are working on automatically, attributes the time to the right client and matter, and turns approved hours into a professional invoice. It is built for solo attorneys and small firms who bill hourly and lose real money to entries they never wrote down. ## Why time tracking software for lawyers has to be contemporaneous Bar guidance has said the same thing for years: record time as you work it, not from memory at the end of the week. The reason is arithmetic as much as ethics. Reconstruction systematically undercounts the short work, the six-minute call, the quick email, the re-reading of a thread, and that short work is a large share of a real matter. Bill from memory and you bill less than you did. Contemporaneous timekeeping is hard because it competes with the actual work. Nobody wants to stop drafting to start a timer, so the timer does not get started, and the time is gone. Passive capture removes the choice: the record is being made while you work the matter, and the only thing left for you to do is confirm it. That is the difference between a defensible record and a Friday-afternoon guess, and over a month of matters the guess is almost always the one that costs you, because the work you forget is the short work, and the short work is most of the day. ## Capture the matter, not a timer The desktop app reads which application is in front and for how long, on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Set up each matter as a project under its client, and keyword rules on the file name or the matter reference file the time as you work. It is the same idea as a passive tool detecting a matter ID from a document name, and anything the rules are unsure about waits on review rather than landing on the wrong client. It watches for idle, so a lunch or a walk down the hall does not become billable time, and there is no screenshot and no keystroke log behind any of it. Here is what passive capture records across a normal day on a matter. ### The matter document A brief in Word, a contract in a PDF reader, the deposition summary you are drafting. Each is a foreground window with the file name in its title, so a keyword rule on the matter files that time against the matter as you work it. ### Email and correspondence The reply to opposing counsel, the client update, the thread you re-read to see what changed. Correspondence is billable work, and it lands against the matter the same way the pleading does instead of slipping through. ### Research, domains only The optional browser companion reports the domain of the active tab, not the page or the query, so time in a research service or a court portal attributes to the matter without recording what you looked up. ### Calls on the calendar Connect a Google or Microsoft calendar and recent meetings arrive on the review screen as suggested entries, so a client call or a hearing becomes a billable line you accept rather than one you meant to note and did not. ## Recording in tenths, honestly A straight answer, because this is where trackers oversell. BillNotch records each entry to the second and shows the total in decimal hours. It does not have a rounding setting and does not silently push every entry up to the next tenth. The tenth-of-an-hour convention is yours to apply: when you review the day, you set each billable entry to the increment you are charging, and the invoice then shows those tenths. If you want the minutes-to-tenths chart, the [billable hours calculator](https://billnotch.com/tools/billable-hours-calculator) has it, and the printable [billing increment chart](https://billnotch.com/tools/billing-increment-chart) lays the tenths out minute by minute. One thing capture gives you for free: the record arrives itemized by activity, so a matter reads as discrete entries rather than one lumped block. Bar guidance discourages block billing, and an itemized record is the natural starting point for an invoice that does not look like one. ## A record you can defend The other reason to capture contemporaneously is what happens when a bill gets questioned. A vague entry reconstructed on Friday invites a write-down or a fee dispute, because there is nothing behind it. An entry captured the moment the work happened, timestamped and tied to the matter, is a record you can stand behind line by line. Because capture arrives itemized by activity, the narrative practically writes itself: reviewed the contract, drafted the response, called the client, each already a discrete entry rather than a lump you unpack after the fact. For a solo or a small firm, fewer written-down hours and fewer disputed invoices is the same thing as a better realization rate, without adding a compliance system to get there. ## Invoices for a solo or a small firm Approve the entries and generate the invoice from the same tracked time. Lines group by matter, each carries a rate you can set on the client or the matter, and the result is a clean PDF with your terms and an optional payment link, in a single currency per invoice. You review it before the client does, and nothing is sent until you send it. That closes the loop in one tool: capture the matter, confirm the entries, bill in tenths, send the invoice, take the payment. No export to separate billing software, and no second system to keep in step for a solo who mostly needs the hours caught and the invoice out. ## Privacy for privileged work Privilege is a real constraint, and the capture is built to respect it. Window titles are matched to matters on your own machine with a local matcher, and are never sent to the server as raw text. The browser companion is optional and reports the domain of the active tab only. There are no screenshots, ever, and no keystroke logging, so the tool that records your day is not a tool that records your clients. ## For the firm: associates, paralegals, and who sees what A small firm is rarely one timekeeper. Add associates and paralegals on the Team plan, each with their own billable rate, and an invoice that spans several people bills each line at the right rate rather than flattening everyone to one number. Seats track the roster, so the plan matches who is actually working. Roles keep the view honest. A partner or an administrator sees the whole firm’s time and billing, while an associate sees only their own matters on the review screen, which is the sensible default for staff timekeeping. That gives a firm per-timekeeper realization and a clean partner-level picture without a heavy permissions setup, and without a single screenshot behind any of it. ## What this time tracking software for lawyers will not do The honest scope: BillNotch does not output LEDES or UTBMS billing codes, it does not do trust or IOLTA accounting, and it does not manage matter-number e-billing compliance for corporate clients. Those are real requirements for firms that have them, and a tracker with invoicing is the wrong place to fake them. If you need coded e-billing, trust accounting, or full matter management, Clio and MyCase are built for exactly that, and BillNotch can sit alongside as the thing that actually captures the billable time. For a solo or small firm billing hourly, that capture is usually the piece that was missing. ## Questions lawyers ask Does BillNotch capture billable time contemporaneously? Yes. It records the active window automatically as you work, so time on a matter document, an email, or research is captured the moment it happens rather than reconstructed from memory later. You confirm the drafted entries on a review screen before any of them reach an invoice. Can it track time by matter and client? Yes. Set up each matter as a project under its client, and BillNotch attributes captured time by keyword rules on the file and window titles. On the review screen you can reassign any entry, similar to how passive tools detect matters from document names before you bill. Can I bill in six-minute increments? BillNotch records each entry to the second and shows totals in decimal hours. There is no automatic rounding setting. When you review the day you set each billable entry to the tenth you are charging, since 0.1 hour is six minutes, and the invoice shows those tenths. The billable-hours calculator has the minutes-to-tenths chart. Does it support LEDES or UTBMS billing codes? No. BillNotch does not output LEDES or UTBMS codes. It is built for solos and small firms who bill hourly and want simple invoices. If you serve corporate clients that require coded e-billing, pair BillNotch with a practice-management tool that produces LEDES files. Does it do trust or IOLTA accounting? No. BillNotch handles time capture and invoicing, not trust accounting. Firms that need IOLTA compliance should keep a dedicated trust-accounting or practice-management system for that function, and use BillNotch for the timekeeping and the hourly billing on top. Is my privileged work kept private? Yes. Window titles are categorized on your machine with a local matcher and are never sent to the server as raw text, and the optional browser companion reports domains only. There are no screenshots and no keystroke logging anywhere, which gives attorneys a concrete privacy story for confidential matters. Who is this best for? Solo attorneys and small firms who bill hourly, lose time to entries they never wrote down, and want automatic capture plus a straightforward invoice. Large firms with corporate e-billing, LEDES, and trust requirements will still need a full practice-management platform alongside it. What software do most law firms use? Most firms run a practice-management platform such as Clio, MyCase or a legal-billing suite for matters, trust accounting and LEDES e-billing. For the timekeeping itself, many still type entries by hand. BillNotch captures the active window automatically and invoices hourly work, and hands LEDES and IOLTA to the practice-management system it sits beside. What is the best time tracking software for attorneys? For solos and small firms who bill hourly, the best fit is a tool that captures time contemporaneously and bills in tenths without a stopwatch. BillNotch records the active window and sets each entry to the tenth you charge. Firms needing LEDES e-billing or trust accounting should pair it with a practice-management platform. ## Stop reconstructing the day from memory The billable minutes are already happening in your documents, your inbox, and your research. BillNotch records them against the matter as you work, so you bill in tenths from a real record instead of a Friday guess, and the short work stops falling through. 14-day trial, no card. Handling confidential matters? See [time tracking without screenshots](https://billnotch.com/time-tracker-without-screenshots). [Start tracking free](https://app.billnotch.com/register) Canonical: https://billnotch.com/for/lawyers