Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an automatic time capture app for smartphones (see article below), litigation support software with predictive coding, an online wealth management service, and an iPad app for intraoffice messaging. Don't miss the next issue.
AUTOMATIC TIME CAPTURE ON YOUR SMARTPHONE
Early this century, people began ditching their landlines because cellular service had become good enough and far more convenient. Modern smartphones accelerated this development. Today, the concept of a "home" telephone seems quaint. While most lawyers haven't ditched their office telephones yet, they use their smartphones a lot — even when they're in the office. Of course, a smartphone isn't just a telephone. It's a computer that can run apps, including one that may persuade you to ditch your "work" telephone.
Calls Accountant … in One Sentence
Launched earlier this year, Executive Business Services' Calls Accountant is an Android app for automatically tracking your billable time.
The Killer Feature
Law firms often charge different billing rates depending on the matter, task or person. Calls Accountant enables you to enter a standard billing rate for all telephone calls or a different rate for specific clients. Additionally, you can use the same rate or create a different rate for in-person meetings and other activities. After the initial setup, Calls Accountant doesn't require any input from you to record a billable telephone call. Tracking in-person meetings or other activities ("sessions" as the app refers to them) begin calculating with a tap.
Other Notable Features
When you make or receive a call, Calls Accountant automatically tracks the time spent if you have designated that person as a billable contact. The app enables you to record the exact time or round up to the next minute depending on your law firm's policies.
Since you typically always have your smartphone with you, Calls Accountant can also track other billable time such as meetings and travel with one tap. As intimated above, you can set a different rate for these billable activities than for telephone calls if necessary.
You can add notes to your time entries, including with the help of one of the many macro apps available for Android so that you can type just a few letters to add a standard description or UTBMS code. Calls Accountant provides real-time reports so that you can see the amount billed (time and dollars) for any contact, period of time (day, week, month, etc.), or activity (calls, meetings, etc.).
"As busy professionals, lawyers are always on the move and spend a lot of time on the phone," Executive Business Services CEO Joseph Shurance told us. "This equates to lots of inbound and outbound calls. With so many deadlines and tasks on their minds such as court appearances, deal closings, etc., lawyers often forget to track each call and its duration. This leads to lost revenue. Calls Accountant takes care of tracking this billable time so that lawyers can focus on their work and get paid for it."
What Else Should You Know?
When you're ready to bill clients, Calls Accountant enables you to export your time entries in CSV format for importing into your billing system. Depending on your preference, you can email this file, copy it to your computer or save it in a cloud storage account such as Dropbox or Google Drive. Some export methods may require another app (e.g., the Dropbox app for exporting to your Dropbox account). Learn more about Calls Accountant.
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