Using verbal time entry

Verbal time entry makes it faster and easier to register your work in Legalsense. Instead of filling in the time entry form manually, you can simply describe one or more time entries in your own words. Legalsense processes your recording and turns it into draft time entries for review, helping you capture time more quickly while the details are still fresh.

Verbal time entry can do more than capture a single, simple time entry: in one recording, you can describe multiple entries, mention specific dates or relative dates such as "yesterday" or "next Tuesday," and even describe entries across a date range, across multiple matters and activities. You can also use it for "note-taking:" to create entries as a placeholder to edit later. This gives you a flexible way to dictate time in a natural style.

A verbal time entry does not create a final time entry immediately. The result is always created as a draft first, so you can check and correct it before approval.

Verbal time entry is available starting with Release 26.04.

Good to know

Verbal time entry is available only when this feature has been enabled for your environment by your administrator or by Legalsense Support. When available, you can recognize it by the Voice input option on the Time entry page in the Timesheet.

The voice recorder is currently available on the desktop web page only. Support for mobile devices, such as the Legalsense mobile app, is planned for a future release.

Verbal time entry creates draft time entries, not final time entries, so you should always review the generated result before approval. For more information about reviewing, editing, and approving these results, see Draft time entries.

Verbal time entry uses AI to process your recorded audio into draft time entries. Using AI to do this makes the feature powerful and flexible, but also means that the output is not always perfect, and you may see different results for nearly identical submissions. This is to be expected.

Record a verbal time entry

1. Go to Timesheet → Time entry. This is usually the Legalsense home page.
2. Open the Voice tab in the input section.
3. Click the microphone button to start recording. The first time, your browser will ask you for permission to use your microphone.
4. Speak your time entry clearly. Mention as much as you want: ideally you would include the duration, activity, and matter. You can pause and resume the recording if needed.
5. Click Submit when you are done.

While recording, the timer shows the current duration. A glow around the recording icon indicates the level of detected sound activity.

Examples

You do not need to use special commands. Natural spoken language works best. These are good basic examples:

• “Today I spent one hour in a meeting with Carglass about employment contracts.”
  • This mentions the date, duration, activity, client (optional), and matter.
• “Yesterday I wrote correspondence for the Bayern takeover matter for 30 minutes.”
• “Please add two entries: 15 minutes of correspondence for Carglass, and one hour of drafting for Aegon.”
  • You can mention the client instead of the matter, but then the selected matter may remain empty or may need correction in the draft.
• “17 March, one and a half hours, drafting for matter 10010.2.”
• “Add every Tuesday in June one hour of internal meeting for Aegon.”

You can also:

• Mention submatters, products, or Recofa categories (if you have related matters).
• Mention multiple dates: "I sent an e-mail every morning last week, 10 minutes each."
• Write time for several people in one recording. Mention your colleagues, for example "a one-hour meeting at Carglass, with Sarah and Tom from our team," and Legalsense creates a separate draft for you and for each colleague you mention.
• Mention what should go in the description or the comment fields.
  • Legalsense will try to automatically determine this if you provide more information than strictly needed.
• Use the matter or activity number instead of the name.
• Use synonyms for activity- or matter names if they are closely related. For example: "Writing e-mail" will map to "Correspondence" if that's the only related activity.
• Use either a descriptive style ("Today I had a meeting ...") or an instructional style ( "Create a time entry for today ...").

When you mention colleagues, Legalsense creates a separate draft for each of them, all assigned to you to review. You can only approve a draft on someone else's name if you normally have permission to write time for other people. If you do not, those drafts cannot be approved, and you should contact your administrator.

You should:

• Be explicit.
• Experiment a little to see what works for you.
• Use draft time entries as a placeholder for information: a draft time entry does not need to be complete.
• Speak naturally, but keep background noise low where possible.

Even when Legalsense can process shorthand or more complex instructions, it is still best to start with simple, complete sentences until you are comfortable with the feature.

What happens after you submit

After you submit your recording, Legalsense processes it in the background. This may take a short time, so the result may not appear immediately. A processing time of 10-60 seconds is normal. You can continue working or navigate away; Legalsense will process the recording and the drafts will appear when you return to or refresh the Time entry page.

When processing is complete, Legalsense creates one or more draft time entries on the Time entry page. These drafts can contain missing or incorrect information, so you should always review them before approval. For more information about reviewing, editing, and approving draft time entries, see the related article Draft time entries.

If no draft appears after a few minutes, the processing may have failed. Try submitting a new recording. If the issue continues, contact support.

Common issues

I do not see the Voice tab

Verbal time entry may not be enabled for your environment, or you may not have access to the required Timesheet or draft time entry permissions. Contact your administrator or Legalsense Support.

My microphone does not work

Check whether your browser has permission to use your microphone. If permission was denied earlier, you may need to change this in your browser settings before trying again.

The record button is greyed out

If the microphone button is greyed out, the recorder is not ready to start a new recording. This can happen when your browser does not support a valid audio format for the recorder, when microphone permission has been denied, or when the maximum recording duration has already been reached for the current recording. 

The time display under the record button shows the current and maximum duration of the recording. If you have reached the maximum duration, you can either Submit the current entry and then continue, reset the recorder using the Reset button, or refresh the page. Note that your recording is only saved if you submit it.

If the button is not greyed out due to the duration limit, first check whether your browser allows microphone access for Legalsense. If permission was denied earlier, you may need to change this in your browser settings. If the problem continues, try a different supported browser (recent versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari) or contact your administrator or Legalsense Support.

I submitted a recording but no draft appeared

Wait briefly and refresh the page. Processing happens in the background and may take a short time. A waiting period of 10-60 seconds is normal, depending on server & service load. 

If no draft appears after a while, try again with a shorter and clearer recording. If the issue continues, contact your administrator or Legalsense Support.

The draft is incomplete or the data is wrong

Interpreting spoken language into a structured time entry is not always straightforward: sometimes, the AI provider has to make a best-effort guess. Verbal time entry is designed to create drafts first, so corrections can be made before a normal time entry is created. Add the missing information manually and then approve the draft, or delete the draft and record a new entry with clear audio and with the required data mentioned explicitly.

If a particular usage patterns keeps performing poorly, contact Legalsense Support: your feedback helps us improve the feature.

Related articles

• Enabling verbal time entry
• Draft time entries
• Writing and editing Time