Writing and editing Time

This article briefly describes how you can write, edit, copy or delete time entries, provided you have the appropriate rights to do so. In several sections you will find a link to a more detailed description in our Legalsense Knowledge Base.

After you are logged in to Legalsense, you will be directed to the homepage 'Time entry' (see screenshot below). The left part of this screen shows the recent time entries up to a maximum of 7 days. In the right part of the screen you can add time entries.

There are four starting points when writing time for the performed activities:

1. Recent time entries (Hand(H : MM) and From / To)
2. Per day
3. Timers
4. Mobile app (iPhone or Android)

Whichever method of time-writing you prefer, there are always a number of mandatory fields to fill in. The required fields are marked with *.

Hours*: enter the time here. Usually the time is written in hours and minutes (hours:minutes), but it is possible to let us configure a different time format (for example: decimal hours). You can find more information about this in the article Change Time format

Date: the date is set to 'today' by default but can be edited.

Timekeeper*: if you have sufficient rights, this field can be changed. By changing the username you will be able to write time for someone else.

Matter*: when you activate this field, a label 'Recent matters' appears under which the 10 most recent matters are shown. This allows you to quickly select a current matter. Of course, you can also perform a targeted search by entering part of the matter name. This can be any part of the matter name. By means of the down arrow, you can then select the relevant matter from the list. Press the backspace key to display all available matters. The recent matters are displayed in the matter fields in 'Time entry' on the homepage, when editing time entries, the 'Per day' entry, and in the 'Timers'. 

You can also search based on multiple search terms. For example, the search for 'Shell advice' returns the matter 'Shell N.V. / Advice concerning extension' as the search result. Multiple search terms, separated by a space, are combined in an 'AND' search query. 

Submatters/Product: if in your Legalsense environment under 'Settings' - 'Lists' - 'Submatters/product kinds' products are set for writing time and invoicing, the relevant products can be added to matters. When a matter in which a product has been added is selected while writing time, a field appears where the product (optional) can be selected. For more information about products, please refer to the article Products.

Activity: type or choose an activity from the set list of choices (by pressing the backspace key you will see all types of activities. This list can be adjusted by you(r organization) (see Settings, article Activities) and, if desired, divided into groups, see article Activity groups. When a matter in another language is concerned, the activity will be displayed in that specific language. If you want to handle activities in languages other than Dutch and English, these languages must be activated in your Legalsense environment. When you have no activities configurated, this field is hidden and therefore not mandatory.

Description: if so desired, type a description here. The description is usually also displayed on the invoice (specification). For foreign-language matters, the description must therefore also be written in that specific language. If, for example, the language of the selected matter is set to 'German', (German) will appear next to Description.

Comment (internal): you can use this field for an internal comment. These can be found under the description in the added time entry and in the details of the draft invoice specification under the user concerned.

Travel expenses: you can specify travel expenses (kilometers) in this field. You can specify the total number of kilometers directly below the field Travel expenses with a description if so desired. The travel expenses will then be generated as a disbursement. In the time entry, the total number of kilometers is displayed. 
You can activate this function by specifying the default type of travel expenses under 'Settings' - 'General' - 'System'. 

Non-billable and Zero rate: if you have sufficient rights, you can mark time as 'Non-billable' or 'Zero rate'. In a number of screens, you can also mark written time as 'Written off'. A more detailed description of these options can be found in the article Billable/Non-billable/Zero rate/Write-off. 

Click on Save to save the time entry.

Sometimes not all written time can be charged to the client. With the appropriate rights, a (partial) write-off of your written time can also be applied during billing. You can find a description of all the options that can be applied for a write-off within a draft invoice in the article How to (partially) bill or write off written time on a draft invoice .

Recofa (for insolvency matters): if you select an insolvency matter, an extra field called 'Recofa category' appears and you can select the desired Recofa category. When creating invoices you will get an overview per category. In addition, you can report as required by the guidelines. You will find a detailed description of how to process insolvency matters in Legalsense in the article Insolvency matters/Matter Insolvency Report.

Adding time entries

In the following, all starting points for adding time entries are explained separately.

Hand

Here you enter the time spent, rounded off with the standard rounding unit (usually 5 or 6 minutes). This can be adjusted in 'Settings'- 'General' - 'System'. The remaining mandatory fields (marked with *) must be filled in before you can save the time entry.

Next to the mandatory fields you will see a so-called 'open padlock'. By clicking on the padlock you can, for example, lock a current matter or a frequently used activity. The fields are already pre-filled for each new time entry until you click the padlock again or log out. A user who adds time on behalf of another user can lock that other user in the same way.

From / To

Here you enter the begin and end time, after which Legalsense calculates the total time. The remaining mandatory (marked with *) fields must be filled in before you can save the time entry.

Per day

If you click on the tab 'Per day' on the homepage, the screen below will open showing all the time entries of the current date. 

To add a time entry, click 'Add line'. A time entry will then be added on the date you see in the top right corner of the date field. You can change the date to add time entries in the past or to enter future time entries. Think for example of a training day or holiday. For example, if you want to add time entries for September 15, change (in the example above) the date 30-09-2020 to 15-09-2020.

You can easily copy time entries wherever the 'Edit time entries' screen is available. Select the time entry you want to copy or add a new line first. Then click on the copy button (the 'clock' icon). A new time entry will then be added with the contents of the original time entry. You can do this as often as you want. This function can be useful if you need to add multiple entries with the same data (for example vacations).

Timers 

Go to the 'Timers' sheet in the submenu (blue menu bar at the top) to make use of timers. The screen below opens.

It is possible to set several timers at the same time (for example one timer per matter). This way you can quickly write time in your most recent matters. By clicking on 'New timer' you can set a new timer for another matter. After starting a new timer, you can immediately select a matter in the manner previously explained. Of course, you can also do that by stopping the timer when you actually want to save your time in Legalsense. If you start more than one timer, it will look like this:

If you start one of the other timers, the timer that was activated before will be paused. The active timer is highlighted in blue for easy recognition.

When you have completed your activity, click 'Ready' and after filling in the (required) fields click 'Save'. The time written by you will be saved directly in the selected matter. You can delete a timer by clicking on the delete button .

Note: a timer will continue to run if it is not stopped manually (even if the screen is closed).

Changing and deleting time entries

Edit and delete time entries

Change or delete the time you have written using:

• Recent time entries
• Per day
• Search result (Time - Search)
• Editing time entries on an invoice

 When you click on this icon, the 'Edit Logline' screen appears and you can edit the time entry

 Clicking on this icon will remove the time entry

Note: time entries can only be changed and/or deleted with the appropriate rights as long as they are not included in a (draft) invoice and/or are not part of a closed period!

Via the 'Per day' time entry you can only delete time entries that have just been added by you and have not yet been saved.

Change the status of time entries

After you have searched for the time entries to be changed in 'Time' - 'Search',  you can edit them per time entry or make the desired change for a number of time entries at the same time. For changing saved time entries there are a number of options. 

On the right side of the time entry you will see the following extra icons:

When you click on this icon the status of the time entry changes from billable (B) to written off (W). When you click on this icon the status of the time entry changes from written off (W) to billable (B).

Mark time entries as non-billable or zero rate

Billable matters can be marked as Not billable/Written off or Zero rate in Legalsense.

The easiest way to change the status of the time entries from the 'Per day' screen is by placing a check mark in the column 'W' (Write-off) or '0' (Zero rate) of the time entry.

However, you can also change these options from the screen 'Search' or in the opened matter by clicking on the clock icon after looking up the time entries that need editing.

When you want to change the status of multiple time entries at the same time, tick the corresponding time entries and choose the desired option under 'Mark as'. With these options you can also undo previously applied write-offs.

The option 'Write off - options' offers the following additional options:

With this option you can write off time partially, completely or for a certain percentage. The applied write-offs are visible in the relevant time line(s).

Change time entries

With the 'Change time entries' button you can edit the selected time entries in bulk. You can change the activity, matter/submatter, timekeeper and/or date.

If a time entry is included in a draft invoice, it can still be changed or deleted in the invoice edit mode. If the draft invoice is deleted, the time entries become editable again in the 'Time' section.

If you credit a finalized invoice (and that credit invoice is also finalized), the time entries will be available again for editing or deleting.

Deleting time entries

If you want to delete time entries in bulk, you can use the 'Delete time entries' button. If you activate this button before you have selected time entries, a message will appear. You can delete time entries separately by clicking on the delete button on the right in the time entry line.

Maximum time or amount on matter

In Legalsense it is possible to specify a budget per matter for a maximum number of hours or amount. When setting a budget it is also possible to configure that the user and/or matter supervisor will receive a warning notification when 80% and 100% of the budget is exceeded. A detailed explanation of how budgets work can be found in article Budgets.