Streamline Your Billing with Our Billable Hours Invoice Template for Public Relations

Billable hours invoice template for Public Relations

how much do you love drafting time entries oh don't we all trying to figure out how do we describe what we just did we spent four hours we know it was valuable work to the client but now we have to sit down and describe it or worse yet you spend a 0.1 on a task that takes you a 0.1 to figure out how to describe it here's a few tips to help you draft better time entries this is an example of something that I teach inside the billable hour boot camp before I jump in with these three tips I actually just thought of a bonus tip and I don't want to change the title of it at this point so make sure to stick around to the end I'll give you a number four at the end number one change your mindset about your available time what mindset well the mindset that it's an administrative task that gets done when you finished all of your other work it's getting in the way of you doing your actual work that's not a good mindset if you're a pargal working in a firm that bills time to clients then drafting billable time entries is part of your job part of your actual work the same way that getting that contract drafted or that brief e filed all right number two know all of the ins and outs of your timekeeping software I can't tell you the number of times that I've been inside a law firm doing a live session of the bill blower boot camp and half of the people in the room didn't know that their firm's time entry software could do XY or Z function they just learned the basics of it when they first started at the firm and when it was rolled out maybe um in other words they just learned enough to get by to get the job done the problem with that is that you could be taking longer than necessary getting your billable time entries into that system for example using it to create shortcuts and templates so that it takes you less time to input your time my advice is to get to know the ins and outs of your timekeeping software just like you do all of your other software tools that you use on a daily basis get in there and watch those video tutorials you'll thank me I promise number three your billable time entries should answer at least two questions what are those questions what and why did you know that journalists use the same 5 w1h method as a way to know that they've got a complete story their story has to answer who what when where why and how who was involved what happened when did it happen where did it happen and why did they do it or why did it happen and how did it happen think about some of those questions when you're drafting your time entry how can I show the real value of the work that I did to the client well first to the billing partner so that it doesn't get written off before it ever goes on the actual bill and then how can I show that value to the client so the main questions that your actual time entry needs to answer are the why and the what why did you do it and what did you do did you review something okay but a client doesn't really want to pay for you to review something just for the sake of you reviewing something review an analysis of documents for the sake of what why are you charging me the client to review my documents that I gave to the attorney that's what they're thinking that's where the Y comes in and the why is the really really most important answer because the why is what the client is asking why should I pay my law firms pargal to do XYZ why is she or he doing this work on my file the question what ask yourself what did I actually do and one of the ways that you can answer that better and more more effectively is if you're entering your time contemporaneous with doing the work because then you remember all of the what that you did here's a perfect example review and analyze client documents why Instead try something like review and Analysis of client documents to remove any potential privileged and confidential information prior to the production to the PLS that's an important why that's valuable to the client they want their documents reviewed and the privileged documents removed prior to the production to the plup so always add in a why don't ever just have the what in a time entry when you're describing the what describe what it is you're actually doing here's another example let's say that you're reviewing and comparing licensing agreements for the client maybe they've got dozens or hundreds of these license agreements what are you reviewing them for what's the substantive thing that might happen from that maybe when you're reviewing it you're also preparing a chart some type of comparison chart a license agreement tracking chart whatever it is so think about maybe not only what you did but what was the result of it did it result in something that the client could see feel or touch make sure to include that in your time entry because your time was spent on something tangible that the client can see I can touch it it might be a license provision comparison chart that you prepared to better analyze the the particular provision in that licensing agreement or maybe it was a timeline when you're reviewing those CL documents are you trying to get a handle on what happened when then prepare a timeline extract those dates and events into a case chronology you get where I'm going here all right so remember the questions who what when where why and how that are going to allow you to start drafting that time entry but then make sure that the resulting time entry every single one of them that you draft at least the answers to what you did and why you did it and the rest is going to be easy cake well not easy but it will be less painful for you think about it from the client's perspective why do I want to pay this lawyer or this paralal to do this work for me all right the bonus number four that I thought of if you're struggling to draft a time entry for something that you feel like it was somewhat clerical but you're sitting there at your computer trying desperately to come up with a way to describe it in a way that makes it sound billable well it's probably not billable so ask yourself that 0.1 filing that you did this morning is it the best use of your time spending another 0.1 or worse a point two trying to figure out how to describe that in a way that makes it sound B able no and I won't even get into the ethics of it at this point that would be a whole other show just ask yourself am I struggling to draft the time entry and am I trying to come up with a way to make it sound billable if so maybe it's not billable okay that's it for today's tips for drafting billable time entries jump into the comments and tell me what's your biggest challenge when it comes to drafting billable time all right bye for now