Harvest
Time Tracking
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Time Tracker for Paralegals

Harvest is your solution for accurate time tracking, helping paralegals log billable hours effortlessly while ensuring compliance with legal standards.

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How many hours did you work this week?

Enter your clock-in and clock-out times for each day. The calculator handles breaks, overtime, and weekly totals automatically.

Day Clock In Clock Out Break Hours
Total hours this week 0h
Regular hours (≤40) 0h
Overtime hours 0h
Average hours/day 0h
Total break time 0h

Track time automatically with Harvest

Walk through the entire flow below. Start a timer, check your reports, and create a real invoice — all in three clicks.

Go ahead — start tracking!

One click and you're timing. Try it right here: start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Harvest.

  • One-click timer from browser, desktop & mobile
  • Works inside Jira, Asana, Trello, GitHub & 50+ tools
  • Duration or start/end — your call
  • Day, week & calendar views to stay on top of it all
  • Friendly reminders so no hour gets left behind
Acme Corp
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1:24:09
Content Strategy
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1:30:00
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Technical audit report
0:45:00
Brand Guidelines
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2:15:00
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1:00:00
Today's total 6:54:09

The Importance of Accurate Time Tracking for Paralegals

Accurate time tracking is crucial for paralegals to maintain ethical standards, meet financial goals, and build client trust. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), precise billing is an ethical obligation, as even unintentional overbilling can lead to disciplinary actions and damage reputations. Paralegals typically have billable hour requirements ranging from 1,400 to 1,700 hours annually, translating to about 20 to 37.5 hours per week. Achieving these targets is essential for firm stability and personal career growth.

Using tools like Harvest can significantly mitigate the risk of "time leakage", which can lead to a 10-25% loss in billable hours if not recorded contemporaneously. Harvest's one-click timers help paralegals log time efficiently, preventing under-billing and ensuring compliance with legal billing standards.

Key Features of Harvest for Legal Time Tracking

For paralegals, having a reliable time tracking tool is essential to manage billable hours effectively. Harvest offers several features tailored to the legal profession, including real-time tracking and flexible billing options. Paralegals can use Harvest's one-click start/stop timers to capture every minute of work, ensuring all billable hours are accurately recorded.

Harvest supports task-based billing with customizable rates, which is crucial for legal tasks that require specific billing codes like UTBMS. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with popular legal practice management systems and accounting software, streamlining workflows and improving invoicing processes. This integration capability is vital for paralegals who need to ensure their time logs are synchronized with broader firm operations.

Best Practices for Paralegal Time Tracking

Implementing best practices for time tracking not only enhances productivity but also ensures compliance with legal standards. Paralegals should adopt the habit of contemporaneous time entry, recording tasks immediately as they are completed. This practice prevents the loss of crucial details and avoids underestimation of effort, which can result in a 10-15% under-billing.

Crafting detailed narratives for each time entry is another best practice. Using descriptive language such as "evaluation" or "selection" rather than vague terms like "preparation" can help justify the work performed. Harvest facilitates these best practices by allowing paralegals to categorize tasks and generate detailed reports, which support accurate and transparent billing.

Navigating Legal and Ethical Billing Requirements with Harvest

Compliance with legal and ethical billing standards is non-negotiable for paralegals. Harvest assists in meeting these requirements through its robust approval workflows and detailed reporting capabilities. Paralegals can rely on Harvest to track both billable and non-billable hours, ensuring their time entries reflect meaningful work under attorney supervision, as required by the ABA.

With flexible timesheet approval workflows, managers can efficiently review and approve time entries, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring all logged hours are justified. Harvest's mobile access also enables paralegals to track time from anywhere, whether in court or working remotely, further supporting their ability to maintain precise and compliant records.

Time Tracking for Paralegals with Harvest

See how Harvest enables paralegals to track billable hours accurately with mobile access and real-time insights.

Screenshot of Harvest time tracking tool tailored for paralegals

Time Tracker for Paralegals FAQs

  • Paralegals can track billable hours effectively by using time tracking tools like Harvest, which offers one-click timers and detailed reporting. This ensures accurate logging of hours and compliance with legal billing standards, reducing the risk of revenue loss from under-billing.

  • A time tracker for legal work should include real-time tracking, task-based billing with legal codes, integration with practice management systems, and mobile access. Harvest meets these needs, allowing paralegals to manage their time efficiently and accurately.

  • Yes, Harvest integrates seamlessly with various legal practice management systems, accounting software, and other tools, allowing paralegals to streamline their workflows and ensure accurate invoicing and reporting.

  • Harvest provides benefits like one-click timers, mobile access, flexible billing options, and detailed reporting. These features help paralegals accurately track billable hours, maintain compliance with ethical standards, and enhance productivity.

  • Harvest supports remote work with its mobile apps for iOS and Android, enabling paralegals to track time and manage tasks from anywhere. This flexibility is crucial for those who work in different locations, such as courts or client sites.

  • Accurate time tracking is vital for paralegals to meet ethical obligations, maximize firm revenue, and maintain client trust. Tools like Harvest help ensure all billable hours are logged correctly, reducing the risk of disciplinary actions and financial losses.

  • Yes, Harvest can track non-billable hours, providing insights into productivity and helping firms refine pricing strategies and improve resource allocation. Tracking these hours is essential for understanding the full scope of work and identifying inefficiencies.