Lawgbook - Automated legal time tracking

The Billable Hour Crisis

Every legal professional knows the sinking feeling at the end of a busy day: How much of my work actually made it into billable entries? The answer is more troubling than most firms realize.

The financial impact of poor time tracking extends far beyond individual lawyers. Research shows that firms routinely lose between 10 and 20% of potentially billable time when entries are postponed or reconstructed from memory.

Consider this scenario: A mid-sized firm with 10 attorneys, each billing at an average rate of $300/hour. If each attorney loses just 1 billable hour per day to poor tracking, that's $700,000 in annual revenue disappearing into thin air.

Why Manual Time Tracking Fails

Many lawyers try to complete time tracking by reviewing calendars, files and emails at the end of the day, the week or the month, but remembering how much time went into a particular task is difficult. The human brain simply wasn't designed to accurately reconstruct time spent across dozens of client communications, research sessions, and drafting activities.

Manual timekeeping creates three critical problems:

Delayed Entry: Waiting until day's end means relying on imperfect memory. You are almost guaranteed to miss that quick client email or a 10 minute impromptu phone conversation.

Interruption Overhead: Start-stop timers require constant attention. Every interruption demands you remember to pause, restart, or switch timers—stealing focus from actual legal work.

Incomplete Documentation: Even when time is recorded, the details fade. Generic descriptions like "correspondence with client" lack the specificity that clients may expect.

Clio's Native Time Tracking

Clio offers multiple methods to track time, including a running clock timer, manual time entry, and the ability to add time entries directly from calendar events, tasks, and email etc.

The Interactive Timer

Clio's primary time tracking method centers on an interactive timer. When you start working on a client matter, you activate the timer. When you finish or get interrupted, you stop it.

This approach works well for extended, focused work sessions like drafting motions or conducting legal research. However, it struggles with the fragmented nature of modern legal practice.

Creating Time Entries from Activities

You can access the modal to add time entries from various locations in Clio Manage, including the main Activities page, the Activities page within a matter, and from the global Create new button.

Clio allows you to retroactively add time to calendar events, documents, emails logged in the system, and tasks. This feature helps capture work you completed but forgot to time. That said, you still need to manually review your day and remember to add these entries.

The Gap Between Clio's Features and Complete Automation

While Clio provides solid foundational time tracking, it doesn't have any active productivity management features like automatic time tracking that runs in the background.

What's Missing from Native Clio

Communication Channel Coverage: Clio doesn't automatically capture time from external email platforms, phone systems, WhatsApp conversations, or video conferencing tools. These communications must be manually logged.

Automated Timekeeping: Although Clio provides a gmail addon, it still requires an attorney to open up Gmail and manually press a few buttons to make a time entry.

Matter Matching: When you receive an email about a client issue, Clio won't automatically identify which matter it relates to or create a time entry. That cognitive load remains with you.

Third-Party Integrations: Extending Clio's Capabilities

Third-party tools like Memtime and Ajax integrate with Clio to provide passive time tracking that captures activities from applications like Gmail, Word, Outlook, and various legal research platforms.

These integrations represent an improvement over pure manual tracking. They monitor your computer activity and suggest time entries based on which applications you use.

However, they face inherent limitations:

Desktop-Focused: Most track only computer activity, missing mobile communications
Activity-Based, Not Content-Aware: They know you opened an email client but not which client matter the email discussed
Require Significant Cleanup: You still spend considerable time reviewing and categorizing captured activities

The Communication-Centric Reality

Legal professionals increasingly spend their time on communications rather than traditional desk work.

A typical attorney's day includes:

20+ client emails across multiple matters
3-8 phone calls of varying lengths
1-3 video conferences via Teams or Zoom
WhatsApp messages for international clients
Text message updates for urgent matters

Each interaction is billable, but most fall through the cracks of traditional time tracking systems, even those integrated with Clio.

Introducing Lawgbook: Communication-First Billing Automation

This is where Lawgbook fundamentally reimagines automated time tracking for Clio users. Rather than monitoring which applications you open on your desktop, Lawgbook directly integrates (via APIs) with all communication platforms an attorney uses.

Lawgbook runs entirely in the cloud and via APIs, is able to fetch every communication activity performed by a lawyer, and then using the context of the communication, generates draft billing entries for the attorney's approval.

The reason Lawgbook limits itself to tracking just communication activity is two-fold.

Existing automatic timekeeping tools that promise to track all sorts of activities often fall short. They end up producing inaccurate or over/under-estimated time entries. (Because the nature of a modern law firm's work is pretty dynamic and complex, so any tool that promises to do too much fails).
Communication lends itself very well to automated matter matching based on the content of the communication itself. This makes Lawgbook way more autonomous than any other tools in the market.

How Lawgbook Works with Clio

Comprehensive Communication Capture

Lawgbook integrates directly with your existing communication platforms:

Email Integration: Connects with Gmail and Outlook to capture every sent and received email. Each message includes timestamps, participant information, attachments, and full content for context analysis.

Phone Call Tracking: Monitors call duration and participants through cellular or VoIP systems like RingCentral or VXT.

Video Conferencing: Records meeting duration, participant lists, and can process transcripts from Teams and Zoom sessions. Perfect for documenting client consultations and strategy sessions.

Instant Messaging: Captures WhatsApp conversations, including group chats with international clients. Also monitors WeChat for cross-border matters.

The AI Layer

What separates Lawgbook from desktop activity monitors is its sophisticated AI processing engine. This system intimately understands what the email, call or text was about and why it matters.

Client Identification Through Context

When an email or text is dispatched, Lawgbook's AI analyzes multiple signals:

Direct Matching: Email addresses and phone numbers are cross-referenced against your Clio contact database for immediate identification.

Content Analysis: The AI reads the email content to identify client names, matter references, and case-specific terminology you've used in previous communications.

Conversation Threading: Email threads and ongoing discussions are tracked over time, building context about which clients you're communicating with regularly.

Participant Inference: For group emails or conference calls, the system identifies which participants are billable parties versus internal team members.

Intelligent Matter Association

Perhaps the most valuable feature: automatic matter identification.

When you discuss "the trademark opposition" in an email, Lawgbook doesn't only see words. It connects that phrase to the specific IP matter in your Clio system where you've previously referenced trademark issues for this client.

For matters with clear context, the system assigns them automatically. For ambiguous communications that could relate to multiple matters, Lawgbook flags them for your quick review.

Precise Time Calculation

Lawgbook applies different time calculation methods based on activity type:

Direct Duration Activities: Phone calls, video meetings, and recorded sessions use actual elapsed time as the baseline.

Communication-Based Activities: Emails and messages use configurable minimum billable times. Your firm might set 0.1 hours (6 minutes) as the minimum for any email exchange, matching industry-standard billing increments.

Rounding Logic: Time automatically rounds to your firm's billing increments—whether that's 6, 10, or 15-minute blocks.

The Review Dashboard

Lawgbook never removes attorney oversight. Instead, it dramatically reduces the cognitive load of remembering and reconstructing your day's communications.

Smart Prioritization

The dashboard displays all auto-generated billing entries with intelligent sorting:

Confidence-Based Ordering: Entries where matter association is uncertain appear at the top, requiring your quick decision. High-confidence matches appear below, ready for bulk approval.

Time-Based Grouping: View entries by day, week, or billing period to match your firm's invoicing rhythm.

Matter Clustering: See all communications for a specific matter grouped together, making it easy to verify the AI correctly associated related activities.

Efficient Editing Capabilities

Every auto-generated entry can be modified:

Time Adjustments: Increase or decrease the billable time if the AI's estimate doesn't match the actual complexity.

Description Refinement: The AI generates billing narratives based on communication content, but you can edit them to match your preferred style or remove attorney-client privileged information.

Matter Reassignment: If the AI selected the wrong matter, change it with a dropdown selection directly from your Clio matter list.

Bulk Operations: Select multiple entries for the same matter and approve them all at once. Five minutes in the dashboard can finalize a full day's worth of billing.

Clio Integration: Two-Way Data Sync

Lawgbook isn't a standalone system requiring duplicate data entry. It's designed as a complementary layer that enhances Clio's capabilities.

Pulling Data from Clio

Client Contact Information: Lawgbook continuously syncs your Clio contact database. When new clients are added in Clio, they're immediately available for matching in Lawgbook.

Matter Details: All matter names, numbers, and associated metadata flow from Clio to Lawgbook. This ensures matter associations are accurate and use your firm's existing organizational structure.

Existing Time Entries: Lawgbook checks what's already billed in Clio before submitting new entries, preventing double-billing situations.

Pushing Approved Entries to Clio

Once you approve entries, they automatically appear in Clio's Activities section.

Custom Billing Rules

Different firms have different billing philosophies. Lawgbook adapts to yours through customizable rules.

Per-Client Billing Guidelines

Some clients don't pay for certain activities. Lawgbook can automatically handle these restrictions.

Client contract specifies no billing for email? Lawgbook can automatically mark those communications as non-billable while still capturing time for your internal utilization tracking.

The Lawgbook Workflow: A Day in the Life

Let's follow attorney Sarah through a typical day to see Lawgbook in action.

8:30 AM: Sarah sends three emails to clients about different matters. She doesn't touch a timer or make any notes. Lawgbook captures all three, identifies the clients and matters from email content, and calculates 0.1 hours each.

10:00 AM: A 23-minute phone call with a client about settlement negotiations. Sarah's phone system is integrated with Lawgbook, which records the exact duration and identifies the client from the phone number.

11:30 AM: Sarah joins a Zoom meeting with two clients and opposing counsel. Lawgbook tracks the 47-minute session and identifies it as related to the ongoing litigation matter based on participant email addresses.

2:15 PM: Quick WhatsApp exchange with an international client about document deadlines.

4:45 PM: Sarah opens the Lawgbook dashboard while waiting for her next meeting. She sees 12 entries from today. Ten have high-confidence matter matches and clear descriptions. She approves those with two taps. Two entries need her attention. One email could relate to two different matters for the same client. She selects the correct matter from a dropdown. Total time: 90 seconds.

Preserving Communication Content and Context

One often-overlooked aspect of billable time is documentation. Clients increasingly request detailed records of legal work performed.

Automatic Attachment Logging

When you email a contract revision to a client, Lawgbook doesn't only record the time, it also logs that a document named "Purchase_Agreement_v3.pdf" was attached. This creates an audit trail showing what was sent when.

Conversation Content Preservation

Email and text message bodies and call transcripts can be stored alongside time entries (with appropriate security measures). If a client later questions a bill, you can reference the exact communication that justified the charge.

Meeting Transcripts

For video conferences where transcription is enabled, Lawgbook can process and summarize the key topics discussed, creating detailed billing descriptions that demonstrate value.

Security and Compliance: Built for Legal Practice

Law firms handle sensitive information. Lawgbook is designed with legal industry security standards in mind.

Zero Data Retention Policy: Communication files are accessed only to generate billing records, and are deleted after 30 days from Lawgbook servers.

End-to-End Encryption: All data in transit and at rest is encrypted using strong protocols.

Data Isolation: Each firm's data is logically separated, ensuring no cross-contamination.

Comparing Approaches: Clio Native vs. Lawgbook

Feature	Clio Native Tracking	Clio + Lawgbook
Captures Email	Only logged emails	All Gmail/Outlook
Captures Phone Calls	Manual entry required	Automatic from system
Captures Video Meetings	Manual timer	Automatic with participants
Captures Messaging Apps	Not available	WhatsApp, WeChat etc. auto-tracked
Matter Association	Manual selection	AI-powered automatic
Billing Descriptions	Manually written	AI-generated, editable
Time Investment	30-40 min/day	2-5 min/day

Taking Action

If you're using Clio and losing billable hours to manual time tracking, you have two paths forward:

1. Improve Manual Processes: Implement better discipline around contemporaneous time entry. This is the lowest-cost option but yields the smallest improvement and requires sustained behavioral change.

2. Adopt Automation: Implement highly autonomous tools like Lawgbook that deliver the highest ROI for firms where billable work centers on client interactions.

Conclusion

For every dollar your firm could be earning, you're currently capturing only between 80 and 90 cents. That's not a failure of work ethic or client demand, it's a failure of time tracking systems to match the reality of modern legal practice.

Clio provides an excellent foundation for law firm management, but time tracking is inherently limited by what attorneys remember to log. By adding communication-first automation through Lawgbook, you close the gap between time worked and time billed.

About Lawgbook: Lawgbook integrates with email, phone, Teams, Zoom, and messaging platforms to automatically capture communications and generate time entries in Clio and other practice management systems. With AI-powered matter matching and intelligent time calculation, Lawgbook helps firms capture 10%+ more billable hours with minimal daily effort.