AutoTime uses all the potent information captured by Activity to make billing easier than it ever has.
AutoTime will help you spend less time tracking time contemporaneously or returning to remember everything you did. AutoTime users bill 10-30% more by accurately tracking more time in Smokeball.
How AutoTime works
As your work, Activity tracks time spent on Matter Administration, Events, Documents, Emails, Communicate, Memos, Ring Central Calls, and Tasks.Â
Every night, AutoTime will take all your recorded activities in Activity and create time entries for you.
AutoTime settings
AutoTime settings can be customized on a user level under Staff & Users.Â
Select a link below for a breakdown of each AutoTime setting.
This is a very uncommon setting. One unit will count as your minimum billing increment. For example, if your firm bills in six-minute increments and you have this setting turned on, entering 2 will then convert to 12 minutes.
You must tick this box to enable AutoTime for the user. Activity will continue to be tracked if you turn this setting off, but you will need manually convert the Activity to time.Â
This will create block billing. Learn more about grouped time entries.Â
Smokeball will send you a summary email of the latest AutoTime entries that have been created.
When checked, it will still follow the rules of the matter billing type, but when unchecked, regardless of the matter billing type, all time entries created for this user will be set as non-billable.
When unchecked, AutoTime will skip tracked activity of type Matter Administration. You can always manually add the tracked activity on a case-by-case basis.
When unchecked, AutoTime will skip tracked activity of type Memo. You can always manually add the tracked activity on a case-by-case basis.
Communicate messages can be with external third parties or just internal with other staff. When unchecked AutoTime will skip activity tracked on internal messages only. You can always manually add the tracked activity on a case-by-case basis.
Checking this option will break up email to group by subject line instead of lumping the total number of emails together in one entry.
All activity will still be tracked on closed matters, but AutoTime will not process any activity tracked on those matters.
Activity will be tracked every time you read the email, but AutoTime will only create an entry for the first time you review the email. If you need to review this email in the future, the activity will still be tracked, but no time entry will be created.Â
View and edit AutoTime entries
All AutoTime entries can be edited in real-time through as pending entries or prior to creating an invoice on the Time & Expenses page.Â
You can also view an individual matter’s pending AutoTime entries on its Time & Expenses tab.Â
Situations where AutoTime does not track an Activity
There are several situations where AutoTime will not track an Activity:
- AutoTime is not turned on for that user
- No matter selected (this can happen on calendar events with no matter)
- Activities with zero duration
- The activity type is set to be ignored. This can happen based on settings dictated by matter administration or internal communicate messages
- The activity was marked as non-billable when editing a document or email
- The matter is UTBMS and autotime is not enabled on UTBMS matters
- The matter is a lead
- The matter is closed; AutoTime is not enabled on closed matters
- The pending fee was marked as excluded
Did You Know
- AutoTime users receive an email as soon as their AutoTime run has been completed. The email will be sorted by matter including the entry duration and amount
- AutoTime entries can be edited and modified before sending an invoice to a client. You can edit the date, description, duration, rate, and amount. Note: these updates will not be reflected in Activity and only in the time entry
- AutoTime entries can be deleted
- AutoTime entries are NOT automatically billed
- AutoTime will run every night and create a time/fee entry for all activities performed the previous day. You can manually run AutoTime for any activities not previously recorded from the Smokeball Home Screen
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