Track and report firm time

BetterDocket Time is visible only to your firm. Clients do not see entries, timers, Firm-only notes, reports, or totals. A completed billable entry can be added to a draft invoice; only its separate Billing description appears to the Client.

Log time

Open Time from firm navigation, or open a Case and choose Time. Press Log time and choose one of two entry modes:

• Date + duration accepts decimal hours, H:MM, H:MM:SS, or values such as 1h 30m. BetterDocket records the work date without claiming you started at a known clock time.
• Start + end records the observed timestamps in the Firm timezone.

Entries are billable by default. Add notes, then save. Manual entries cannot be in the future or longer than 24 hours. Explicit entries may overlap; BetterDocket warns instead of blocking them when the overlap exceeds the Firm's rounding increment. You can edit or delete a completed entry from its row. Timer entries retain their timer origin after correction.

Owners and admins can log or correct time for a current Firm Member who can access the Case. A Case Lead has the same delegated control on Cases they currently lead. Former members remain named in historical reports from the snapshot saved with each entry.

Run and switch a timer

Press Start timer from a Time screen or a Case header. Only one personal timer can run at once. Its Case and live counter remain in the firm navigation while you move around BetterDocket; press that counter to stop it.

The clock starts without waiting for notes. Open the running timer to add or revise notes while you work. Notes are required by default, so you must add them before the timer can stop unless an owner or admin changes that preference.

If you start time on another Case, BetterDocket names the timer already running and asks before switching. Confirming stops the old timer and starts the new one at the same server timestamp. If another tab changed the timer first, refresh and confirm the current state again.

Owners and admins can see and stop accessible timers under Running now on firm Time. On Case Time, the current Case Lead can also see and stop other live timers for that Case. A timer can always be stopped when a Subscription is locked. Offline, the known counter keeps moving locally, but timer changes are disabled and never queued.

Read reports and export CSV

Time opens to This month. Switch to This week, All time, or an inclusive custom date range. Filter by member and billable status; firm Time can also filter by Case. Totals and charts exclude running timers until they stop.

Reports assign the whole entry to its start date in the current Firm timezone. The CSV exports every completed entry matching the current filters, including stable IDs, exact and rounded seconds, UTC timestamps, Firm timezone, notes, source, and the preferences in effect when the file was generated.

Manage Time preferences

Owners and admins manage Settings → Time preferences:

• Firm timezone
• Sunday or Monday week start
• No rounding, 1 minute, 6 minutes (one tenth of an hour), or 10 minutes
• Whether notes are required on manual entries and before stopping timers
• Decimal, hours/minutes, or both for duration display

Rounding is upward on each entry before totals. It never changes exact stored seconds. Preference changes apply to historical display and reports; requiring notes applies to manual entries and completed timers, never to starting a clock.