How to increase billable hours without longer days

Key takeaways

To increase billable hours without longer days, move non-billable admin away from fee earners and capture time that is already billable but goes unrecorded. Scheduling, document chasing, file opening, invoicing and data entry are the usual culprits. A support team that takes these on can return several hours a week per fee earner.

• Move admin away from fee earners first.
• Capture billable time as it happens, not at month-end.
• Several hours a week per fee earner is a common opportunity.
• Track billable share weekly, not just monthly totals.

Why do fee earners lose billable time?

Fee earners lose billable time to admin that has no other home: booking meetings, chasing documents, opening files, raising invoices and answering general questions. Each task is small, but together they can take a large share of the week. Time is also lost by recording hours late, when short calls and emails are forgotten.

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• Non-billable hours: how many is too many?

Which tasks should move first?

Move the tasks that are frequent, routine and do not need the fee earner's expertise. Scheduling and diary management, client document collection, new matter or file setup, time entry clean-up, invoice preparation and general inbox triage are good first candidates. Keep advice, judgement and client relationships with the fee earner.

• Diary management and scheduling.
• Collecting and checking client documents.
• Opening files and setting up records.
• Preparing invoices from recorded time.
• Triage of general client emails.

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• Document processing outsourcing: from paper pile to data
• Outsourcing for professional services firms

What is the gain in numbers?

In an illustrative firm with six fee earners, each spends about 6 hours a week on admin. Moving most of it to a support team returns about 4 hours each after handover questions. If half becomes billable at £120 an hour, that is £240 per fee earner a week, or about £1,440 across the team. Example figures to show scale.

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How do you capture more of the time already worked?

Record time daily, ideally as each task ends, using simple categories. Many firms find short calls and emails are the most commonly forgotten items. A support team can also review time records weekly for gaps, such as a client meeting in the diary with no time entry, and flag them for the fee earner.

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How do you track the change?

Track billable hours as a share of available hours per fee earner, every week. Compare four weeks before the handover with four weeks after it settles. Also track write-offs, because more recorded time is only useful if it can be billed.

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When is chasing billable hours the wrong goal?

Chasing billable hours is the wrong goal when it crowds out business development, training or supervision, which are non-billable but essential. It is also wrong on fixed-fee work, where efficiency, not hours, protects margin. In those cases measure margin per matter instead.

• Efficiency vs effectiveness: which should you fix first?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in professional firms: fee earners each keep their own admin routine, so nobody can see how much time it takes. A two-week log usually shows more admin than expected, spread across the day. Moving it to one support team frees time and makes the admin more consistent.

• See client work
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Billable hours checklist

Work through these steps.

• Log admin time per fee earner for two weeks.
• List the top five admin tasks.
• Write a short process for each.
• Hand over the largest first.
• Record time daily, not monthly.
• Track billable share weekly.

• Outsourcing efficiency checklist: 20 checks

Next step

Tell us how many fee earners you have and the admin tasks they do most. We will help you see what a support team could take on and the billable time that could return.