# Time Entry & Billing: done-for-you AI automation by BufferSol

> A done-for-you time entry and billing automation is an AI agent that reads a timekeeper's emails, calendar, calls and document activity, drafts time entries with clear narratives on the right matter or project, and prepares pre-bills for review. BufferSol builds it in Clio, MyCase, Karbon or Harvest and connects it to QuickBooks or Xero. Every entry is reviewed and approved by the person who did the work before it reaches a client, and professionals stay responsible for what they bill.

- Canonical: https://buffersoltech.com/done-for-you/professional-services/time-entry-billing
- Category: Law, Accounting & Agencies
- Provider: BufferSol Technologies (New York; serving the US, UK, Ireland, Canada and the EU)
- Timeline: live in 3 to 6 weeks
- Pricing: quoted after a short scoping call

## Billable time captured as the work happens and turned into clean invoices

**Who it is for:** For law firms, accounting practices and agencies with five to two hundred timekeepers who bill by the hour or track time against fixed fees, and who reconstruct timesheets at the end of the day, week or month.

### Signs you need it
- Timekeepers fill in timesheets on Friday afternoon or at month end from memory.
- Short calls and emails are never recorded, so they are never billed.
- Billing staff chase missing time before every invoice run.
- Pre-bills come back with vague narratives that partners rewrite or write down.
- Clients question invoices because entries do not explain what was done.

## Business outcomes
- **Work recorded while it is fresh.** Draft entries appear during the day from real activity, so timekeepers confirm and adjust instead of rebuilding a week from memory.
- **Clearer narratives, fewer write-downs.** Entries describe the actual task in your firm's style and the client's billing guidelines, so reviewers spend less time rewriting before bills go out.
- **Faster, calmer billing runs.** Pre-bills are assembled on schedule with missing time flagged early, and approved invoices sync to your accounting system without re-keying.

## How it works today
1. Lawyers, accountants and consultants work across email, calls, meetings and documents, intending to log time later.
2. At the end of the day or week, they scroll their sent mail and calendar to reconstruct what they did, in Clio, Karbon, Harvest or a spreadsheet.
3. Small tasks are forgotten, and narratives are short and vague because no one remembers the detail.
4. Before the billing run, billing staff email timekeepers for missing entries and build pre-bills by hand.
5. Partners mark up pre-bills, rewrite narratives and write down time they cannot justify, then billing issues invoices and posts them to QuickBooks or Xero.

Hidden costs:
- Work that was done but never recorded is lost revenue the firm cannot recover.
- Timekeepers spend non-billable hours reconstructing time, often late in the evening.
- Vague entries lead to client pushback, write-downs and slower payment.

## How it works done for you
1. The agent reads the timekeeper's calendar, sent email, call logs and document edits in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, with their permission and within the firm's privacy rules.
2. It matches each activity to a client and matter or project using names, email domains, matter numbers and document locations.
3. It drafts time entries with duration, task code and a clear narrative written to your firm's style and any client billing guidelines.
4. Each timekeeper reviews the day's drafts in Clio, MyCase, Karbon or Harvest, edits or rejects them, and approves; nothing is billed without that approval.
5. Before each billing cycle, the agent flags matters with gaps or unusual totals and assembles pre-bills for the responsible partner.
6. After the partner approves, it issues invoices from your billing system, syncs them to QuickBooks Online or Xero, and logs every edit and approval.

## What changes for the team
- **Associate, staff accountant or consultant.** Today: Reconstructing time from memory at the end of the week and leaving small tasks off. Done for you: Confirming and adjusting draft entries in a few minutes each day.
- **Billing coordinator.** Today: Chasing missing time, building pre-bills and re-keying invoices into accounting. Done for you: Reviewing flagged matters and handling client billing questions.
- **Billing partner.** Today: Rewriting vague narratives and writing down time they cannot explain to the client. Done for you: Approving pre-bills that already describe the work clearly.

## KPIs we measure
- **Recorded hours per timekeeper:** We baseline recorded billable and non-billable hours per timekeeper for recent months and compare after launch, by practice group.
- **Entry lag:** We measure the gap between when work happened and when the time entry was saved, using timestamps in your system.
- **Write-downs at pre-bill:** We compare recorded value with billed value at pre-bill review, before and after launch.
- **Billing cycle time:** We track days from period end to invoices issued, and the number of matters held for missing time.
- **Client invoice queries:** We count invoice questions and disputes per billing cycle using your billing notes or inbox tags.

## Industry data
- 28%: average utilisation rate for small and medium US law firms in 2015, about 2.2 billable hours in an eight-hour day (Clio Legal Trends Report) ([New Zealand Law Society](https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news/newsroom/us-trends-report-finds-low-law-firm-utilisation-rate/))
- 81%: average realisation rate for lawyers in 2015, the share of hours worked that were billed (Clio Legal Trends Report) ([New Zealand Law Society](https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news/newsroom/us-trends-report-finds-low-law-firm-utilisation-rate/))
- 86%: average 2015 collection rate of hours billed (Clio Legal Trends Report) ([New Zealand Law Society](https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news/newsroom/us-trends-report-finds-low-law-firm-utilisation-rate/))

## Systems it connects to
Clio Manage, MyCase, Karbon, Harvest, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Zoom, RingCentral

## Guardrails
- Draft entries are suggestions only; nothing is billed until the timekeeper approves the entry and the billing partner approves the pre-bill.
- The agent reads only the sources each timekeeper allows, and personal or non-client activity is excluded by rule.
- Narratives follow your firm's style and client billing guidelines, and entries are never padded or rounded beyond your increment rules.
- Every draft, edit, approval and invoice is logged with who changed what and when.
- Client data stays in your own systems with existing access controls.

## What teams say about this work
- Lawyers bill only a fraction of their working day, and solo practitioners bill even less, which shows how much time goes to work that is never recorded or charged. ([ABA Journal](https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_are_only_billing_a_fraction_of_their_time_how_can_they_be_more_effi))
- Lawyers describe the pressure of six-minute time recording against billing targets, struggling to log enough client hours while research, meetings and mentoring do not count. ([Law Society Journal (LSJ)](https://lsj.com.au/articles/toppling-the-six-minute-tryrant/))
- Clio reviewers say the QuickBooks integration can import expenses as one combined entry that is tedious to fix, and that invoices are less customizable than they would like. ([Capterra](https://www.capterra.com/p/105428/Clio/reviews/))

## Delivery: live in 3 to 6 weeks
1. Week 1: discovery, access and a baseline of today's numbers.
2. Weeks 2–3: build the agents and connect your systems, with your rules and approvals.
3. Weeks 3–5: test on your real history, then pilot on live work with your team reviewing.
4. Weeks 4–6: staged go-live, training, dashboards and handover.

## Executive Ask questions for this workflow
- Which timekeepers have the most unapproved draft entries this week?
- Which matters had the largest write-downs last month, and why?
- How much approved time is still unbilled across the firm right now?

## Frequently asked questions
### Will the AI bill clients for time automatically?
No. The agent drafts entries from real activity and assembles pre-bills, but every entry is approved by the person who did the work and every pre-bill by the responsible partner. Professionals stay responsible for what they bill and for compliance with client billing guidelines and professional rules. The agent never pads time, and you set the rounding and increment rules it follows.

### Does it read everyone's email?
Only with each timekeeper's permission and within rules the firm sets. The agent reads metadata and content needed to match work to a matter, such as recipients, subject lines, document names and meeting titles, and you can exclude personal folders, certain clients or whole categories. Drafts are visible only to the timekeeper and the people your billing roles already allow.

### How long does it take to go live?
Most firms are live in 3 to 6 weeks. We start with your matter structure, task codes, narrative style and client billing guidelines, then connect Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, your practice management or time system and your accounting tool. A pilot group of timekeepers reviews drafts before we roll out to the rest of the firm.

### What does it cost?
Cost depends on the number of timekeepers, the systems we connect and how many client billing guidelines you need to follow. A ten-person agency on Harvest and a law firm with several offices on Clio need different setups, so we do not publish a price. Pricing is quoted after a short scoping call about your current time and billing process.

### Does it work for fixed-fee or subscription clients?
Yes. For fixed-fee and subscription work, the same drafted entries show how much effort each client or engagement takes, even when nothing is billed by the hour. Partners use that to see which engagements are underpriced, and accounting firms on Karbon can compare time against the agreed fee. Invoices still follow your fee arrangements and approvals.