Time Tracking Software That's Automatic

If you don’t have an existing billing or invoicing system, we have good news – you can now create and issue invoices directly from Chrometa.

Sending Your Timesheet to an Invoice

The quickest way to get an invoice started is directly from the Timesheet view.

To bulk create invoices for ALL clients and projects in your Timesheet, click the Create Invoices (All Projects)button displayed to the right of the Timesheet header:

To create an invoice for a particular project, mouse over the settings menu to the right of the project name, and select

You’ll be taken directly to the New Invoice screen with your invoice already started (and perhaps nearly completed!) for you.  This screen is fully editable, and the table that contains your time entries behaves like a spreadsheet, so that you can conveniently make any final modifications needed to the invoice.

Add a new row by clicking the + button on the right:

Delete a row by selecting the row via the checkbox on the left of it, then click the Delete button:

Remove all rows by selecting the X on the far right:

You can click directly on any cell to edit it directly.  And you can rearrange the order of the rows by clicking on the left-hand side of one and dragging it up or down.

When you’re finished editing, click the Save button.  Or, use the drop down button next to the Save button (”Save and…“) to perform another action as you save the invoice (ie. Export to FreshBooks, Email invoice to client).

Use “Save And…” to save the invoice and export to a third-party system, or email the invoice directly to your client.

After you save your invoice, you’ll be taken back to your main Invoices List, where you can:

• Manage the state of your invoices
• Download an invoice to Excel or PDF
• Email an invoice directly to a client
• Export an invoice to another billing or accounting system (FreshBooks, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero)

Creating a New Invoice From Scratch

You can create a new invoice from scratch by clicking the Invoices tab at the top of your screen and selecting New Invoice.

New invoice setup header.

First, complete the following fields in the New Invoice header:

• Project
• Start date
• End date
• Issued date (defaults to today)
• Due date (defaults to 30 days from today)

Then, click the blue Get Time button on the right side of your screen to pull in the annotations for this project and time frame.  The entries will be grouped by annotation, and split by day.

The table that contains your time entries is again completely editable.

Managing Invoices

You can manage existing invoices from the Invoices List, which can be accessed by clicking the Invoices tab at the very top of your screen.

Mouse over the invoice you wish to edit, manage, and/or export for the list of options.

List of invoice options available from the Invoices List screen.

My list here is a bit long because I have many integrations enabled – yours will likely be shorter!

Exporting Invoices to Integrated Third-Party Systems

As you can see from the invoice options, we can directly export an invoice to FreshBooks, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero, or other billing systems that have an invoice integration with Chrometa.  To export, select the option above.

To enable your integration for the first time, select the Enable Integrations option at the very end of this list.

You can also export an invoice directly from the New Invoice screen by using the Save And… option highlighted above.

Use “Save And…” to save the invoice and export to a third-party system.

Sample PDF Invoice

Here is a sample PDF invoice download, created via the Download As PDF option.

Dear Mac Attorney:

Thank you for NOT being shy about the fact that you wanted a version of Chrometa that’d provide with automated
timekeeping for your beloved Mac.

I’ve received many emails like these (usually on the weekend for some reason) from outspoken solo and small firm Mac attorneys like you:

• * “Seriously, HOW MUCH LONGER BEFORE US MAC USERS CAN USE CHROMETA?” — KG, Solo Attorney in Nashville, TN

• “I’VE BEEN EAGERLY AWAITING THE BETA VERSION OF YOUR MAC-COMPATIBLE (presumably, web-based) product but you’ve gone silent.” — JH, Solo Attorney in Albuquerque, NM

• “WHEN WILL YOUR MAC COMPATIBLE ATTORNEY TIME KEEPING PROGRAM BE READY” — Jeff, Attorney

Thanks for whacking us on the head until we got the message! I’m excited to tell you that we took the hint — and went out and hired a top notch Mac developer.

And our “Mac guy” has done a spectacular job building a Mac compatible version of Chrometa for you — I think you’re really going to like it (and save a ton of time and effort on your time reconciliation).

Please download Chrometa for Mac here.

The average small law firm of 1-9 lawyers, including yours most likely, leaves 10-25% of billable revenue on the table in the form of work you performed for your client, but were not able to track down after the fact.

This is a fact based on a recent study.

It’s crazy to leave such large amounts of money unbilled in this environment. Most of your competitors are not reading this TechnoRelease so you’ve got a leg up.

Watch this free video now: “How to Increase Your Billable Time by 10-25% — While Actually Working Less.”

AUTOMATIC TIME CAPTURE SOFTWARE: THE LAST BEST HOPE FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS

There’s a lot of talk these days about alternative fees.

That’s all well and good but guess what? No matter how you bill clients, you need to accurately understand how much time you spend on your cases.

The problem with keeping time via a start/stop timer or any other manual method is that you’re constantly getting interrupted throughout the day. So you start the timer once in the morning — and realize five hours later it’s still running against the same task because you forgot to toggle it! Being ethical, you then conservatively underestimate the amount of time you spent.

Time entry methods are equally ineffective — you’re probably far too busy and multi-task far too much during the day to be bothered with the tedious effort of creating a new time entry when you change tasks.

It only took 100 years, but Chrometa solves this problem.

As a growing number of attorneys can attest, Chrometa automatically captures every second of your billable time with no effort or data entry on your part.

The “magic” of Chrometa is that it runs in the background of your PC and/or Mac, quietly making note of your activities. It’s like having your very own personal timekeeper.

When you open or compose an email, Chrometa captures that activity. Same for documents you draft, web research, and even phone calls and meetings — everything is captured passively without you lifting a finger.

THE RESULT OF USING CHROMETA?

Chrometa has been around long enough that we have some data to share from our customers, virtually all of whom work in small law firms.

Their feedback suggests that you will increase your monthly billings by 20% or more while actually working fewer hours.

Available for PC and Mac, try Chrometa for free now.

Dear Fellow Attorney:

Like you, I hate keeping track of my billable time. I used to spend hours each week going through sent emails, my calendar and my notes to figure out what I did every day.

I knew there had to be a better answer than notepads and start/stop timers.

The problem with the start/stop timer, for me, is that I’m constantly getting interrupted throughout the day.  So I’d start the timer once in the morning – and realize 5 hours later it’d be running against the same task ever since, because I forgot to toggle it!

Time entry methods were equally ineffective – I am far too busy and multi-task far too much during the day to be bothered with the tedious effort of creating a new time entry when I change tasks.

Finally in 2007, I’d had enough – so I designed a product that’d automatically track my time and let me easily organize that time so I could accurately and easily bill my clients.

I’m excited to announce that our groundbreaking timekeeping product, Chrometa, is now available.

You can get started with Chrometa for free – and be up and running in a matter of minutes.

Please start capturing your billable time automatically with Chrometa now. (Available for PC and Mac)

To export your Chrometa time entries to Timeslips, you’ll first need to enable the Timeslips export – which you can do under Account – Integrations.

We have a couple of Timeslips TPL files available for the specific mapping from Chrometa to Timeslips – they are available on this page (use the 2011 version for everything prior as well).

Once you have enabled the export, you can tee up your time entries for export from our Invoices tab.  Once you pull your time for a given client and/or project, you can generate the file for Timeslips from the Invoices list view by clicking the Action drop down.

The data exports in CSV format, and it’s specifically formatted for Timeslips.

For Timeslips integration support, we’ve partnered with time and billing system guru Caren Schwartz, an excellent resource for anyone who needs a hand with a custom Timeslips setup.

Caren Schwartz
Time & Cents Consultants, LLC
caren@timeandcents.com
203-254-7736
www.timeandcents.com