Everhour connects legal time tracking with budgets and billing, while your template keeps fee math clear before invoicing.
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A billing template answers one practical question: what amount should appear on the client invoice for approved legal work? It starts with billable time, applies the correct hourly rate, separates non-billable work, and shows any write-down before the final fee line. For U.S. lawyer billing, amounts are normally shown in U.S. dollars.
The template also supports fee communication. For U.S. lawyers, ABA Model Rule 1.5 requires the scope of representation and the basis or rate of fees and expenses to be communicated in writing for new client-lawyer relationships, subject to the rule's limited low-cost exception. The template should match that written basis instead of inventing a different billing structure later.
Start with columns for date, matter, task description, person, billing status, raw time, rounded time, rate, amount, write-down, expenses, tax input, and invoice status. Keep billable and non-billable time separate. A training call, internal staffing discussion, or administrative note can still be useful for management reporting without becoming a client charge.
Use the same increment the engagement terms use. A six-minute increment converts to 0.1 hour, while a 15-minute increment converts to 0.25 hour. The common mistake is rounding each entry without showing the rounded total; that hides small changes that compound across a matter. A template should show both the recorded time and the billing time used in the calculation.
The core formula is simple: rounded billable hours multiplied by the approved rate, summed across people, tasks, or phases. Write-downs reduce the billed amount after standard billable value is calculated. Expenses and taxes should stay on separate lines unless the client agreement says they are included in the fee.
For example, a litigation matter includes 18 approved drafting hours at $225 per hour and 9 approved research hours at $180 per hour. Drafting equals $4,050, research equals $1,620, and the pre-tax fee total is $5,670. If the firm writes down $450 before sending the invoice, the billed fee becomes $5,220 before expenses or jurisdiction-specific taxes.
The United States has no federal VAT/GST or national sales-tax rate for billed professional time. U.S. sales tax treatment is state and local, and some services are not taxed. A template should therefore use a jurisdiction-specific tax input only when the billed service is taxable under the applicable state or local rule.
Do not label an absent federal VAT/GST as a 0% tax line. Absence is cleaner: no federal VAT/GST exists. State examples show why the input must be specific. Hawaii applies general excise tax to business activities at 4% for most activities, with county surcharge pass-through caps reaching 4.7120% where adopted. New Mexico gross receipts tax includes services performed in New Mexico, with combined rates from 5.125% to 8.6875%.
A template is enough for a one-off invoice, a small matter, or a fee estimate where entries are already approved. It works when one person owns the numbers, the rate table is short, and there is no need to preserve an approval trail beyond the final file. It breaks down when multiple people edit time, adjust rates, or apply write-downs across several matters.
For ongoing legal work, use a managed workflow that captures time continuously, marks billable and non-billable work, routes approvals, tracks budget limits, and hands approved totals to billing. Everhour Project Budgeting supports hour-based and money-based budgets, recurring budget periods, threshold alerts, budget protection, and multiple billing methods, which makes the template a check on the process instead of the only record.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Include date, matter, task description, timekeeper, billing status, recorded time, rounded billable time, hourly rate, amount, write-down, expenses, jurisdiction-specific tax input, and invoice status. Add client or phase columns when the same spreadsheet covers several matters. Keep non-billable time visible but excluded from the client fee total.
Show recorded time and rounded billable time in separate columns. If the engagement uses six-minute billing, 1 to 6 minutes becomes 0.1 hour. If it uses 15-minute billing, entries move in 0.25-hour increments. The invoice amount should use the rounded billable time, while the recorded-time column preserves the original work detail.
Billable time is approved work that can be charged under the fee agreement. Billed time is what actually appears on the invoice after write-downs, exclusions, or client-specific adjustments. A matter can have 27 billable hours but only 25 billed hours if the firm removes 2 hours before invoicing.
No. The United States has no federal VAT/GST or national sales-tax rate for billed professional time. Sales tax treatment is state and local, and some services are not taxed. Use a jurisdiction-specific tax input only when the billed legal service is taxable under the applicable state or local rule.
Add payment timing when the client agreement, invoice terms, or payer rules make due dates part of the billing workflow. For federal-agency vendor invoices, Prompt Payment rules generally use the contract date, accepted discount terms, an accelerated-payment rule, or 30 calendar days after receipt of a proper invoice.
Everhour Project Budgeting tracks hour-based and money-based budgets as time is logged, with recurring budget periods and threshold alerts at 75%, 90%, 100%, or custom levels. That gives a legal team a running budget view before entries reach the billing template.
Everhour Billing & Invoicing can generate invoices from uninvoiced billable time and expenses, using project or member rates while excluding non-billable work. Invoice data can be grouped by project, task, person, date, or another available breakdown for client-facing review.
Use Everhour Project Budgeting to track legal matter hours, money budgets, recurring limits, and alert thresholds before invoice preparation, giving every billing template clearer budget control.
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