The hours you worked but never wrote down.
Lawyers lose billable time in the gaps. A call taken between two matters, a quick review of a draft, fifteen minutes of research that never reaches the timesheet. Daytide keeps a record of the day as it happens, by matter, so the evening reconstruction starts from facts.
Where the time goes missing.
How law firms usually bill: hourly, usually in six-minute units. some fixed-fee matters.
- Time rebuilt at the end of the day
- At six in the evening you try to remember what the morning was. The long drafting sessions are easy. The short pieces of work between them are not, and those are the ones that go missing.
- Small tasks across many matters
- A two-line reply here, a document check there. Each is too small to start a timer for, and across a month they add up to days.
- Fixed-fee matters nobody measures
- When the fee is fixed there is no reason to record time, so nobody does. Then nobody knows whether the next fixed fee should be the same.
A day, as Daytide records it.
This is what one person sees for their own day. Pick an entry to see what the label was based on.
- 08:50 to 09:30E-mailSeveral matters, a few minutes each40 min
Why here
Sorted automatically, from the document title
- Word, 1 h 50: “10432 Kessler SPA draft v4”
- Matter number 10432 is the Kessler acquisition
- You confirmed this matter last Thursday
Why here
You answered a question in chat
- Teams call, 20 min, with no title
- Daytide asked which matter. You tapped “Harbour Dental lease”.
Answers like this one are kept, so the same question is not asked twice.
Why here
Sorted as one piece of work, from the file name
- A PDF, 15 min: “10518 Harbour lease heads of terms”
- Westlaw, 35 min, in between
The research carries no matter name of its own. It is placed with the PDF only because the PDF is a good share of the same stretch of work. Without that, Daytide would ask.
- 12:30 to 13:15AwayScreen locked, not counted45 min
Why here
Not sorted. Daytide asks instead of guessing.
- A PDF called “Scan 0931”, 25 min
- Nothing in the name or folder points to a matter
Why here
Sorted automatically, from the document system
- iManage, 2 h 30: window titles begin “10432”
- 16:10 to 17:30Mill Lane SchoolEmployment advice, fixed fee1 h 20
- Working time
- 7 h 55
- Sorted without asking
- 7 h 30
- Private
- 0 min
- Questions waiting
- 1
Tools the template already knows.
Anything not listed here is learned in calibration week. Daytide sees an unfamiliar tool, asks what it is for, and remembers.
- Everyday
- Outlook, Word, PDF readers, Teams, Zoom
- Practice management
- Clio, PracticePanther
- Documents
- iManage, NetDocuments
- Research
- Westlaw, Lexis, court portals
Matter numbers and client names in document titles are what Daytide matches on. A document system that puts the matter number in the window title makes the first week short.
What the first week shows.
The day by matter, already laid out
Each person sees their own day as a list of blocks with the matter beside each one and the reason it was put there.
Where the short work goes
The fragments between long sessions, grouped by matter, with their total.
Time on fixed-fee matters
Counted the same way as hourly work, so the next quote has something behind it.
- Daytide: This morning 50 minutes went into a Word document titled “SPA draft v4” with no matter number. Which matter is it?
- Kessler acquisition
- Harbour Dental lease
- Something else
- Not client work
What it will not tell you.
Daytide gives you an accurate record of time by matter. It does not write billing narratives, round to six-minute units or post entries to your practice system. If that is what you need most, a legal timekeeping product does more, at several times the price. Daytide also reads document titles, never the documents, and you can turn titles down to a cleaned form or off.
Give it one normal week.
Install it, answer a handful of questions, and look at the picture on day seven. The trial runs for 30 days, so you see three more weeks after that before you decide anything.
No card needed to start. Want someone to set it up with you? Assisted onboarding is $250, credited to your first annual invoice.