Improving fee earners’ time recording behavior is an ongoing challenge for many organizations. An important issue when you consider that recording the hours worked is the foundation on which businesses such as law firms, accountants, consultants and tax offices base their operations.

The negative consequences of poor time recording discipline go even further than missing out on, in some cases substantial, income: management does not have access to reliable data on which to base management decisions and the billing process is delayed, increasing the likelihood of late payment (or even non-payment) by clients.

Attempts to improve time recording behavior generally fail to consider fee earners’ wellbeing. They often find it difficult to improve time recording discipline by themselves. This leads to stress, demotivation and, in extreme cases, even burn-out symptoms.

To address the time recording problem, managers frequently resort to threatening (or even implementing) sanctions: no bonus, no promotion, no salary increase. This negative approach leads to a reduction in job satisfaction, increased stress and a negative impact on the firm’s image. Even where sanctions result in an improvement (temporary or otherwise) in time recording discipline, not seldom this improvement is due to artificially inflating work, unnecessary overtime or even fraudulent time recording.