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Journals are the cornerstone of the billing system in ContactsLaw. They are the mechanism by which activities both within the software and external to it are timed and recorded against the name of the fee-earner(s) responsible. Journals replace timesheets in traditional paper-based systems.
 
A journal can be attached to any step of any activity in ContactsLaw; the time-recording policy is administered by the practice manager. Additionally, journals can be manually started for common activities such as reading a file, making a telephone call or attending a conference. Some activities offer special-purpose journals which record information relevant to that activity; for example, court appearance journals are tailored to the purpose of accurately recording the court, judiciary and proceedings in court.
 
Journals can be either billable or unbillable, depending on whether they are recorded against a file. Billable journals can be written down to $0 or removed entirely at the point of rendering a bill, should the need arise. When a file is added to a journal, it uses the member's rates (defined by the relevant billing scale) in order to calculate the charge for the time recorded.
 
ContactsLaw encourages transparency and honesty by recording time in one-minute units. (If desired, you can configure ContactsLaw to charge in 6-minute units; however journals will always show the exact number of minutes recorded.)
 
Conference journal

Components of a journal

  • Date and start time of the activity being recorded
  • Controls to pause/restart the timer
  • File to which the time will be billed
  • Product to which the time is assigned (or the default)
  • Billing scale (used to determine rates)
  • For each member participating in the activity:
    • Rate
    • Minutes
    • Charge
  • A list of contacts associated with the journal
  • Descriptive text that appears on itemised bills
  • Extended notes that are only viewable if the journal is printed/exported as a document
  • Platform to create a task based on the recently-completed activity
  • Ability to view a list of other activities that were started while the journal was running (in 'master' mode).

Types of journals