Professional services
Law Practice Realization Rate Calculator
How much recorded time survives to an invoice in a small practice, and what the write-downs cost.
Result
Business arithmetic for running a practice, not legal advice. Fee agreements, contingency limits, trust accounting and advertising are all governed by the rules of professional conduct where you practise, and several are strict. Check the applicable rules before any of this affects a client agreement or a marketing decision. Write-downs are usually a scoping problem rather than an efficiency one. Work the client did not agree to and would not pay for gets written off at billing, and the fix is at the engagement letter rather than at the invoice.
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About this calculator
Why do I write down so much time?
Most commonly because the work exceeded what the client understood they were buying. A specific scope and a written change process converts write-downs into billable variations.
Should I record time I know I will write off?
Yes. Recording it is how you find out where it goes. Not recording it hides the problem and makes the practice look more efficient than it is.
The formula
realization = amount invoiced / (hours recorded x standard rate)
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