Track time with the work timer
Start a timer on a client and matter from CaseClock Desktop or the web, pause and resume it, and stop it to create a draft entry with the measured time.
The work timer is for work you do at your desk without a natural end to dictate: a long drafting session, research, a document review. Start it on the matter, work, stop it. CaseClock makes a draft entry with the measured time, and you review and approve it like any other.
Before you begin
- The web app shows Start timer to every lawyer. In CaseClock Desktop the timer is off until you turn on Show a timer in the widget under Settings, Timer.
- You use CaseClock Desktop 0.2.53 or later, or the web app. The phone app does not run the timer.
- At a firm that uses the Admin Center, administrators can switch computer activity off for the firm; the timer follows that switch.
- Delegates acting for a lawyer cannot start a timer.
How the timer works
- One timer at a time. Starting a second timer is refused until you stop or discard the first.
- The same timer everywhere. The timer runs on CaseClock's server, so a timer started on your computer shows in the web app's header as well, and the elapsed time does not depend on your computer's clock.
- Stopping creates a new draft. The draft carries the client, matter and measured minutes (rounded up to the next whole minute, at least one minute). It never changes an existing entry. If you started the timer from an entry, you can Combine with the original while that entry is still an unsent draft.
Start a timer
Open the CaseClock recorder, then Settings, Timer, and turn on Show a timer in the widget. The section explains that the timer records time you start and stop yourself as an entry on the client and matter you choose, and that minutes on it are never counted twice with computer activity.
Choose Start timer under the record control.
Under Start a timer for, search your clients and matters and choose one. A closed matter is listed but cannot take a timer. When computer activity is on, the recorder may suggest the matter you are working on: Suggested from what you are working on, or Not this one.
The recorder and the menu bar or tray icon show the running time with the client and matter.
Pause, resume, stop
- Pause stops the clock; paused time is never counted. Resume continues.
- Stop opens the stop view. Add a Description (or leave it empty and the draft shows Missing description until you fill it in), then choose Stop and create entry (desktop) or Stop and save the draft (web). Keep timing returns to the timer. Discard timer keeps no time and creates no entry.
- The new draft opens with Open the new entry. It appears under Drafts in Entries.
A timer left running
A timer that has been going for more than 12 hours, running or paused, asks what to do when you stop it:
- Keep the full time
- Set the end time: enter when you actually stopped working. The end time cannot be earlier than your last resume.
- Discard the timer
Timer and computer activity together
When computer activity capture is also on, minutes you spent on a document while the timer ran are not counted twice. Reconcile shows an activity item as "N of M minutes were on your timer for" the matter, and only the remaining minutes are offered. An item wholly on the timer is marked likely covered. A discarded timer counts for nothing. See How recording, the timer and computer activity work together.
After your trial or subscription ends
You can still pause or discard a running timer, but not start, resume or stop one until your access is restored.
Common questions
Start timer is missing. On the desktop, turn on Show a timer in the widget under Settings, Timer. A timer that is already running shows whatever the switch says. In the web app the control is hidden while you are viewing a lawyer's entries as a Delegate.
I stopped the timer and the draft has no description. That is expected when you left it empty. Open the draft, add the description by typing or Refine by voice, and approve.
Can I run a timer on my phone? Not yet. A timer started on the web or desktop is not shown on the phone.
Related guides
Desktop settings
Every setting in CaseClock Desktop in plain words, section by section, from the shortcut and Hold to speak to the timer, computer activity, updates and appearance.
Computer activity
Let CaseClock Desktop notice the time you spend in programs you choose, what it records and never records, how to pause or stop it, and how measured time reaches Reconcile.