Review, edit and approve entries
What each entry status means, how to fix a draft by hand or by voice, combine or un-approve entries, and what approval sends to your billing system.
Every entry CaseClock drafts waits for you. This guide explains the statuses, the ways to change a draft, and exactly what approving does. The steps are shown for the web app at app.caseclock.ai; the phone offers the same actions, and the desktop notification card offers approve, edit by voice, dismiss and delete.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning | You can |
|---|---|---|
| Needs attention | A draft missing something required: client, matter, duration, description, or a billing code your firm requires. | Add what is missing, then approve. |
| Draft | Ready for review. Nothing has left CaseClock. | Edit, refine by voice, combine, archive, delete, approve. |
| Approved | You approved it. It is waiting for export, or has been sent to Clio. | Un-approve, send to Clio, export, archive. |
| Exported | Written to a file for your billing program, or in Clio. Locked against accidental change. | Re-export, or un-approve after re-export. |
| Archived | Hidden from your list and left out of every export. | Return to Draft. |
An exported entry you then change shows Unexported changes until you export it again.
Fix a draft by hand
Open the entry and choose Edit. You can change the client, matter, date, duration, hourly rate, jurisdiction, practice area, billing codes and the Billable switch, then Save. The description is edited in place.
Duration accepts tenths of an hour (0.8), hours and minutes (1:30), or minutes (54 or 90m), and shows how it read your figure before you save. The minutes you enter are kept exactly. CaseClock rounds up to your billing increment only when it displays or exports the entry.
Fix a draft by voice
Choose Refine by voice (the microphone on the phone) and say the change: "Make it one point two hours", "That was the Harrison matter", "Add that I reviewed the lease." Before clearing a client, matter, date or duration, CaseClock shows Apply this change? with one line per field, and waits for Apply. Say "undo" to reverse the last change. If several matters fit, it asks Which matter? and lists them.
History and Restore
History on the entry lists every version: created, updated, approved, sent to Clio, exported, returned to draft. Choose Restore on any earlier version to put the entry back to how it was then. Its status stays as it is.
Combine several drafts into one
Tick two or more drafts on the same client and matter in Entries and choose Combine. CaseClock adds the times together and drafts one description from the originals; you can keep the originals' wording instead. The originals are archived and come back if you choose Uncombine while the combined entry is still a draft. If one draft is on the wrong matter, change its matter first.
Billable and non-billable
The Billable switch on each entry keeps the time without billing it. A client or matter marked non-billable (under Settings, Clients and Matters) switches every entry on it to non-billable and locks the switch. Non-billable entries are sent to Clio as non-billable and exported with no amount.
Approve
On the entry, or for several ticked entries in Entries, the button reads differently depending on your billing system:
| Button | When you see it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Approve | Firms that export files | Marks the entry approved and ready for export. |
| Approve + Send to Clio | Clio connected | Approves and creates the time entry in Clio in one step. Approve only in its menu approves without sending. |
| Approve and send to PCLaw, Approve and send to Unity Accounting | Firms with CaseClock Sync | Approves and queues the entry for the next file the program writes. |
| Approve as non-billable | The entry is non-billable | Approves with no charge. |
Approval re-applies your firm's rules to the description and checks the entry once more. If something is now missing, the entry goes back to a draft with a note instead of being approved. Where the entry goes afterwards: Send approved entries to your billing system.
After approval
- Clio firms: the entry appears in Clio as a time entry on the matter with your description, the billed quantity, billable or non-billable, and activity and task codes when the matter requires them. Changes made in CaseClock afterwards are sent with Send to Clio again. Time cannot be sent to a matter that is closed in Clio.
- File-based firms: approved entries wait under Approved until you choose Export approved, which writes a file in your billing program's layout. See Using CaseClock with CSV files and other billing systems.
- CaseClock Sync firms: the entry goes into the next file CaseClock Sync writes for PCLaw or Unity Accounting and shows Sent to PCLaw or the Unity batch number when the program has taken it.
Un-approve
Choose Un-approve on an approved entry and confirm. It returns to Draft so you can change and approve it again. An entry already in Clio, in a Sync batch, or exported to a file must be taken back first: Re-export for a file, or change it in Clio. The entry names the step.
Archive and delete
Archive removes an entry from your list and sends nothing anywhere. Archived entries are under the Archived tab, where Return to Draft brings one back.
Delete cannot be undone
Delete permanently (web and desktop only; type DELETE to confirm) removes the entry, its recording and its history for good. If you only want it out of your list, archive it instead. The phone offers Archive only.
Common questions
Why does my 35-minute entry show 0.6 hours? Your billing style rounds up to the next increment for display and export. Set Billing style to Actual minutes (no rounding) under Settings, Profile if your firm bills exact minutes.
Approve is greyed out, or Send to Clio is not offered. See An entry will not approve, send or export.
I approved by mistake. Choose Un-approve. If the entry already went to Clio, change or delete it in Clio as well.
Related guides
Record an entry
Dictate or type a time entry on the web, your phone or your computer, what to say so CaseClock places it correctly, and what happens after you stop.
Clients and matters
Where your client and matter list comes from, how to fix a wrong matter on an entry, what closed matters mean, and how to handle duplicates or missing names.