How recording, the timer and computer activity work together
What each way of capturing time measures, how CaseClock keeps the same work from being counted twice, what reaches Reconcile and what needs your approval.
CaseClock gives you three ways to capture work: say it, time it, or let the desktop app notice it. They are designed to be used together without you keeping score. This page explains what each one produces and how CaseClock avoids counting the same minutes twice.
Three ways to capture
| You | CaseClock produces | Where it waits |
|---|---|---|
| Dictate or type what you did | A draft entry with the time you said | Drafts in Entries |
| Run the timer on a matter | A draft entry with the measured minutes when you stop | Drafts in Entries |
| Let computer activity run in the programs you chose | A measured item per document per day, checked by CaseClock's analysis | Reconcile, until you make it a draft or dismiss it |
Dictated time is yours as spoken. Timer and activity time are measured. An entry shows which it carries, and a draft that mixes a measured stretch with a gap you counted by hand says so.
Nothing is counted twice
- Timer minutes win over captured minutes. If a document was open while your timer ran on that matter, Reconcile shows the activity item as "N of M minutes were on your timer for" the matter and offers only the remaining minutes. An item wholly covered by the timer is marked likely covered and seeds nothing. A discarded timer removes nothing.
- Dictation and captured work. When a dictated entry clearly matches a captured item (same matter, same day, same document), the item moves out of review and reads Covered by your entry. The entry shows Captured work with the measured minutes and three choices: Use measured time (the entry takes the measured minutes), Keep mine (your dictated time stands), Not the same work (the item returns to review and the pair is never matched again). A looser match is only suggested on both sides and moves nothing.
- Adding to work you already entered. When a dictation adds time to an existing entry ("another twenty minutes on the Harrison lease"), CaseClock asks before merging: Add the minutes to that entry, or Keep separate. Minutes added by dictation stay dictated, never measured.
- The timer never edits an entry. Stopping a timer always makes a new draft. If you started it from a draft that has not been sent, Combine with the original merges the two.
From Reconcile to an entry
A measured item in Reconcile offers:
- Create draft: a draft with the measured minutes (less anything on your timer) on the proposed client and matter.
- Count it: add a gap CaseClock could not measure, for example while the computer was locked.
- Split across matters: several drafts from one item, each with part of the minutes; the parts cannot exceed the item's total.
- Already captured: you billed this elsewhere.
- Not for me: personal, or not legal work. For an activity item this also teaches the desktop to skip that document, program or site.
An item still being measured reads In progress until you close the document, step away for 30 minutes, or the day ends.
Pausing
| Pause | What stops |
|---|---|
| Pause on the timer | The timer's clock. Capture continues. |
| Pause capture for 1 hour | All measuring, for an hour, then resumes. The timer keeps running. |
| Pause on one item in the Today panel | Counting for that document until you resume. |
| Five minutes without input | Counting, after the Still working on question or on its own; the timer keeps running. |
What always needs you
Nothing from the timer or from captured activity reaches your billing system by itself. Every draft is reviewed and approved by you, and every Reconcile item waits for your choice. See Review and approve entries.
Related guides
Reconcile
Connect Microsoft 365 so CaseClock can find meetings, emails and files with no time entry, then turn the right ones into drafts and dismiss the rest.
Send to billing
What approving does for each billing system CaseClock works with, how to send or export, and how to tell that an entry has arrived.