Billable Hours Realization
The TimesheetWhere the gap goes between an hour worked and a dollar collected.
An hour worked and a dollar collected differ for two unrelated reasons, and no report separates them — worst of all, work that was never invoiced has no row on any receivables report, because a row is created by invoicing.
Realization is lost in two different places for two different reasons — time taken off before an invoice was ever raised, and invoices that were raised and not paid — and both arrive as one shortfall on any summary you have. This prints the two halves separately, in dollars, and sorts the matters carrying hours nobody has billed by how long they have been quiet.
About this tool
Billable Hours Realization: what it solves
Realization is what is left of an hour by the time the money arrives. Part of it never reaches an invoice — somebody took time off the bill because the matter ran long, because the client was new, because it was not chargeable — and the rest is invoiced and then not paid. Those are different problems needing different conversations, and every summary shows them as one number. The write-off half is also the invisible one: an unpaid invoice is a row on an aging report, while work nobody billed has no row anywhere, because a row is created by invoicing. It exists only as hours on a time record. This prints both halves in dollars, and lists the matters carrying logged hours, no invoice and no write-off reason, sorted by how long since anybody touched them. It suggests no rate, proposes no target realization figure, and never says which hours to write off.
The half that never reaches an invoice has no row anywhere
An unpaid invoice is a row on an aging report. Somebody looks at it, somebody chases it, and it either arrives or it gets written off. The process works.
Work nobody billed has no row. It has never been anywhere except a time record, because a row is created by invoicing and nobody invoiced.
So one half of your leakage lives in a report that gets reviewed weekly and the other half lives nowhere. Guess which half is larger in most practices, and guess which one gets attention.
Two problems, two conversations, one number
Every summary you look at reports realization as a single figure. It is two things.
Lost at billing. Time taken off the bill — the matter ran long, the client was new, it was not chargeable, somebody made a judgment call at the point of invoicing. Fixing that is a conversation about scoping, about pricing, and about who is authorized to write time off.
Lost at collection. Invoiced and not paid. Fixing that is a conversation about credit control, terms and follow-up.
Different causes, different people, different fixes. Shown as one percentage, you cannot tell which one you have, so you address the one you assume — usually collections, because that is the one with a report.
Both halves are printed here in dollars.
The matters going quiet
The list this exists to produce: matters carrying logged hours, no invoice, and no write-off reason, sorted by how long since anybody touched them.
That is work already done, not billed, and not deliberately forgiven. It is in the third state — the one where nobody decided anything, time just passed.
Sorted by how long it has been sitting, because a matter quiet for five months is a different conversation from one quiet for three weeks, and only one of them is still a billing question rather than a client-relationship question.
Three ratios that are one arithmetic
Billing realization, collection realization, and the overall figure.
They are not three independent measurements — the first two multiply to the third. Seeing them together is how you tell whether a poor overall number came from the invoice or from the payment, which is the whole point.
The tool checks that identity on its own output, so if the three ever disagreed you would know the arithmetic was wrong rather than the practice.
What it replaces
The realization figure from practice management software, computed as one number, with the billing half invisible inside it. Or the review that happens at year end, when the write-offs are decided rather than examined.
Who it is for
Law firms, accounting practices, agencies and independent consultants — anywhere time is the product and the distance between an hour worked and a dollar collected is where the money goes.
What it will not do
It suggests no billing rate. Yours is yours.
It proposes no target realization figure. There is a number the profession likes to quote and it is not here, because what yours should be depends on your work, your clients and your write-off policy — and a target from elsewhere would have you chasing somebody else’s practice.
It never says which hours to write off. That is a judgment about a client relationship, and it is one of the more consequential judgments a firm makes.
It does not evaluate a timekeeper. It reports what matters did.
Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The arithmetic runs in your browser. Matter names, rates and client billing are privileged in the ordinary sense and often in the legal one, and none of it leaves the machine you typed it on. Close the tab and it is gone.
Yours would be built the same way.
This one runs on made-up data. The version built for your business runs on yours, and you own it outright. Builds start at $2,500. That is a floor, not a quote. What yours costs is agreed before any work begins. The first conversation is free.