The problem
Commercial clients ring and email with quick questions about a contract or a director's duties, and those short pieces of work rarely make it onto the bill. If three fee earners each miss 8 minutes of chargeable time a day, that's 480 minutes over 20 working days, 8 hours a month.
What the AI does
Smokeball's Prosper+ plan lists automatic time tracking, which records time as fee earners work on matters. Each fee earner reviews the captured entries at the end of the day, writes a clear narrative, deletes anything that isn't chargeable and corrects the matter before it is billed. The bill remains the fee earner's responsibility, and clients are charged only what the engagement letter allows.
A worked example
A three-fee-earner commercial firm in Guildford bills most advice work by the hour at $266£200€238A$384C$376. All three use Smokeball Prosper+ and spend 4 minutes at the end of each day reviewing captured time.
Before
About 8 minutes of chargeable time a day each left off the bill: 8 hours a month
After
8 minutes a day each recovered, with 4 minutes a day each spent reviewing entries
What it's worth
About $1,064£800€952A$1,536C$1,504 a month net: 8 hours of recovered time at $266£200€238A$384C$376 an hour is $2,128£1,600€1,904A$3,072C$3,008 less 4 hours of review (4 minutes x 3 fee earners x 20 days) at the same rate, $1,064£800€952A$1,536C$1,504. This is billing for work already done, so it is shown as fees, not profit. Prosper+ is $118£89€106A$171C$167 per user a month, $355£267€318A$513C$502 for three; the 8 minutes a day is an assumption to test.
How to set it up
- Ask Smokeball for a demo, the contract term and where UK data is hosted.
- Agree with the team how short calls and emails are charged under your engagement letters.
- Run it for a month on hourly matters and compare captured time with what fee earners recorded by hand.
- Review captured entries daily: correct the matter, write the narrative and delete anything not chargeable.
- Check the first bills line by line before they go to clients.
What goes wrong
- Charging for time not properly spent breaches your duties to the client. Review every captured entry before it reaches a bill.
- Fixed-fee work gains nothing here. Check how much of your work is hourly before you pay for it.
- Prosper+ is $118£89€106A$171C$167 per user, so each extra fee earner adds $118£89€106A$171C$167 a month. Ask for a written quote and the contract term.
- Clients surprised by many small charges complain. Explain in the engagement letter how short calls and emails are billed.