What automatic time capture costs a law firm

Automatic time capture can cost a five-lawyer firm less than € 1.000 a year or several thousand. The products perform different amounts of the work required to turn activity into approved entries.

Activity timelines: inexpensive evidence of the day

Activity timeline software records applications, documents and websites while the lawyer works. It gives the user a chronological record from which to reconstruct a timesheet later.

This category has the clearest public pricing. Memtime publishes European prices from € 10 per user per month on a two-year Basic subscription. Its annual plans cost € 12 for Basic, € 18 for Connect and € 25 for Premium. Connect is required to synchronise with external software.

These products can reveal forgotten work, but the lawyer may still need to group activities, select the matter and write the narrative. They reduce the memory problem without necessarily completing the entry.

For five lawyers, the annual Basic plan costs € 720 excluding VAT, while Connect costs € 1.080. The remaining reconstruction work still belongs in the cost calculation.

Practice-management systems: capture inside a wider platform

Dutch pricing provides a more useful reference than American platform prices. Legalsense starts at € 64,50 per fee earner per month. Kleos Core costs € 69 per user per month, with higher plans at € 99 and € 119. These subscriptions include time registration alongside matter management, documents and billing. They should not be treated as the price of automatic AI timekeeping.

Built-in tracking is convenient because matters and billing already live in the system, but coverage may centre on the platform and connected applications. Existing customers should compare the upgrade cost. New customers must include migration and the full platform subscription.

Full AI timekeeping: quote-based and more complete

Full AI timekeeping aims to reconstruct the working day rather than merely display its evidence. It captures activity across applications, groups related work, identifies the client and matter, calculates the duration and writes a narrative that requires little or no editing before review and release.

Sixminute follows this model. It observes work directly from the device, identifies the task being performed, matches it to the appropriate client and matter, and writes the client-ready narrative. Reviewed entries are released into the firm's existing practice-management system.

PointOne, Laurel and Intapp Time do not publish standard prices. WiseTime directs buyers to sales. Quotes may include integrations, compliance, analytics, onboarding and firm-specific security.

Published Dutch pricing also shows why the monthly seat price is incomplete. Amsterdam-based TIQ lists automatic capture from € 27 to € 59 per user per month, but adds setup fees ranging from € 4.500 to € 30.000. A fixed implementation charge has a much greater effect on a five-lawyer firm than on a fifty-lawyer firm.

For preliminary Dutch budgets, allow € 40 to € 125 per active timekeeper per month, excluding VAT and implementation. This is a planning allowance, not a published market average or a named vendor's price.

Price recovered time, not recorded activity

The financial comparison should begin with approved and collected hours. Knab's 2026 research puts the average advertised rate of a self-employed Dutch lawyer at € 241 per hour, excluding VAT. A more conservative realised rate of € 200 allows for write-downs and collection.

At that realised rate, a € 15 monthly timeline tool breaks even after recovering four and a half minutes per user per month. A € 50 AI timekeeper needs 15 minutes. A € 100 product needs 30 minutes, or one and a half minutes per working day.

The potential upside differs by category. A timeline might help a lawyer find several otherwise forgotten fragments but still leave the timesheet to be reconstructed. Full AI timekeeping can recover work throughout the day and reduce the administrative time spent turning that work into entries. An American Bar Association overview notes that vendors report 10% to 30% more captured time, while correctly warning that these figures are vendor-supplied.

Consider a lawyer who currently records 100 billable hours a month at a realised rate of € 200. A 1% improvement adds one collected hour, worth € 200. After a € 100 subscription, the gross monthly gain is € 100 before implementation and review costs. Recovering six previously missed minutes per working day adds two hours a month, producing € 400 in collected revenue and a € 300 gross gain after the same subscription.

These are scenarios, not promises. A pilot should measure approved time, narrative editing and eventual collection, while separating recovered work from time that would have been entered anyway.

How to compare the real cost

Ask each vendor for the same scope: required platform, minimum seats, term, integrations, onboarding, security and support. Compare the total cost with collected hours recovered after review time.

That method accounts for what each category actually does. The cheapest activity recorder and the best-value AI timekeeper may both be sensible purchases, but they should never be treated as interchangeable products.