Paralegal Billing Cheat Sheet (2025 Guide)

Paralegals are the backbone of law firm operations. From drafting legal documents to conducting research, their work directly impacts case outcomes. And of course your firm profitability.

But when it comes to billing, things often get messy:

What counts as legal billable hours?
How should time be recorded, and with what accuracy?
What level of detail is required for legal compliance?

That’s where this paralegal billing cheat sheet comes in. This guide gives you a quick reference to avoid billing mistakes, improve accuracy, and make sure your hard work gets recognized.

From our experience working with law firms using Adeu automated time tracking, we’ve seen that both lawyers and paralegals often complete 30–50 tasks per day. When billing is done at the end of the day (or later), many of these small but billable tasks get lost. That leads to unbilled hours—and lost revenue.

That’s why we strongly recommend trying automated legal time tracking (download here). It’s completely free to test, and you’ll be amazed at how many billable tasks you actually complete each day—and how much time (and money) typically goes unbilled simply because the tasks were small and forgotten.

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Common Paralegal Billing Challenges

Even experienced paralegals run into billing issues. The most frequent ones include:

Ambiguity between billable and non-billable tasks. Not all paralegal hour are billable.
Lost minutes on small tasks. Quick calls, discussions with colleagues, or email follow-ups often go unrecorded.
Vague entries. “Worked on case” won’t fly with most clients.
Compliance gaps. Different clients have different billing rules.
Reconstructed time. Logging hours at the end of the week leads to underbilling.

A cheat sheet keeps everything clear and consistent.

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The Paralegal Billing Cheat Sheet (Quick Reference)

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Paralegal Billing Matrix — Billable vs Non-Billable Tasks
Task Category	Billable	Non-Billable	Conditions / Notes
Drafting legal documents	✓		Record actual time spent; include document type (e.g., motion, brief).
Legal research	✓		Note platform used (Westlaw, Lexis, etc.); must be tied to a client matter.
Case organization	✓		Bill only when directly tied to an active case/matter.
Client communication	✓		Calls, emails, meetings; log promptly with concise descriptions.
Court filings	✓		Includes preparation, e-filing steps, and confirmations.
Administrative tasks		✓	General office work (copying, scanning, scheduling).
Internal firm meetings		✓	Not billable unless matter-specific with client approval.
Training / onboarding		✓	Professional development; not client-billable.

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Best Practices for Paralegal Billing

A cheat sheet is only useful if paired with good habits. Here are four proven billing best practices:

Track in real time: Log hours immediately. Waiting until the end of the day (or week) can cause 10–20% of work to slip through.
Use clear descriptions: Instead of “Case work (2.0),” write: “Reviewed deposition transcripts and summarized findings (2.0).”
Bill in small increments: Standard is 0.1 hr (6 minutes). This ensures small but valuable tasks don’t go unbilled.
Stay consistent across the team: Uniform billing practices reduce client disputes and improve collections.

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When a Cheat Sheet Isn’t Enough

A PDF or Excel cheat sheet is great for training new paralegals and building consistency. But as firms scale, cheat sheets alone can’t prevent:

Missed hours: Quick research, client calls, or doc reviews get lost.
Manual entry fatigue: Writing down every task interrupts workflow.
Revenue leakage: Even small underbilled tasks add up over months.

That’s where technology steps in.

Adeu AI captures time automatically from your email, calendar, documents and even your phone calls. Instead of remembering to log hours, paralegals simply approve drafted entries. It’s the modern version of a cheat sheet. It is always on, always accurate, and it tracks your billable time automatically.

Paralegal Billing Cheat Sheet – Free Template

If you want to stick with a cheat sheet, that is of course perfectly ok. We’ve created a downloadable paralegal billing cheat sheet template you can adapt for your firm. It includes:

Billable vs. non-billable quick reference.
Common task categories.
Space for client-specific rules.

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FAQs on Paralegal Billing

1. Can paralegals bill for legal research?
Yes, as long as the research is tied to a specific client matter.

2. Are administrative tasks like copying and scheduling billable?
No. Administrative tasks are considered overhead.

3. What’s the best way to avoid billing disputes?
Provide detailed, task-specific entries and align with client billing guidelines.

4. How can I make sure I don’t lose track of small tasks?
Use real-time tracking or automated tools like Adeu AI to capture activities automatically.

Bottom Line

A paralegal billing cheat sheet is a simple but powerful tool for avoiding mistakes, ensuring consistency, and training new team members. But for growing firms, manual cheat sheets aren’t enough to stop revenue leakage.

That’s where Adeu AI comes in—capturing every billable minute automatically so you can focus on client work, not timekeeping.

Download the free paralegal billing cheat sheet here. OR

Download Adeu.ai automated time tracking software.

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