The Work Between the Work: How Tycko & Zavareei LLP Closed the Gap in Time Capture
At Tycko & Zavareei LLP, timekeeping wasn’t broken—but it wasn’t complete.
As a plaintiff-side firm handling complex class action and qui tam litigation, their attorneys were consistently doing high-value work. But like many firms, there was a persistent gap between the work being done and the work being captured.
That gap showed up in the margins of the day.
“Attorneys get behind on their billing. They miss the little tasks they do all day long,” said Heather McAndrews, Firm Administrator. “We were looking for ways to reduce the time it took to catch up on billing and to capture a more thorough accounting of their work.”
Before adopting Billables AI, timekeeping relied on manual timekeeping methods, using start-and-stop timers or after-the-fact auditing.
“There was a lot of reconstruction,” McAndrews said. “A large percentage of people would enter their time at the end of the day, week, or month.”
And in that process, the smallest tasks—emails, quick edits, and in-between work—were often the first to be lost.
“It would take more time to record the task than to do it—so it just wouldn’t get entered.”
Capturing More Time—Without More Effort
Billables AI shifted timekeeping from reconstruction to review. Instead of starting from scratch, attorneys now see their emails, meetings, document activity, and calls automatically captured and organized into draft entries.
“Now it’s there, and they just need to approve it,” McAndrews said.
The most immediate impact came from the work that had always been happening, but rarely recorded: quick document edits, short task-switching, and the constant back-and-forth between matters. Tasks that once felt too small to justify logging are now automatically captured and easy to approve.
“We now capture every minute spent jumping back and forth between email and working on a document,” she noted.
Even simple actions—like sending a quick reply or making a minor revision—are now reflected in time entries. While each instance is small, the cumulative effect is significant.
“Just looking at the two partners who tested it before we launched, there are hours of tasks that would not have been captured without Billables AI,” McAndrews said. “That adds up to thousands of dollars.”
What changed wasn’t the amount of work being done—it was the firm’s ability to see and capture it.
“We were surprised how much extra time it captured.”
“Just looking at the two partners who tested it before we launched, there are hours of tasks that would not have been captured without Billables AI, that adds up to thousands of dollars.”
Heather McAndrews
Firm Administrator
Turning Internal Guidelines into Better Billing
Beyond capturing more time, the firm also improved the quality and consistency of their billing entries by incorporating their internal billing guidelines directly into Billables AI.
Tycko & Zavareei had already developed internal standards used in training attorneys on how to write clear, compliant narratives. By uploading those guidelines into the platform, the firm embedded that institutional knowledge directly into the timekeeping process.
The result was a meaningful shift: attorneys spent less time thinking about how to phrase entries, and administrators spent less time reviewing and correcting them.
Instead of relying on post hoc edits, entries are now generated and refined in alignment with the firm’s expectations from the start—shortening the review cycle while improving consistency across timekeepers.
Increasing Billing Speed and Efficiency
As much as Billables AI improved time capture, its impact on workflow was just as important.
By removing the need to reconstruct work, the platform reduced the mental burden associated with timekeeping and made the process more approachable.
“I think for some it has cut down on anxiety that can push people to procrastinate,” McAndrews said.
Attorneys who previously delayed time entry are now able to review and approve entries on a weekly basis, rather than facing a backlog at the end of the month. That shift alone has made billing more consistent and less stressful.
Just as importantly, the integration with Centerbase ensured that this improved process fit seamlessly into the firm’s existing systems. Time entries captured and approved in Billables AI flow directly into Centerbase, eliminating the need for duplicate entry or system switching.
“There are more entries already entered before the mad rush to finish,” McAndrews said. “It has cut down on the time it takes an attorney to audit their time.”
For administrators and firm leadership, that means fewer bottlenecks, a smoother month-end process, and more predictable billing cycles overall.
“We can now see a more complete picture of where and how much time is spent.”
Heather McAndrews
Firm Administrator
Rather than relying on assumptions or incomplete data, the firm is moving toward a clearer, more data-driven understanding of its operations—one grounded in how work actually gets done.
The Takeaway: Making the Invisible Visible
For Tycko & Zavareei LLP, the change wasn’t dramatic—it was cumulative.
“All the little tasks you bounce between are captured in real time,” McAndrews said. “Instead of estimating how long you worked, you actually know.”
The work didn’t change. But the ability to see it did.
And in that shift—from approximation to clarity—the firm found not just more time, but a more accurate reflection of how their practice truly operates.
