Free Attorney Billable Hours Template (Excel)

What's in the attorney billable hours template

The template is a single Time Entries sheet built as a running log: one row per time entry, with columns for the date, the attorney, the client or matter, a task code, a narrative description, hours, and the rate for that entry.

Task codes are a dropdown covering common litigation-style codes (L110, L120, L190, L210, L240, L310, L330, L390, L430) plus an Other option, so every entry is tagged consistently instead of relying on free text.

Because rate is entered per line rather than pulled from a separate rate table, the sheet handles attorneys who bill different rates on different matters, or associates and partners billing side by side, without any extra setup.

Logging time with task codes and narratives

Each entry gets a task code and a short narrative describing the work performed — the two fields corporate legal departments and LEDES-style billing guidelines expect to see on a matter's time detail.

Marking an entry Billable or Non-billable feeds directly into the utilization summary, so you can see at a glance how much of the hours logged actually convert into billed amounts for a client or matter.

What calculates automatically

The line amount (hours x rate) fills in the moment you enter hours and mark an entry Billable — no formulas to write. Non-billable entries are excluded from the amount automatically.

The 'Matter billed to date' column totals every entry logged so far for that same client or matter, so you always know where a matter stands without building a separate pivot table.

The summary at the bottom rolls up billable hours, non-billable hours, utilization percentage (billable divided by total hours), and total billed across the whole log.

Why this beats a blank timesheet

A blank spreadsheet means building the task-code list, the billable/non-billable logic, and the running-total-by-matter formula yourself, then re-checking it every time you add a row. This template already has that structure in place.

It's honest about what it is: a per-line time and billing log, not a full practice-management system. There's no separate rate table by attorney and no realization-rate calculation (billed versus actually collected) — if you need those, look at a dedicated legal billing platform. What it does do — accurate, consistent time entries rolled into matter totals — it does without any setup.

Who this template is for

Solo attorneys and small firms who bill by the hour and want a simple, shareable way to log time without paying for legal practice-management software are the main fit — you fill in rows, the totals take care of themselves.

Paralegals and legal assistants tracking their own billable time alongside an attorney's, or firms that bill a handful of matters rather than hundreds, will find this faster to maintain than most timekeeping SaaS tools built for larger firms.