Bill4Time
Time billing software for professional services.
About Bill4Time
Bill4Time captures billable hours, generates invoices from those entries, processes client payments, and manages trust accounts inside a single platform. Solo attorneys and small law firms are the primary users, but accounting practices billing hourly for advisory or audit work fit equally well. You start a timer, assign it to a matter or client, and the entry flows directly into a draft invoice. Payments collected via credit card or ACH post automatically against the correct client balance. The trust accounting module is the differentiating feature. It tracks client fund deposits, disbursements, and balances in compliance with IOLTA rules, something QuickBooks alone will not do correctly without significant manual workarounds. For any firm handling retainers or client-held funds, that compliance coverage is not optional. The weak spots are real. Reporting is limited compared to Clio or PracticePanther, and the client portal is functional but dated. Firms already running a full practice management suite will find heavy overlap with Bill4Time's core features and little reason to add a second subscription. The mobile app handles time entry adequately but feels secondary to the desktop experience, and there is no free plan, so evaluation requires a paid commitment.
Best for
Lawyers and accountants needing time-based billing with trust accounting support
Key Features
- Time tracking with billable hour capture
- Automated invoice generation from time entries
- Trust accounting for client funds management
- Payment processing with credit card acceptance
- Client portal for invoice viewing and payments
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Trust accounting module tracks IOLTA-compliant client fund deposits and disbursements without manual ledger workarounds in QuickBooks
- Timers run in the browser or mobile app and convert directly to line items on a draft invoice, eliminating manual re-entry
- Invoices batch from multiple time entries across a billing period and send with a payment link attached
- Credit card and ACH payment processing built in, with receipts posted against the correct client matter automatically
- QuickBooks and Xero sync pushes invoice and payment data to your existing general ledger without duplicate entry
- Client portal lets clients view invoice history and pay outstanding balances without calling the office
- Flat-rate monthly pricing scales by user seat, so a two-person firm can budget predictably without per-transaction surprises
Cons
- No free plan or trial tier; you pay from day one, which makes low-stakes evaluation difficult
- Reporting is shallow compared to Clio or PracticePanther; matter profitability and realization rate analysis require exporting to Excel
- Firms already on a full practice management platform get significant feature overlap with little incremental value from adding Bill4Time
- Mobile app covers time entry but lacks the full invoice management and trust accounting controls available on desktop
- The client portal interface looks and feels dated compared to modern client-facing tools like Copilot or MyCase
- Zapier is the integration bridge for anything outside QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, and PayPal, so custom workflows require extra configuration and a separate Zapier subscription
Ledger Brief Take
Addresses the specific pain point of trust accounting compliance that most generic time-tracking tools ignore, making it particularly valuable for attorneys handling client funds. The integration of time tracking with trust account management eliminates the typical workflow of juggling separate systems, though firms already invested in established practice management platforms may find limited incremental value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions accountants ask about Bill4Time.
What does Bill4Time cost and what does the entry price include?
Bill4Time starts at $27 per user per month. That entry tier covers time tracking, invoicing, and payment processing. Trust accounting and the client portal are available on higher tiers. There is no free plan. Pricing details for upper tiers are listed on the Bill4Time website and scale by seat count.
How does Bill4Time integrate with QuickBooks and Xero?
Bill4Time connects directly to QuickBooks Online and Xero. Invoices and payments created in Bill4Time sync to your general ledger automatically. The sync is one-way from Bill4Time into the accounting platform, so you manage billing in Bill4Time and reporting in QuickBooks or Xero. Desktop QuickBooks versions are not supported.
Does Bill4Time handle IOLTA trust accounting correctly?
Yes. The trust accounting module tracks client fund deposits, disbursements, and running balances per matter in a way that satisfies IOLTA compliance requirements. QuickBooks does not have a native trust ledger structure, so Bill4Time fills that gap for attorneys managing retainers or settlement funds.
Who is Bill4Time actually built for?
Solo attorneys and law firms under 20 people are the core user base. Accounting practices billing hourly for advisory, tax, or audit work also use it, but the trust accounting compliance features are law-firm specific. Firms needing full case management, document storage, or court deadline tracking will need a separate tool alongside it.
How does Bill4Time compare to Clio?
Clio covers the full legal practice management stack including document management, court calendaring, and deeper reporting. Bill4Time focuses on time billing and trust accounting and costs less per seat. If your firm needs only billing and trust compliance, Bill4Time is sufficient and cheaper. If you need case management, Clio is the more complete platform.
Is client billing data stored securely?
Bill4Time uses SSL encryption for data in transit and stores data on hosted servers with role-based access controls. Payment processing runs through Stripe and PayPal, both of which are PCI-DSS compliant. Bill4Time does not publish a detailed third-party audit report publicly, so firms with strict data governance requirements should request a security overview directly.