Managing a bankruptcy law office requires the ability to keep track of where time is being spent, by whom, and on which matters. For many bankruptcy lawyers, however, time tracking is costly and difficult. There are a bunch of programs out there to help lawyers track time, but they’re all cumbersome and cost money.

You already know I hate to spend money unless it’s for an awesome reason.

About two years ago I was looking for a simple and quick way to track my time.  I didn’t feel like shelling out a bunch of money for a full-featured case management system (I was using Basecamp at the time for my case management, and it didn’t have a real-time application), and even a program like Time And Chaos seemed like overkill.

All I wanted was something I could click to start and click to stop.  I wanted to get reports showing my progress, and I wanted to be able to print out a PDF for my fee applications.  It had to be free, too.

Too much to ask, I thought.  Then I found Toggl.  And over two years later, it’s better than ever.

Toggl is an online time tracker that tracks the number of billable hours you spend on a client project.  In real-time.

Once you register (for free), create a new project for a new client, and “toggl” the on button. Toggl starts tracking the time spent in real-time, right in the web browser.  You can even download an application to your Mac or PC and the data will automatically sync with the web server. Hit stop when you’re done.

Toggl will put together reports – PDF or CSV – for invoicing your clients.  Beyond that, the system lets you look at your time in graphical format.  How much time you’ve billed each day, week, month, etc.  Which days were most productive, least, and stuff like that.

Bottom line?  It’s awesome.

The application is free for up to 5 timekeepers on your team, and the cost is modest for bigger groups.  So go check it out and see if it suits your needs.