Track time by matter, bill by the tenth of an hour, and run utilization reports — without the LegalTech bloat.
Law firms have specific time-tracking needs: time is the product, billable hours are tracked in tenth-of-an-hour increments, matters are scoped per client, and utilization is the partnership KPI. Tempough handles all of these without the heavy LegalTech-suite overhead. The tradeoff: it doesn't do trust accounting or LEDES invoice exports — if those are required, you need a dedicated legal PM tool. For firms that bill standard hourly + flat-fee + retainer work without strict bar-association compliance constraints, Tempough is significantly cheaper and faster to set up.
Each client → multiple matters → matters break into phases (discovery, drafting, negotiation, closing). Time entries roll up per phase, so you see whether litigation prep is on track without filtering a flat task list. Closed matters archive cleanly with their full hours history intact.
The timer captures real durations and rounds for billing presentation, but the underlying entries stay precise. You can show clients "0.4 hours" while the database has "23 minutes" — important for matter-level audit if something gets disputed.
Per-attorney billable %, with configurable targets (e.g. 1,800 hours/year for associates). Utilization broken down by practice area on Team Pro via team groupings. Partnership compensation conversations get easier when the data is visible.
Partner bills at $650/hr, senior associate at $400/hr, junior at $250/hr — same matter. Tempough's per-member rate model handles this without manual rate juggling. Some matters bill at blended rates; per-project rate override handles that case too.
Weekly timesheets get submitted, reviewed, and locked at approval time. After approval, billable hours can't be silently edited — important when billing is the source of truth for partner draws and client invoices. Every unlock is audit-logged.
Monthly retainers auto-draft. Flat-fee work bills at milestone completion. Hourly work bills from time entries. All three patterns in the same workspace — same client list, same matter list, same reports.
Not the full feature list — the ones that map directly onto how law firms actually work.
Client → matter → phase. Hours roll up per phase. Closed-matter archive.
Per-attorney billable %. Configurable annual targets. Practice-area splits (Team Pro).
Partner / senior / junior rates resolve automatically per attorney on each matter.
Weekly review. Locked after approve. Audit log on every change.
All three billing patterns in one workspace, one invoice flow.
Per matter, per client, per attorney. OT-aware cost math for paralegals.
Team gives you the matter + phase + utilization + approvals + cost rates surface. Team Pro adds team groupings (practice area splits) + branded invoices + webhooks/API for any custom legal-specific reporting. Firms over 5 attorneys typically want Team Pro for the practice-area dimension.
The audience-specific case for switching from Harvest.
Timer + invoices
Retainers + approvals
Utilization + margin
Forecasts + QBO
Phases + milestones
Retainers + channel reports
Phase-gate work + change orders
Time billing + tax-season capacity
No credit card. Cancel any time. Full feature set during the trial.