Video Transcript:
In this video, we’ll walk through Automated Time Manager, or ATM. When ATM is enabled, the system automatically suggests time entries based on your activity, such as sending emails, completing calendar events, finishing tasks, working with documents, creating memos, or generating Zencam items. This helps ensure your time is captured consistently without relying on manual entry.
To configure ATM at the firm level as an admin, select your username in the top right corner, then go to Firm Settings. From there, open the Configurations tab and choose Suggestions. The settings you define here become the default for all users, though individuals can override them in their own profiles.
To access personal settings, select your username, open My Profile, navigate to the Settings tab, and choose Suggestions. From there, you can customize which activities you want to track independently of the firm-wide configuration.
Now let’s take a closer look at the notification options. Each category, such as emails, calendar events, tasks, and documents, can be enabled or disabled using toggle switches. Some categories also include more granular controls. Within documents, for example, you can choose to track actions like merges or updates separately, giving you greater flexibility over what generates a time suggestion.
Once you’ve decided which activities to track, you can control how those suggestions are delivered. Selecting “Create in Background” sends suggestions to the ATM tab on the Time and Expenses page, where they can be reviewed later. Choosing “Pop-up on Creation,” on the other hand, displays a prompt immediately after the activity occurs. For example, after sending an email, a dialog box will appear asking if you’d like to capture time for that action.
Beyond delivery preferences, you can also tailor the description that appears within each time entry using the custom description field. By default, it’s set to “Draft email regarding email subject to recipient’s email,” automatically pulling in the email subject line and recipient address to give each entry meaningful context. You can edit this field at any time to adjust the wording or swap in different template variables to better fit your workflow.
For emails specifically, you also have the option to exclude certain domains from triggering suggestions altogether. This can be useful for filtering out internal communication. Simply enter your firm’s domain to prevent internal emails from generating time entries.
Now that ATM is configured, let’s look at what “Pop-up on Creation” looks like in action. Start by enabling task pop-ups, then navigate to the Tasks page and mark a task as complete. As soon as the task is completed, a suggested time entry pop-up appears. From here, you can update the description and adjust the hours as needed.
When you’re ready, you have two options: save and add to billing later, which sends it to the ATM tab with other suggested entries, or select “Convert to Time Entry” to immediately create a billable entry. In this case, we’ll convert it. Just like that, the suggestion becomes a time entry.
Now that you’ve seen the pop-up experience, let’s look at where suggestions live when pop-ups aren’t enabled or when you choose to save them for later. Navigate to the Time and Expense Entries page, then open the ATM tab.
The screen is divided into three main sections. On the left, you’ll see your current time entries for the selected date range. By default, this shows today’s activity, but you can expand the range using the date range dropdown—for example, selecting “This Month” to view all entries for the current month.
On the right, you’ll find your current suggestions. These are potential time entries waiting for your review and approval, and they are retained in the system for up to one year.
At the top center, you’ll see an overview of suggested time, current time entry hours, and total monthly hours. These update in real time as suggestions are converted into time entries, giving you a quick snapshot of your progress.
To refine what you’re seeing, click “All Filters.” From here, you can apply filters to either the time entries or the suggestions list. You can also control what’s displayed using checkboxes to show or hide the overview, time entries grid, or suggestions grid. Within each grid, the Settings option lets you choose which columns are visible.
If you’re looking for something specific, use the search bar to quickly locate a suggested entry.
Now let’s take a closer look at how to work with suggestions. If a suggestion has all required fields completed, you’ll see an active checkmark. Clicking it will convert the suggestion directly into a time entry, moving it from the suggestions list to the time entries list.
If the checkmark is grayed out, required information—typically a matter—is missing. To review or edit a suggestion, double-click the row or select the pencil icon. Add any missing details, then either convert it to a time entry or save it for later.
If a suggestion isn’t needed, you can remove it using the trash icon. For efficiency, you can also work with multiple suggestions at once. Select multiple entries, then open the bulk action menu. From here, you can convert entries, update fields like matter, task, bill rate, or hours, combine compatible entries, or delete them all in one step.
That concludes our overview of Automated Time Manager. With ATM configured to match your workflow, you can capture more of your time automatically, reduce manual entry, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Whether you prefer real-time pop-ups or reviewing suggestions later, ATM gives you the flexibility to track time in a way that works best for you.