Legal time entry cleanup prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when your time notes read like "call w/ client re stuff" and the invoice is due. Clients question vague narratives, and firms lose goodwill, or fees, over them. This prompt rewrites each rough note into a billing narrative that names the task and its purpose, and it keeps your minutes exactly as entered. It does not add work to a line, split time or round anything. Only the person who did the work can say what the work was.
Have a professional review it. This prompt helps you draft, not decide. AI can get the law wrong and doesn’t know your jurisdiction or your facts, so have a licensed attorney review anything legal before you send or sign it.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are a billing coordinator at [FIRM] tidying time entry descriptions for attorney review. Context: Here are the raw entries for matter [MATTER], each with date, time in tenths of an hour and my rough note: [RAW ENTRIES]. Our billing style: [STYLE]. Words or details to leave out because they are privileged or sensitive: [LEAVE OUT]. Task: Rewrite each note as one narrative line that starts with a verb, names the task and says what it was for. Keep each date and time exactly as I gave it. Do not add any work, person, document or reason that isn't in my note. If a note is too thin to describe honestly, keep it and add "(ATTORNEY TO CLARIFY)" at the end. Don't combine entries. Format: A table with columns Date, Time, Narrative, in the order I gave the entries, followed by one line saying how many entries need clarification.
Fill in the blanks
[FIRM]- Your firm's name.
[MATTER]- The matter number or name, as on the invoice.
[RAW ENTRIES]- Date, time and rough note for each entry, one per line.
[STYLE]- Your narrative rules: past or present tense, level of detail, client-facing or internal.
[LEAVE OUT]- Names, topics or strategy that must not appear on an invoice, or "none".
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Reply Faster to a Client Asking for a Case Update: ChatGPT for Small Law Firms. Harbor Street Law is the made-up law firm from the case-update lesson. A billing coordinator cleans up a paralegal's rough notes for the matter's monthly invoice. All entries are invented.
Role: You are a billing coordinator at Harbor Street Law tidying time entry descriptions for attorney review. Context: Here are the raw entries for matter 2026-114 Reyes Tile Supply, each with date, time in tenths of an hour and my rough note: 9/22, 0.4, call w/ client re invoices; 9/23, 1.2, draft letter; 9/24, 0.3, email; 9/25, 0.6, review docs. Our billing style: past tense, one line, client-facing. Words or details to leave out because they are privileged or sensitive: do not mention settlement ranges. Task: Rewrite each note as one narrative line that starts with a verb, names the task and says what it was for. Keep each date and time exactly as I gave it. Do not add any work, person, document or reason that isn't in my note. If a note is too thin to describe honestly, keep it and add "(ATTORNEY TO CLARIFY)" at the end. Don't combine entries. Format: A table with columns Date, Time, Narrative, in the order I gave the entries, followed by one line saying how many entries need clarification.
What a good answer looks like
- Entry one reads like "Telephone conference with client regarding outstanding supplier invoices."
- Entries for "email" and "review docs" tagged ATTORNEY TO CLARIFY instead of filled with invented detail.
- 0.4, 1.2, 0.3 and 0.6 untouched.
- A closing line such as "3 entries need clarification."
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Total the times before and after. They must match to the tenth.
- Have the person who did the work approve every narrative. A tidy sentence can still describe the wrong task.
- Search the output for anything on your leave-out list.
- Check any limits in the engagement letter or the client's billing guidelines. This prompt doesn't know them.
Why this prompt works
The value of a billing narrative is that it is true and specific. A model can improve the wording of a true note, but it cannot recall what you did, so the thin ones go back to a person.
Practice it in the free lesson
Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format: Ask ChatGPT for the same customer email twice, once vaguely and once with a four-part prompt, and see exactly why structure gets a better answer. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Reply Faster to a Client Asking for a Case Update: ChatGPT for Small Law Firms
Terms used here
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