Best Practices for Effective Billing Guidelines

Billing guidelines are most effective when they clearly instruct the system what to do with information, rather than simply stating what should not appear.

In practice, guidelines that use explicit, action-oriented language produce more consistent and predictable results than passive phrasing such as “do not include” or “avoid.”

What Works Best

Strong billing guidelines tend to share a few key characteristics:

• They take an explicit action (for example: remove, exclude, redact)

• They assume that certain information may already exist in the original activity

• They allow narratives to be generalized to the underlying legal task when specificity is not required

This approach helps ensure that time entry narratives remain compliant, consistent, and aligned with firm billing standards.

Common Use Cases Where Action-Oriented Language Helps

Below are two common scenarios where explicit instructions significantly improve outcomes.

Removing Internal or Firm-Facing Details

If you want to prevent internal firm activity from appearing on bills, passive language is often insufficient.

Less effective:

“Do not include internal firm discussions.”

More effective:

“Remove and exclude references to internal firm discussions, staffing decisions, internal tools, platforms, or workflow issues. If the activity description includes internal coordination or operational detail, actively redact that information and generalize the narrative to the legal work performed (for example, coordination, review, or preparation).”

This approach works because it tells the system exactly how to handle internal content if it appears, rather than assuming it will be excluded automatically.

Preventing Over-Specific or Excessively Detailed Narratives

Overly detailed narratives can create billing inconsistencies or raise compliance concerns, especially when background facts or granular context are not required.

Less effective:

“Avoid unnecessary detail.”

More effective:

“Remove excessive factual or contextual detail from narratives. If the activity includes background facts, names, dates, or granular descriptions that are not required for billing, actively condense and generalize the narrative to the core legal task performed.”

This guidance teaches simplification directly and reinforces that the goal is clarity around the legal work, not exhaustive detail.

Best Practices When Reviewing Entries

Approved entries influence future output. To reinforce your guidelines:

• Edit narratives to reflect your preferred level of detail

• Avoid approving entries that include internal operational detail or unnecessary specificity

• Focus approvals on narratives that clearly describe the legal task performed using neutral, generalized language

Consistent review and approval aligned with your guidelines will improve results over time.