What gets charged and what does not
A client pays for time you spend on their matter. Not for every moment you are at your desk. The chargeable unit in US law firms, consultancies, and freelance practices is a fraction of an hour.
The standard fraction in the United States legal profession is 0.1 hour, which equals 6 minutes. A lawyer who works for 6 minutes on a task records 0.10 hours. A consultant who works for 18 minutes records 0.30 hours. The system converts time spent into a decimal number that multiplies cleanly against an hourly rate.
How does the 6-minute block actually work?
One hour is 60 minutes. Divide 60 by 10 and you get 6. So 0.1 of an hour is 6 minutes. 0.2 is 12 minutes. 0.5 is 30 minutes. The system exists because adding up fractions of an hour in base-60 and then multiplying by a rate in base-10 is awkward. Decimal hours fix that.
Lawyers and consultants charge in 0.1h (6-minute) blocks, the standard in the US legal profession. A 6-minute phone call is the minimum chargeable unit. A 4-minute call is still charged as 0.1 hour. A 14-minute task is charged as 0.3 hour (18 minutes), because you round up to the next full block.
How do I convert minutes for my timesheet?
Here is the conversion every billable worker needs. These are the exact decimal equivalents from the standard conversion table:
| Minutes | Decimal Hours | Common Task Example |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | No time recorded |
| 5 | 0.08 | Quick email reply |
| 10 | 0.17 | Short client call |
| 15 | 0.25 | Reviewing a contract clause |
| 20 | 0.33 | Drafting a short letter |
| 25 | 0.42 | Half a focused work session |
| 30 | 0.50 | Standard meeting slot |
| 35 | 0.58 | Extended consultation |
| 40 | 0.67 | Document review |
| 45 | 0.75 | Deposition or interview |
| 50 | 0.83 | Report writing |
| 55 | 0.92 | Almost a full hour |
The exact mathematical conversion divides minutes by 60. 7 minutes is exactly 7/60, or 0.1167 of an hour. 13 minutes is exactly 13/60, or 0.2167. Most timekeeping systems round to two decimal places, so 7 minutes becomes 0.12 hours, and 13 minutes becomes 0.22 hours. But the 0.1-hour block rule overrides that: you round up to the next 0.1. 7 minutes becomes 0.2 hours. 13 minutes becomes 0.3 hours.
The 0.1-hour minimum trap
If you work 6 minutes, you record 0.1. If you work 7 minutes, you still record 0.2 because you crossed into the next block. This is where freelancers lose money or lawyers lose credibility.
What to do: group small tasks. Do not charge 0.1 hour for a 2-minute email. Wait until you have 6 minutes of work on that client, then record it as one entry. Most timekeeping software lets you batch same-client work into one line.
What to skip: charging 0.1 for every single task. A client who sees ten 0.1-hour entries for ten 1-minute emails will question the bill. Grouping protects your credibility.
Tracking chargeable vs non-chargeable time
Non-chargeable time is everything you do that you cannot pass to a client: internal meetings, training, marketing, accounting, reading industry news, fixing your own mistakes. Tracking both matters because your chargeable hours tell you your revenue, but your total hours tell you your utilization rate.
A healthy utilization rate for a law firm associate is around 75 to 80 percent. That means out of an 8-hour day, 6 to 6.4 hours are chargeable. The rest is non-chargeable. If you track only chargeable time, you have no idea why your day feels full but your timesheet looks empty.
Use a duration calculator to sum your daily entries. Enter the start and end times for each task, subtract breaks, and see your total. The /duration tool can add up multiple entries and convert the total to decimal hours for timesheets.
Which professions use which block sizes?
Not everyone uses 0.1 hour. Here are the common standards:
- Lawyers (US): 0.1 hour (6 minutes). Standard across nearly all firms.
- Consultants: often 0.25 hour (15 minutes). Some use 0.1 hour.
- Freelancers (design, writing, dev): vary widely. 0.25 hour is common. Some use 0.5 hour (30 minutes) as the minimum.
- Architects: often 0.25 hour.
- Therapists and coaches: typically 1 hour or 0.5 hour sessions, not block-based charging.
- Project managers: may track in 0.25-hour blocks for internal budgeting but charge in 0.1-hour blocks to clients.
If you are a freelancer starting out, use the same block size as your client's industry. A lawyer hiring you for a legal document will expect 0.1-hour blocks. A startup hiring you for a logo design may expect 0.25-hour blocks.
How do I add up a timesheet without arithmetic errors?
A timesheet is just a list of durations. You start with a clock-in and a clock-out, or you record a duration directly. The conversion from clock time to decimal hours is where most errors happen.
Say you worked from 9:15 AM to 11:42 AM on a document. That is 2 hours and 27 minutes. In decimal hours, 27 minutes is 0.45 hours. So the total is 2.45 hours. But your charging block is 0.1 hour, so you round to 2.5 hours.
A /faq/minutes-to-decimal-hours calculator does this in one step: enter 2 hours 27 minutes, get 2.45 decimal hours. Then apply your rounding rule.
Project managers and freelancers tracking across multiple clients should use a tool that sums by client. If you work for Client A from 9:00 to 10:30, Client B from 10:45 to 12:00, and Client A again from 13:00 to 14:15, your total for Client A is 2 hours 45 minutes (2.75 decimal hours) and for Client B is 1 hour 15 minutes (1.25 decimal hours). A duration calculator that supports multiple entries saves you from adding them by hand.
Ethics and accuracy in time recording
Charging is a matter of trust. Inflating time is fraud. Understating time is self-harm. The ethical standard is to record the actual time spent, then apply the charging block.
Three rules:
- Record immediately, not hours later. Memory is unreliable. A 5-minute task remembered 6 hours later becomes a guess. Use a timer or a notebook.
- Do not round both directions. If you round up for invoicing, you must record actual minutes internally. Do not round down your internal log to make the numbers look cleaner. The internal log is your evidence if a client disputes an invoice.
- Do not charge for learning time. If you are learning a new skill that makes you slower, you eat that time. Charge only the time a reasonable professional would take. This is standard in law and consulting.
A common ethical question: "Can I charge 0.1 hour for a 3-minute task?" Yes, if that is your minimum block. But if you do it repeatedly for the same client, you are effectively charging for 6 minutes of work when you did 3. That is permitted but not good practice. Grouping small tasks solves this.
What should I keep pinned to my desk for billable tracking?
Keep this by your desk or pinned to your browser:
- [ ] Know your minimum charging block (0.1h, 0.25h, or other)
- [ ] Convert minutes to decimal hours: minutes ÷ 60
- [ ] Round up to the next full block for each entry
- [ ] Group small tasks for the same client into one entry
- [ ] Record time when you do the work, not later
- [ ] Track non-chargeable time separately
- [ ] Use a duration calculator to sum daily totals
- [ ] Keep an internal log of actual minutes for dispute resolution
- [ ] Never charge for learning time or rework due to your own error
The system is simple. Six minutes is 0.1 hour. Fifteen minutes is 0.25 hour. Thirty minutes is 0.5 hour. Know the conversion, group your tasks, and record honestly.