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Time is money: e-learning helps solicitors and accountants improve time recording

A new e-learning course has been launched that aims to help solicitors, accountants, advertising agencies and other service providers increase their billings and profits through improved time recording by staff.

The e-learning course is the result of a partnership between chartered accountants MacIntyre Hudson and Wide Learning, part of the Fuel Group.

Robert Mowbray, the partner at MacIntyre Hudson who has been advising leading law firms for over 20 years and providing instructor led training (ILT) on time recording, said: "Most professional firms are substantially under-billing for their work because their staff do not record their time accurately. Most firms do not apply a detailed and practical policy so time recording among staff is inconsistent, incomplete, late and the narratives on their recording are poor.

"The potential return on investment in the course makes it highly valuable. For professional firms the average profit level as a percentage of fee income is 25%. If time recording can be increased by 10%, then this will lead to fee increases of 10% and an increase in profits of 40%.

"How? Say a solicitor bills £100k a year and makes £25k profit. By increasing time recording by 10%, he can add 10% extra fees with no additional work or cost, so this is pure profit. Adding the extra £10k profit to the existing £25k results in total profits of £35k - an increase of 40%.

"As well as the profit opportunities, the e-learning course offers many benefits to clients and us. It means that the training is readily available whenever required for the induction of staff from other firms as well as trainees, for refresher training, and for staff to use as a reference. It is very flexible, and can easily be customised and branded. Although it will not replace ILT entirely, it will also allow us to be more efficient in supplying more firms.

"The course created by Wide Learning is excellent - very easy to use, intuitive and interactive."

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