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What Should a Firm Review Before an iTimekeep Contract Renews?
An iTimekeep renewal auto-extends without notice. Review the deadline, usage data, capture fit, and export rights before it locks in for another year.
Julia Bodet
Growth
AI Summary
Map usage across iTimekeep, Expert Time, and other entry methods to determine whether the firm is supporting intentional flexibility or an unfinished migration.
Calculate total timekeeping cost across licenses, integrations, internal support, administrative work, and revenue impact.
Assess whether one platform can support the firm’s different roles, practice groups, devices, and capture preferences.
Plan consolidation 12 to 24 months ahead, using the current renewal to preserve flexibility, run a representative pilot, and define the firm’s long-term timekeeping standard.
What an iTimekeep Renewal Review Covers
In practice, renewal problems tend to cluster around a handful of issues: unused licenses, uneven adoption, training that did not stick, user-by-user configuration that is difficult to manage, integration problems that create confusion about where the fault lies, and unresolved issues that make attorneys reluctant to use the system.
For example, a firm may have iTimekeep alongside Expert Time because different groups adopted different tools. iTimekeep expanded access through mobile entry, voice dictation, Outlook, timers, and, more recently, automated activity capture. Expert Time may remain embedded with long-standing users. The result can be overlapping licenses, inconsistent processes, separate support requirements, and no firmwide standard.
The renewal review should answer five questions:
How many timekeeping tools and workflows does the firm currently support?
What does each workflow cost to license, administer, train, and maintain?
Which users still depend on Expert Time, iTimekeep, or another entry method?
Can one platform meet the requirements of every major user group?
Does the firm have enough time to consolidate without disrupting billing?
These answers determine whether the firm should renew, renegotiate, consolidate within Aderant, or begin moving to another platform.
The iTimekeep Renewal Review
1. Map the Firm’s Current Timekeeping Environment
Start with the full operating model rather than iTimekeep usage alone.
Document:
Every time-entry product currently in use
The number of licensed and active users in each product
Which offices, practice groups, and roles use each workflow
Which attorneys use timers, mobile entry, manual entry, assistants, or passive capture
Where entries are reviewed, corrected, approved, and released
Which integrations and configurations support each product
How much internal support each workflow requires
Usage by entry method matters. Low iTimekeep activity may reflect continued use of Expert Time rather than weak timekeeping overall. Low activity across both systems points to a broader adoption or process problem.
This analysis should reveal whether the firm is paying for intentional flexibility or carrying an unfinished migration.
2. Calculate the Cost of Supporting the Timekeeping Tool
Evaluate iTimekeep as part of the firm’s total timekeeping cost. Seat price is only one component.
Direct costs
iTimekeep licenses
Expert Time or other timekeeping licenses
Premium features and integrations
Vendor support and professional services
Internal infrastructure and maintenance
Operating costs
IT time supporting multiple products
Finance time resolving inconsistent entries
Training for separate workflows
User-by-user configuration
Integration monitoring and troubleshooting
Manual work performed by assistants
Duplicate reporting and administration
Revenue impact
Time entered closer to when the work occurred
Entries approved without rewriting
Fewer billing-rule violations
Faster release of time into billing
The central calculation is:
Net value = revenue gained or protected + administrative savings − total cost of ownership
Run that calculation for the current environment and each realistic alternative. A useful benchmark is the click path required to create a usable time entry. Some AI-native solutions optimize the existing timekeeping process; others can eliminate substantial portions of the process altogether. PointOne falls into the latter category by addressing the underlying timekeeping workflow rather than simply assisting with manual entry. The renewal analysis should therefore consider not only whether the current product is worth its price, but whether a fundamentally different solution could deliver greater revenue impact, higher realization, and lower administrative burden at a comparable or lower total cost.
3. Decide Whether One Tool Can Serve the Whole Firm
A single timekeeping platform reduces support, training, integration, and reporting complexity. The challenge is finding a workflow that attorneys will use across roles, practice groups, offices, and devices.
iTimekeep's core mechanism is timer-based and mobile time entry, including voice dictation. Attorneys start a timer, work, and stop it, or dictate an entry from a phone between meetings. In 2023, Aderant added a passive AI assistant that tracks background activity like meetings and emails.
The review question is whether that mix matches how the firm's attorneys actually work today. Litigators who move between courtrooms may lean on the mobile app and voice dictation. Transactional attorneys at a desk all day may already be candidates for passive, continuous capture instead of a timer they have to remember to start.
4. Build the Consolidation Plan
A firmwide timekeeping change can take 12 to 24 months to evaluate and execute. Large firms need time to align IT, finance, billing, legal operations, information security, procurement, practice leadership, assistants, and attorneys.
Lead time | Priority |
|---|---|
18–24 months | Define the target operating model and identify every existing workflow |
12–18 months | Evaluate vendors, confirm integrations, and complete security review |
9–12 months | Run a pilot across representative offices, roles, and practice groups |
6–9 months | Select the platform, negotiate terms, and plan data migration |
3–6 months | Configure integrations and billing rules; prepare training and support |
0–3 months | Roll out in phases, monitor adoption, and retire the previous workflow |
Decide: Renew, Renegotiate, or Run a Pilot
Renew the current structure when both iTimekeep and Expert Time serve defined user groups, adoption is strong, and the value of supporting separate workflows exceeds the cost.
Consolidate within Aderant when one product can support the firm’s major use cases and the transition materially reduces licensing, support, or administrative work.
Renegotiate when the firm needs a shorter term, fewer licenses, stronger service commitments, or more time to complete its evaluation.
Pilot an alternative when the firm needs better capture, broader workflow coverage, less manual correction, or a clearer path to one firmwide platform. Run the pilot during the existing term so the next renewal decision is based on the firm’s own users and matters.
FAQs about iTimekeep Renewal
What Happens If a Firm Misses the iTimekeep Renewal Notice Deadline?
The answer depends on the firm's contract. An evergreen provision may automatically extend the agreement for another term if the required notice is not provided on time. Review the actual agreement rather than assuming a standard notice period. The firm should work backward from that deadline and set an internal decision date early enough to allow for negotiation and approval.
Can a firm reduce its iTimekeep licenses at renewal?
That depends on the firm's contract and renewal terms. The firm should specifically ask whether inactive seats can be removed, reassigned, or credited rather than assuming that a lower seat count will automatically be permitted. This is one of the most important questions when a firm has materially fewer active users than licensed users.
Can a Firm Get Its Time Entry Data Out Before an iTimekeep Contract Ends?
Do not assume that access to the firm's data means the firm has a guaranteed, migration-ready export. Publicly available iTimekeep and Aderant policies do not clearly establish a contractual right to export all time-entry data before the end of the subscription, nor do they specify the export format, fields, timing, or whether Aderant provides migration assistance or charges fees for doing so. Those details should therefore be confirmed in the firm's iTimekeep agreement and with Aderant before renewal.
What is the biggest mistake a firm can make before renewal?
Treating renewal as a pricing exercise. A lower price does not solve unused licenses, poor adoption, unresolved integration problems, inconsistent configuration, or attorneys who do not trust the workflow. Conversely, a firm should not abandon a useful system solely because adoption is low if the underlying problem is fixable through better onboarding or configuration. The strongest renewal decision starts with the firm's actual experience: who uses the system, who does not, why they do not, what still does not work, and whether the contract gives the firm enough flexibility to match its commitment to reality.