Billing is the worst part of the job. So we took it.

Plani is a text-message billing assistant for solo and small-firm attorneys. You text your time as you work. Plani categorizes it, keeps the running record, and files it into CPCS eBill for you to review.

Why it exists

Adam Honig built Plani. For years he did the CPCS eBill data entry and private-client invoicing for his wife, a Boston bar advocate. That is where both the billing headache and this product came from.

The pattern was always the same. The work got done, the time got remembered vaguely, and weeks later someone sat down with a calendar and a coffee and tried to reconstruct it. Hours got lost that way. Not dramatically, just quietly, a tenth at a time, until a month of real work billed like three weeks.

The fix is not better software for sitting down at the end of the month. It is not sitting down at the end of the month. Text the time when the call ends, while you still remember what it was about, and let something else carry it the rest of the way.

What Plani actually does

• Takes your time by text message. No app, no login, no timer to remember to stop.
• Sorts each entry into the right CPCS billing category and flags the ones it is unsure about.
• Rounds to the nearest tenth per day, the way the Assigned Counsel Manual requires.
• Files the hours into your CPCS eBill account so the grid is filled in when you get there.
• Emails you a weekly spreadsheet of everything it logged.
• Warns you as you approach the ten-hour daily cap.

What Plani does not do

Plani never clicks Submit. It fills in the grid; you review it and submit it yourself. Your name is on the bill, so the last look is yours. It also is not a system of record. Keep your own copy of anything you need to rely on.

Who is behind it

Plani is built by HonKao Enterprises. It is a small operation, which mostly means that when you text with a problem, it reaches someone who can fix it that day.

Try it

Try Plani

Takes about two minutes to set up. No app to install. iPhone or Android.