Law firm realization rate calculator.
Enter recorded and invoiced hours to see your realization rate, how it compares with published law firm averages, and what write-downs and unpaid invoices cost each year.
Your firm
Example numbers to start. Use averages per lawyer for a typical week.
Hours invoiced are recorded hours that made it onto a bill after write-downs and discounts. Your billing report usually shows both numbers.
Realization rate
86.7%
- Average realization, 2025
- 88.0%
- Your collection rate
- 92.0%
- Average collection, 2025
- 93.0%
- Recorded time that becomes cash
- 79.7%
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is saved.
How the numbers work.
Realization is hours invoiced divided by billable hours recorded. Collection is the share of invoiced work that gets paid. The written-off figure is the recorded hours that never reached an invoice, and the uncollected figure is invoiced work that wasn’t paid, both valued at your average hourly rate across lawyers and working weeks.
The benchmarks come from Clio’s 2025 Legal Trends Report, which puts the average law firm at 38% utilization, 88% realization and 93% collection. On an eight-hour day, that is 3.0 hours recorded, 2.6 invoiced and 2.4 collected. Treat them as a reference point: practice area and billing model move all three.
Write-downs often start with how time is captured. When time is entered at the end of the week from memory, entries are vague and partners cut them. Capturing time against the matter as the work happens, in the same system that builds the invoice, is the fix we see work most often. See law firm intake to billing in one system, software for law firms or add up what your current tools cost.
Using the calculator.
How do you calculate realization rate?
Divide the hours invoiced by the billable hours recorded. A lawyer who records 30 billable hours in a week and bills 26 of them after write-downs and discounts has a realization rate of about 87%. Some firms measure in dollars instead: billed value divided by recorded value at standard rates. Use the same method every time.
What is a good realization rate for a law firm?
Clio’s 2025 Legal Trends Report puts the average at 88%, with an average collection rate of 93%. Being below the average isn’t automatically a problem, since fixed-fee and contingency work change the picture, but a falling rate is worth investigating.
What’s the difference between realization and collection?
Realization is the share of recorded billable work that gets invoiced. Collection is the share of invoiced work that clients actually pay. Multiply the two to see how much recorded time turns into cash.
Why is our realization rate low?
The usual causes are time recorded days after the work (so entries are vague and get cut), work outside the agreed scope, fixed fees that run over, and partners discounting bills to protect the relationship. Your billing data shows which matters and timekeepers the write-downs come from.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No. The calculator runs in your browser and nothing you type is saved or sent.
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