Plani

Plani is a text-message billing assistant for attorneys, built by HonKao Enterprises. Attorneys text their billable time as they work. Plani sorts every hour by client into CPCS and CJA categories, and can enter it into CPCS eBill for review.

It runs entirely over text message. There is no app to download and no timer to start and stop. Attorneys opt in by texting JOIN, set up a client roster once, and then text as they go.

What an attorney texts

Entries are written the way people talk, between calls or walking out of court:

Plani parses the duration, the client name, and the work, and fills in the start and end times so they are never missing. Each entry is confirmed back to the attorney.

Client matching

The attorney names their clients once. After that Plani matches the shorthand in each text against that roster. It matches "smyth" to Marcus Smith. When an entry is ambiguous, Plani does not guess. It flags the entry into a NEEDS REVIEW section and never silently picks the wrong client.

Reminders and the weekly summary

Plani sends reminders about time that has not been logged. Every Sunday morning the attorney gets the week's work grouped by client in a spreadsheet, sorted into the CPCS and CJA billing categories, with every receipt photo or screenshot they texted in attached.

The four texts above come back looking like this:

CPCS eBill entry

Plani can also put the time into CPCS eBill for the attorney. Connect eBill once and Plani logs in like a bookkeeper you hired, enters the time in the right categories, and stages every entry. The attorney reviews it and hits submit. Plani never submits on their behalf.

Beyond billing

Calendar

Drop court dates, client meetings, and deadlines on the calendar by text. Plani figures out the date, time, and who needs to know.

Reminders

Filing deadlines, callbacks, court appearances. Plani pings the attorney the morning of, the night before, or whenever they want.

Notes between meetings

Capture a passing thought ("follow up with Smith on discovery") and Plani surfaces it when it matters.

Who uses it

Plani's primary users are Massachusetts bar advocates, the court-appointed attorneys who bill through CPCS and CJA. It is used by members of these associations:

What attorneys say

The first time Plani synced Victoria Kelleher's CPCS billing, it found six hours she had worked and never billed.

"Plani has dramatically lightened my load. Not just time-wise, it's relieved me of the stress of billing."

Victoria Kelleher, criminal defense attorney, 30 years

"I just used Plani to do my June billing and it cut down my billing time by an entire workday."

Reyna M. Ramirez, Massachusetts Attorney

"I've been inspired to actually do my billing!"

Angela L., Massachusetts Attorney

Get started

Setup takes about two minutes. You can also try Plani at meetplani.com.