Start with one entry
You do not set up a client roster first. Text a client's name and Plani adds them on the fly, then walks you through the rest.
You: tom robinson
Plani: got tom robinson — what's the work? (like "30min call" or "2hrs motion drafting")
You: met with him in jail
Plani: how long was the visit?
You: from 11:15 to 12:45
Plani: logged — Tom Robinson: 90min jail visit.
Two things happen on their own. Plani assumes the time is contemporaneous unless you say otherwise (see why that matters), and the first time you mention a client it asks one setup question, state or federal and trial or appeal, so it can put your time in the right billing category. It remembers the answer and stops asking.
Or say it in one sentence
If you already know the client, the work, and the time, put it all in one line.
You: prepared 30 minutes for motion to suppress for Robinson
Plani: logged — Tom Robinson: 30min prep for motion to suppress, Prep-Hrg/Trial.
Give it the whole day at once
End of the day, dump everything into one text. Plani splits it into separate entries, each with its own client, category, and time.
You: July 1, 2026 Ma Tr Court Robert Williams motion hearing 3.6 hours, 2 hours round trip travel, Tom Brady phone .3, Tom Brady investigation 1 hour, trial prep 2.5 hours
Hours or minutes, decimals or plain English, it reads them all.
Let it run a timer
Starting something now? Have Plani time it. Text it when you start and when you stop, and it logs the exact length.
You: start timer for smith
Plani: got it, timer's running for Barry Smith — text me when you're done.
You: stop smith
Plani: logged — Barry Smith: 3min, Prep-Hrg/Trial.
Add something you forgot
Forgot to log yesterday, or three days ago? Just say when. Plani dates the entry to the day the work happened, not the day you texted.
You: brady five minutes email DYS regarding family Zoom yesterday
Plani: logged — Tom Brady: 5min email DYS re: family Zoom (yesterday), Investigation.
Use any language
Text Plani in whatever language you think in. It logs in English so your bill stays clean.
You: Trabajé en el caso Brady el 2 de julio de 10:00 a 11:15 a.m., investigando y revisando notas.
Plani: logged — Tom Brady: 75min investigating and reviewing notes (jul 2), Investigation.
Send a voice note or a photo
Walking to your car after a hearing? Send a voice memo instead of typing. Have a page of handwritten time? Take a picture and text it. Plani reads both and logs the time the same way.
It watches the caps for you
CPCS caps most days at 10 billable hours, 12 on an actual trial day. As you get close, Plani tells you before the time bills, so a day over the cap does not get filed and bounced.
Plani: heads up though — that day totals 10.5h of MA CPCS time, over the 10-hour cap. unless july 1 was an actual trial day (12h cap), that one may need a per-date waiver before it bills. want me to flag it for a waiver?
More on that in the hour caps and waivers guide.
Pick whichever is easiest
There is no wrong format. One line or a paragraph, minutes or hours, typed or spoken, today or last week, English or not. Tell Plani what you did and it does the filing.