Counts needing time with friends (7)
I believe the answer is:
tallies
'counts' is the definition.
(tallying is a kind of counting)
'time with friends' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'friends' becomes 'allies' ('ally' can be a synonym of 'friend').
't'+'allies'='TALLIES'
'needing' is the link.
(Other definitions for tallies that I've seen before include "Sums up" , "Records" , "Matches, corresponds" , "Agrees; scores" , "Counts, of votes say" .)