Google My Business Integration
Clio formed partnership with Google that allows users to set up and manage their Google My Business account directly in Clio. This allows users to take advantage of online bookings through Google. It will also make it easier for Clio users to manage their Google reviews.
Clio for Clients App
This application lets clients track case statuses, send and receive communications, and scan and upload documents to their matter. It’s simple. Users send the client an invite text and they download the app onto their phone. The firm controls which clients and which matters it enables for Clio for Clients.
Clio Drive
Most web-based LPMS include document storage features that exist in parallel to any integrations they have with sync services (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive) or full-service document management systems (e.g., iManage or NetDocuments). Many times one must interact with the native LPMS storage downloading files, editing them, and then re-uploading them back to the LPMS. It’s clunky, inefficient, and error prone.
To combat this problem, Clio offers users Clio Drive, and app that runs on the user’s Windows or Mac computer and makes Clio’s document storage behave just like any other folder or USB flash drive in Windows’ Explorer and the Mac’s Finder. It’s convenient, beats many of Clio’s competitors, but does require a live internet connection to function.
MS Teams Integration
When setting up a Clio matter, you can choose to create a new “Team,” and thereby create a SharePoint folder and a place to collaborate with your colleagues. This is a great way for Microsoft 365 users to connect their matters to their current workflow. Unfortunately, the integration has gaps. For example, Teams chats are not saved to the Matter and there is no good way to sync the OneDrive folder Clio uses in the Documents integration with the SharePoint folder that the Teams integration creates. For now, users must rely on MS Power Automate or a Zapier Zapfor any connection.
Data Backup
A law firm should never rely solely on their LPMS provider to back up their client data. To this end, Clio makes it relatively easy to backup a firm’s data using Amazon S3’s Data Escrow feature. They even provide step-by-step instructions to get started quickly and easily. After signing up for Clio, user should absolutely set up Data Escrow. Redundancy is key with backups.
Also, although it’s not a backup, there is a Recovery Bin feature built in. This can function as a short-term “undo” option if a user accidentally deletes something and immediately wants it back.
Accounting
Clio easily handles billing, trust accounting, and basic bookkeeping. Additionally, they have recently updated their software to include better trust account management and accounts receivable aging reports. Still, users likely need a complete accounting software package like QuickBooks or Xero, both of which integrate with Clio.
Alternatively, if a practice requires complex accounting, like collections or tax, they may want to look elsewhere. Or, at least, take a hard look at the current functionality to ensure it meets anticipated needs.
Data Migration
Clio will help migrate users from existing practice management software to Clio Manage. The quality of the migration depends as much on the source (the old software) as the destination. Contact Clio’s account migration team to understand expected results from a migration.
There are certain types of data that Clio’s team will not migrate, including historical accounting and billing information and documents stored in old software. However, users can migrate their accounts receivable and upload their documents using the bulk document uploader. If a firm has lots of accounting data in an old system, it makes sense to start using Clio at the beginning of a new calendar year. This will minimize the time spent on setting up the books.
Trust Management
Clio recently introduced a way to manage trust accounts easily through its Evergreen Management update. Users can set minimum thresholds for trust balances, automate trust balance notifications, review the status of funds, and track cash flow with Clio’s Trust Management Report.
Marketing Analytics
With Campaign Tracker, users can generate unique phone numbers (routed to the firm phone number) to use with ads, create contact forms, and enter leads manually. It’s a simple solution to a common problem: figuring out where clients came from.
Who Clio Manage is For
Clio Manage is a good fit for most solo to medium-sized firms. It is versatile, user-friendly, and reasonably priced. If you’re looking for a cloud-based LPMS system, Clio should be on your short list of options to review. Moreover, its App Directory and Open API make it especially attractive for practices that want to build a complete system out of multiple “best of breed” tools working together. Generally, if something doesn’t natively integrate, you can use the API to make it work.
On the other hand, with its versatility comes some complexity. Firms who want a plug-and-play solution, may want to review something more than just Clio Manage. Further, although it has robust integrations, a firm will need to spend time getting set-up. And, with so many integrations, not all of your needed functionality will be included in Clio’s price. Additionally, most integrations charge their own monthly or annual fee, which would be in addition to Clio’s subscription cost.
Avoid for all things besides time keeping
Flawed
Clio does not even seem to understand the nature of the problem. Multiple people told us that document generation could do what we needed it to, but no one was ever able to show us how. Each demonstration ended in futility.
Good To Start With
Great to start with. Can be a pricey headache for advanced management.
Awesome Program!
Love Clio
Clio has changed my practice
Good all around practice management software
Most Important Part of My Practice
There is software and there is CLIO
Indispensable to my practice
Great for our needs!
A Reasonable Choice for Solos
It would also be nice if Clio allowed for more batch-entry items. For example, I previously used a platform that allowed you to do batch time entries to multiple client accounts. That was great for entering time at the end of the day from notes, etc.
It would also be nice if Clio gave transactional attorneys more choices in structure. I would prefer to be client-based than matter-based. But overall — I can work with it.
I’ve also found Clio support to be very responsive.
Great/Intuitive General Practice Management Software
Some billing features are cumbersome and geared toward larger firms with more stringent formatting and hourly or trial basis requirements.
Great practice management software
Generating template documents in Clio is awesome, really quick and easy and a huge time saver. However, with the change to Clio Apollo the syncing with Microsoft One-Drive was severed and has been repaired and broken dozens of times. Support just responds someone is looking at the issue but we have no ETA on a resolution. This has been going on for six months and counting so my absolute love and adoration of Clio has been highly tarnished. If I did not absolutely love and adore the rest of the program I would have moved on months ago.
I do love the matter dashboard showing contacts, financials, matter details and it has its own feed tracking all actions such as calendar entries, notes uploaded, time entered and everything else on one page.
I like the reports, very easy to use and set up to be very intuitive to run.
I have found billing to be quick and easy but I don’t use any integrations so maybe the other review with billing issues has an integration that has slowed down, but works great for us and we are a seven figure law firm with over a dozen billing units.
Time entry is easy with several ways to enter time and the ability to quickly get a time entry box no matter what page you are on in Clio is great.
Calendar is good but has some areas that could be improved. The entries are very sensitive and if you hover over an entry too long it will stick to your mouse and be moved accidently. it would also be nice if you could make a one-time change to a series of calendar entries, such as our weekly management meeting – when someone is gone and the meeting is cancelled I would love to be able to delete just that week without deleting the entire series but unfortunately that is not a feature they have yet though I am told both calendar issues are being addressed and changes should be rolled out sometime this year along with some other functionality improvements.
It's getting there.
The Office 365 Plug-In is a welcome addition, but needs to be more fully featured. Click-to-File is still superior by a decent margin.
The mobile app is pretty crashy if you’re a firm with many people or a firm with a long history of files. Nearly useless for a 13 attorney firm with a few thousand open matters (including a partner who uses it for debt collection).
Speaking of debt collection, there is just absolutely no good way to track debt collection practice in Clio. They pretty well led us to believe that there was a good way to work this, but there isn’t.
But time entry is good and it works. The up-time is very good. Very few outages in our experience.
Great software
Clio- not perfect, but I like it
The only law practice management *platform*
What does that mean?
The fantastic team at Clio made a critically important decision early on. Their product does not try to be all things to all lawyers. Instead of doing a million things – and invariably doing them only okay – Clio sticks to a core set of features, and does them very well. Then, rather than doing peripheral features within the application, Clio offers an open API. This allows any other application to “plug in” to Clio. So if you are a bankruptcy or immigration attorney, there are apps available to re-tool Clio for your specific practice needs. That brilliant approach means that Clio can focus on doing a best-in-class job at it’s core features, while letting users eat their cake too by strapping on additional applications.
The New Clio, rolled our earlier this year, is phenomenally fast. I fully agree with my friend, Jordan (his review is above) that Clio’s support is outstanding. Any lawyer who uses Clio’s support as an excuse for (e.g.) not being able to generate bills is just masking his/her own incompetence. This application is so easy to use that it’s hard to imagine how you could screw it up.
Highly recommended.
New Clio is Deeply Flawed
A great product and an even better team behind it
No matter how you bill, what types of legal problems solve, or what types of clients you serve, Clio can be used to fit your workflow. And if you can’t do it with Clio, there’s probably an ad on that will sync to Clio. Probably the best thing about Clio is that they have opened up their program so that other tech experts can build tools that sync with Clio (like accounting and time tracking software). This has enabled our office to automate a wide variety of tasks including calendaring, task assignment, and document creation. And it really speaks to the core value of Clio that makes it so remarkable. Clio is here to serve their customers. They seek out customers to observe and learn how their product can be improved, then they take those lessons and implement them as quickly as they can. If you have any doubts about how responsive their team is tweet a question to @goclio and see how quickly you get a response.
In short, my clients love Clio, and I wouldn’t be able to practice at the level I do or with the enjoyment I do without Clio.