Clio Reviews

Pros

The Clio platform is not intended to be a closed, proprietary system. Instead, it forms the foundation for the day to day management of leads, clients, time, documents, and billing, supplemented by almost 200 third party integrations, with new offerings coming on line each month. Clio offers unlimited cloud storage and IOS/Android apps making all of your firm information, clients, and documents available 24/7. Clio continues to innovate and as the leading provider to small/medium law firms throughout the world, I don't worry about whether they will be in business a few years from now. Finally, all, yes all, of your data saved in Clio is easily exportable should you decide to change to a different vendor.

Cons

Clio's growth means that feature changes must be more fully vetted as they are used by more than 150,000 legal professionals. As they broaden their perspective to encompass larger firms, the pace of change may continue to be more deliberate. The movement and management of files without a third party integration, such as FasterLaw, is cumbersome. Clio's own integrations with Office365 for emails and calendaring remain a work in progress.

Alternatives Considered

CosmoLex and Rocket Matter

Reasons for Choosing Clio

At the time I decided to look at alternatives, in 2017, the product was getting worse, not better.

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Largest user base and least likely to get assimilated or go out of business, forcing another vendor change.

Pros

Integration of payment, invoicing and CRM

I used to love the customer service but now....NO

Cons

Difficult to customize. Customer Service has gone from knowledgeable Canadian staff to foreign people not familiar with the program. You are often on your own to try to resolve questions - or make multiple queries.

Pros

Clio has the features I needed. I was fooled by the initial trial into thinking it would be a good fit for my firm. What use is a feature that is so complicated to find, use, and enable that I have to call support or Google how to make it work.

Cons

Nothing is intuitive, at first it seems like everything is going to work. Clio has all the features I wanted, or at least it seemed like it did. Once I used it for more than just the trial period, using it to manage my trust account, client billing, client communication, it just does not work. After using it for any length of time, the navigation gets tiresome and then frustrating. At every turn I find myself having to Google how to make it work. Sharing a document with a client requires several steps including typing in the client's contact info; instead of just clicking a button for share. Now my client can't enter a partial payment. What the heck? Prior to becoming an attorney I was a software engineer; I would have been embarrassed to put my name on such a product.

Frankly, I don't trust the myriad of positive reviews for this product, they can't be true.

Pros

Provides online access and accessibility.

Cons

Reports and tracking are not always helpful.

Pros

Having my client information, cases, documents, templates and invoicing under one system is a dream come true.

Cons

I wish Clio had more in-house created integrations with apps versus using services like Zapier to make the connections and send data from apps or services to Clio. Zapier can be very clumsy and if something gets updated in Clio's software you sometimes have to rebuild the Zapier.

Alternatives Considered

CaseFox

Reasons for Choosing Clio

It all started with Keap not being able to send text messages anymore. That got me looking at other services. I had watched several videos on Clio a few years back but decided to go the cheaper route with another case management service which ended up not having near as many options inside the system. Clio was the perfect answer to having everything under one roof.

Switched From

Keap

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Clio has more features and better support.

Pros

It’s easy to use and covers everything I need it to do. From letter/document creation to billing and invoices. Everything is centralised in one place for accurate record and ease of access.

Cons

It’s very time intensive to set up all the features in the manner you need the system to function to align with your business and there’s not really a guided process for this which would be helpful as some of the set up features can be tricky. It would be helpful to be assigned someone when you first sign up and for them to help you actually set things up the way you need them to be. I also can’t link my emails to Clio as my email:outlook was purchased through a third part (Go Daddy) but I was not aware this was going to be a problem so it would have been helpful if that that was clarified from the outset when I first spoke to Clio so I would have known.

Alternatives Considered

Actionstep

Reasons for Choosing Clio

LEAP had terrible customer service and although I had used them previously when I was employed, using them now as a firm manager, the customer relations and care was horrendous. Once they have you signed up they couldn’t care less about you and it was a nightmare dealing with them.

Switched From

LEAP

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Clio was practicle, affordable and comprehensive. It has everything I need for my firm currently as a start up business as has the ability to grow as my business grows with all the in built features.

Pros

We love the invoicing the most - we are sure we have re-captured getting paid for many files we used to not be able to track and get paid for. Now we can send an invoice online and get paid online too. Making a bill is quick and easy, and our staff even thinks fun!

Cons

We were considering moving our document storage to Clio, but we couldn't preset files with our folder organization system and it seemed more difficult to attach files to emails, so we didn't end up doing this. Also, when sending an email from Clio, I would prefer that it auto-saves it to the Clio file.

Alternatives Considered

MyCase

Reasons for Choosing Clio

Amicus was "clunky" - it was not cloud based, didn't connect with our cell phones (so we couldn't see our calendar), and document management and billing was not easy.

Switched From

Amicus Attorney

Reasons for Switching to Clio

The look of the software was very clean and we loved the ability to code different types of events on our calendar by color, that is how we organize our files. It was intuitive and easy to use, while not offering an overwhelming number of services we didn't need.

Pros

I came to Clio because Thomson Reuters discontinued its Firm Central case-management product, and I needed a replacement. Clio has all the functionality that Firm Central did, but in a more logical, easier to use interface. I found that, with minimal instruction, I was able to get up and running. The Clio onboarding process was very effective.

Cons

Clio was designated by Thomson Reuters as its preferred partner to replace Firm Central. In that role, I would have expected the Clio team to have been a little more up-to-speed on the best way to migrate from Firm Central to Clio. Clio's team does migrate your data, and that went very smoothly. But "data" doesn't include documents, which is the bulk of what we were storing in Firm Central. Clio has no advice on how to move those documents. They simply recommended three third-party vendors. I contacted the one that advertises that it specializes in migration to Clio. It was going to charge me $3,000 to upload my files into Clio. But I'd still have to figure out how to get them out of Firm Central, which was my major challenge. Once I had them downloaded, Clio makes it easy to upload. At any rate, Firm Central's instructions were helpful, and the process went fairly smoothly.

Pros

It is user-friendly and helps me manage all the essential aspects of my law practice such as time tracking, billing, invoicing and file management. As a sole practitioner, Clio has been invaluable in saving me time on administrative tasks and allowing me to focus more on growing my practice.

Cons

There is nothing that I didn’t like, all the components have made my life easier!

Alternatives Considered

PracticePanther Legal Software

Reasons for Choosing Clio

ESILAW 360 is not user-friendly and they provide minimal customer support.

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Clio had a great customer support team that helped with on boarding and answered all of my questions and concerns.

Pros

Clio is intuitive and easy to use. I also love that the team is forward-thinking and always deploying new features that enhance productivity. As a solo practitioner, Clio grow is exceptional and a tool everyone should be using. I can manage my leads with very little overhead. Additionally, Clio support always goes above and beyond

Cons

Initially, I did not understand why Clio Grow and Clio Manage were separate products. However, the integration between the two is seamless, and I have grown to love the distinct nature of the two products.

Alternatives Considered

MyCase

Reasons for Switching to Clio

The demo for Clio was much more thorough and at the time, Clio's functionality seemed above and beyond

Pros

Initially it was a better system overall than the systems we were trying to make fit our needs (Timeslips and Sharepoint). Subsequently, the updates that are implemented by the development team when there is an obvious need or lack identified.

Cons

I did not like that the billing of outstanding balances was not automated during billing runs to capture all outstanding balances so anyone who does not have a current bill still gets a bill when I do not enter a start time as a filter option. I also do not like that I have to clean up so much on the Quickbooks Online end of a Retainer transfer, especially after a billing run when its many clients at once, it creates a lot of work in the Retainer in Trust register in QBO.

Alternatives Considered

AbacusLaw

Reasons for Choosing Clio

In Timesplips we were having trouble with transfers and keeping track of the data that was not integrating into Quickbooks Desktop smoothly. We also wanted to switch to QBO but they do not integrate. There were system failures that created "broken AR's". The customer service was never immediate, I've spent many hours on hold or on the phone with someone who did not seem to care. It seemed like there was always something that would come up and the customer support was so bad that I would rather try to fix the problem myself or ignore the problem(unless it was timely) until I couldn't anymore. We only started using Sharepoint because Timeslips did not have an office management aspect of the software and it was not economical nor easy to set up, we ended up spending more money on a Sharepoint technician than a year subscription to Clio.

Switched From

Sage Timeslips

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Price difference I believe, but I honestly don't remember if there were other reasons as well.

Pros

As a solo practicing attorney for almost a quarter century, tracking time, preparing and sending out bills has been my least favorite activity, and the place where I have lost revenue and had upset clients. My experience is that clients don't appreciate it when bills are sent timely or when they receive billing after six to twelve months of work - they really prefer regular billing.

Clio has revolutionized the billing and collection part of my solo practice environment. Now that I have learned how to create clients and matters and to input time, it is a simple once a month task to create professional monthly client bills which I can print and snail mail, email, or send with the LawPay connection and the client can "click through" the email bill to pay with credit card.

Cons

I cannot figure out how to set up or use the form template function. When I have tried it does not really work and I have stopped trying to use this. I would very much like to create some form engagement letters.

My work is mainly transaction, not so much litigation. At first it was difficult to figure out how to prepare a nice looking flat-fee for a project type bill. However, with the updates I have been able to customize bills to have both hourly fee bills and flat-fee bills.

Pros

Time entries can be imported by batch. Trust Requests and Bills can be emailed w/payment link directly from Clio. Past Due Bills can be "shared" with a coupled clicks versus printing out and mailing or using another app to email it.

Cons

1. When looking at a past due bill (and additional bills have been issued and remain unpaid for that same matter) the Outstanding Balance on the Statement of Account section will update and include the balance due for that matter as of the current date + any open Trust Replenishment requests instead of the balance due for that invoice + the balance due of all invoices issued previously to that one.
2. Evergreen Retainers - I keep getting calls from clients saying they can't view the "Shared" invoice when I have applied Trust funds that covered the whole balance. They can see the Trust Request to replenish funds used/applied to an invoice, but they can't see the actual invoice and review what was billed. I have to print the invoice to PDF and go to my email app and send from there.
3. I would like to see a report that shows that various billing rates per timekeeper for each client/matter.

Pros

I love the functionality of Clio, and how we can manage time for each user on multiple devices. I not longer have to keep up with my start time for a task, my completion time, the calculation with what portion of an hour was teh time, or completing timesheets for a billing professional to then enter into a software to generate client invoices. Additionally, the billing process has been simplied and can be run from any computer. Further, the ability to keep up with each staff member's productivity is AWESOME! Clio has definitely changed my legal life!

Cons

Getting acclimated was sort of difficult because my rep was new at the time. The regular support team helped us with the remaining onboarding.

Alternatives Considered

MyCase

Reasons for Choosing Clio

We needed the flexibility that Clio offers for billings. We also have Clio Grow, and it has made new client intake a breeze!

Switched From

Sage Timeslips

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Clio had better customer service and unlimited storage space for documents.

Pros

For us the program has changed everything in the workflow to the better. In our opinion Clio’s forte is how flexible it is. Every law firm has its own different way of organizing workflow and Clio can accommodate for that, at least our whims and quirks which we have abundant of. The program is like potty in your hand. You mold and sculp the program according to your own special needs in the workflow. The only barrier is your own imagination. You decide how information is inserted, in what order and form and how it is presented. You make your own work procedures. You can organize and make chains of tasks beforehand and set the relevant type of chain of tasks to fit the case you are working on. Then, there and now, the future workflow is decided and set for that case.

Cons

You can not copy matters/cases and clients. It is not easy to move data fram TM to clio. We decided not to to it. Integration between outlook calander and clio calander does not work, it is so slow it is not usable. But the integration between google cal and clio cal is excellent.

Alternatives Considered

Lawcus, Lexzur, Matters.Cloud, Osprey Approach and Uptime Cloud Monitoring

Reasons for Choosing Clio

Time Matters is old fashioned, originally written for DOS and has restrictions therefore. Does not offer any real cloud solution only remote desktope.

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Clio is flexible. Very stapple and predictable. Clio is easy to manage and learn. Excellent support. Handles non english characters well.

Pros

It's too difficult to describe what is best, I could not manage my practice without this software. It is incredibly user friendly and easy to learn. I use pretty much all aspects of the software on a daily basis and have been using it for more than 10 years. My practice has grown from just one attorney, me, to now four along with paralegals and clerks. Clio has made the growth seamless.

Cons

I don't have any complaints whatsoever. The software has been essential to my practice in all ways.

Alternatives Considered

Time Tracker, CANVAS, Rocket Matter and Google Calendar

Reasons for Choosing Clio

I used these at other firms. When I opened up my own practice I chose to use Clio.

Switched From

Time Tracker and Asana

Reasons for Switching to Clio

Price, options, versatility, tech support.

Pros

Support 'Live' is actually live - always available and always helps! This is important because with other companies you're usually on hold on the phone for a long time and then when the do answer - the take a message and 'refer you to the right team' - you're stuck on your task until they call back. When they call back, the caller tells you what to do but can't show you - that's another team. In my working day - its vital that support is given there an then so you can move on.

Cons

Integrating it and setting up - this is very time consuming. It would be useful to have I suppose when migrating a one2one live support - somebody spends a day at the firm and sorts all this out. Templates, billing everything you need to get started. That would've been rather helpful.

Pros

Custom sets of templates for client types and matter types is great. There are tons of integrations with so many other programs to add functionality is dizzying. We're still learning all this program can do and trying to maximize our use of it through best practices, but we're very hopeful and optimistic that it's going to make our lives much easier and more organized.

Cons

The implementation by Clio has been less than stellar. They've tried to integrate spreadsheets of information from our prior practice management software, plus other sources to get all of our client and matter data into the program. But getting the data migration specialists on the phone has been difficult. We noticed that one phase of the migration had not gone correctly, so we called and e-mailed like mad to make sure they wouldn't go to the next step of migration until we could get that prior data fixed. They ignored the calls and e-mails and went ahead with the next step. So that just compounded the problem by about 10,000 times. Now, we're having to go back through our spreadsheets to clean up the data again. Then they're going to have to somehow undo the migration steps they've taken already. Then we'll try it again. We've been using it almost 90 days, and we're still not at full usage yet, because the migration is so messed up.

Alternatives Considered

MyCase, Rocket Matter and Smokeball

Reasons for Choosing Clio

Firm Central hasn't been updated or given additional functionality in well over 5 years. No one else uses it, and it has no integrations with or support from third parties to add any more functionality. West has practically abandoned the product entirely. If they don't want to keep supporting it, then why should we keep using it?

Switched From

Firm Central

Reasons for Switching to Clio

It had a larger installed user base with more third-party integrations and third-party consultants available for use in assisting us to migrate and implement it. Also, our outside accounting company is more familiar with it than any of the other programs.

Pros

There is much to like about Clio. Their customer support is first rate and comprehensive. For example, learning to manage trust accounting and the creation of regular client invoices are critical and time sensitive activities. During my first year with Clio, I would call customer service at the end of each month as I encountered small mistakes I made in billing or accounting. Clio was always there willing to patiently walk me through my steps to help me fix my errors. The billing and accounting features are redundant and it is almost impossible to make a mistake that cannot be fixed. Time entry is simple and efficient.

Cons

I love the ease of use with respect to creating bills and managing trust accounting. On a different level, I have confidence that Clio is on the cutting edge of technology and software developments. As is evidenced by their annual conference, Clio is a leader in the industry. My investment in time learning this platform will continue to pay dividends as I mature as a solo practitioner. I am a veteran litigator but I recently opened my own practice. Clio has been the one indispensable tool to my new practice.

Pros

Easy to use -- calendaring, opening new matters, time entries, notes, billing. I like the interface, the way it looks. Program includes trust accounting. Can include/integrate credit card billing as an option which I did, and works well. Have used Law Pay for a while and it integrates through Clio. Send out invoices through Clio, client can click on button to make credit card payment, and have option to have program automatically apply to open invoices when payment comes in -- get email notifications of payments. Very satisfied with the program -- does what I need and enjoy using.

Cons

I don't think it's a negative factor, but don't use the mobile app much, for whatever that means. Tend to just check my iphone calendar (I use Office 365 to integrate, other options also I think like Google to integrate -- Clio integrates with Office 365 and iphone calendar will show Office and Google calendar events). There is a new beta version of the mobile app available for use that looked at today and I like -- I could see using that to make entries if I need while out of the office, but usually just do all of that at my computer in the office.

Pros

We got Clio specifically for its billing program. Its great that everyone can enter their own time into Clio. I like how Clio does “macros” [they call them “text snippets”]. They work without having to use a code key.

The software is easy to use – for someone like me who is not a bookkeeper and hasn’t done a lot of billing before, it takes a little while to learn how to use it correctly, but once you know how things work, it’s a breeze. The very best thing about Clio, though, is its support staff! They are all great – it doesn’t matter who I’ve talked to they are all quick at getting to the root of my problem and showing me how to fix it. I have called other companies asking questions about their software and sometimes you just don’t believe what they tell you. It has never been that way with Clio – every one of their support staff is very knowledgeable and can quickly set you straight!

Also, Clio is open to suggestions from us and when they get a certain amount of inquiries asking if “they could change this or that”, they will work on it. We have been using Clio for 2 years next month and there are a couple of things they have implemented that we had requested, which is really cool!

Cons

Spell checking in the billing software is not what it could be – it does have the little red underlines if it thinks something is misspelled [like Word], which apparently is easy for some people to ignore. It would be better if Clio had its own dictionary and didn’t depend on the one in the browser. In order to do spell checks, we have to: export the time to a CSV file, spread out the column for the description, run a spell check and remember not to correct the errors there, but go back and find each entry in Clio and correct them there. It’s a little time consuming, and depending on how many typos each person makes during the month, it can be very time consuming, but its much better than reading the draft invoices word for word and finding the errors that way. It would be great if Clio could add spell checking so that it can be run in Clio without having to export and go back and forth.

The only other “con” we have with Clio’s billing system is with discounting invoices. It is very easy to discount an invoice by percentage or a dollar amount, but Clio only applies discounts on the total amount of the invoice, including client expenses, not on time spent only, so we usually put in a dollar amount so the discount comes out to the amount we want it to be , although Clio still applies that amount to the entire invoice.

Pros

I loved Cleo from the moment a representative gave us an overview of the software and what it had to offer. After that demonstration I couldn't wait to try the software. I love that Cleo allows you to customize the program to your specific law firms needs. There is an enormous amount of ability to customize clients billing and matters. I've never found a software like this one before nor one that allows you so much freedom to make it your own. There are two sections to Cleo Cleo grow and Cleo manage. Cleo grow allows you to enter potential new clients and track their progress as to whether they hire the law firm get referred out or don't hire the law firm. It has saved me from keeping up with two separate spreadsheets which allows me more time to work on important tasks. Once in Cleo grow you can move a client over to Cleo manage once they hire you. Once in Cleo grow everything about your client and their case is all contained on their own individual dashboard. Within that dashboard you can store communications their documents their payment transactions emails billing their time they're expenses etc. And because of the categories you can customize I'm able to enter the important information needed for their particular case and it's no farther than one click away. I have to say the Cleo support and help section is spectacular and one of the best I've ever come across. They have a clear academy which offers training on specific things you can do in the software.

Cons

The only thing I found so far that I'm not fond of with the software is the flat rate billing. Our Law Firm wants to keep track of the time spent on a case even if it's for flat fee. I'm still trying to find a way to best show this on an invoice and after researching Cleo help section they don't seem to have a real clear method of doing it.

Pros

Our law firm has tried a few software companies to help us manage our clients and cases and this has been by far the bests. It is not perfect, but it is user friendly and easy for all to use (from lawyers, law clerks, paralegals, to even our admin and secretaries). We do not use the document feature. I use it to track open client matters, add notes to the case, assign tasks to support staff, calendar meetings, track time, hold contacts, and invoice. I really like that Clio constantly is updating to meet their customer's needs and is open to our suggestions on things that would make the software better. I would definitely recommend this software for law firms.

Cons

I do not like you cannot have two clients to a single matter - we have a lot of husband and wife contacts, so I wish we could connect two clients to a single matter. I use notes constantly and wish there was a way to format the notes like as a word document - highlight, make numbered outlines, add bullet points, change font size, etc.

Pros

The Clio Manage product offers an excellent practice management tool with enough flexibility that we can continue to develop new solutions to any hurdles we face. Primarily, Clio has been instrumental in:-Time Tracking-Data Base Management - for clients, opposing counsel, judges, mediators, etc.-Case Management-Invoicing-Data Analytics - for performance metrics, financial projections, etc.

Cons

Clio offers a lot of powerful solutions, but is not 100% comprehensive. Often, when Clio is missing a feature, support will add it to their list of "feature requests" to be implemented in the future. While I fully appreciate Clio actively working on new features, some of the roadblocks we have hit feel surprising considering the software is built for law firms. This is mentioned in a previous section, but one of our current issues is in our pre-bill review. When discounting line items, they must be discounted at a percentage, rather than a dollar amount, which was not a problem we had faced in previous software.

Pros

I like Clio's simplicity and intuitiveness best. It really is the easiest time management program I have used. If you want to get up and running, like, literally, now, you can purchase Clio online with a push of a button and have open matters and clients/contact in minutes. I originally chose this product 5+ years ago for a small firm I manage, after looking at most of the online time management products on the market. I chose it specifically because it seemed the easiest in which to enter time. One of the attys I work with isn't great with a keyboard. Clio time entry required the least amount of effort, was the easiest to navigate and simplest to look at. But after using Clio, as well as, other online time management products (I manage a few small law firms), I really appreciate the easy of creating and EDITING invoices, which I do extensively at my firms. Lastly, I recently utilized Clio's FREE migration services to move from another online software, which I did not like. The migration took one hour on the phone, one day for them to migrate, and was pretty seamless! I've migrated data a few times (Prolaw and CosmoLex) and this was by FAR the easiest. The customer service is always great, even though I don't have to use it often because Clio is so simple to use.

Cons

Only 1. I haven't mastered LEDES ebililng on Clio yet. At one of my firms, we do only LEDES98 ebilling. If you don't know what this is, stop reading, you will not experience this minor Con. I am having trouble perfecting the LEDES98 txt files and uploading them. Granted, this is my first month of e-billing on Clio at this firm, so I'm sure customer service will correct it for me. It's just that a few other time management programs I have used had no LEDES glitches and uploaded perfectly the first time.

The price is also high for small firms. But all online billing programs are.