Clio Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives 2023

The Clio Manage dashboard gives you an overview of three important metrics, which, according to the Legal Trends Report by Clio, are among the top indicators of legal business growth:

• Utilization rate: The number of hours worked divided by the number of hours in a day
• Realization rate: The number of hours invoiced divided by the number of billable hours worked
• Collection rate: The number of billable hours you collected divided by the number of billable hours invoiced

In addition, the dashboard shows other key information, such as the number of tasks due for the day, unpaid and overdue bills, calendar events, and detailed annual reports when you scroll to the bottom of the dashboard.

Clio dashboard

Time and expense entries are referred to as “activities” in Clio. The Activities tab on the left menu bar is where you can view and enter new time and expense entries across all of your matters. You can also use the New time entry and New expense entry buttons on the main page.

To record billable time in Clio, you can manually input the duration in the New time entry form. Alternatively, you can track time in real time using the built-in timer, which is found on the New time entry form or can be accessed from the shortcut timer button on the homepage. When recording time using the timer, click the timer button, stop when your legal work ends, and then populate the Time entry form that will appear, as shown below.

Adding a new time entry in Clio

Also, you can enter and track time and expenses on the go using the mobile application. As with the desktop software, you can enter time manually or use the in-app timer.

Clio provides a single place to manage and track all essential items related to legal cases and matters, such as activities, calendar events, communication history, notes, and timelines. You can enter case details, billing information, and documentation easily, as well as organize case details with custom fields. The custom fields feature lets you add, delete, or rearrange fields in the matters tab. For instance, you can add a field for the Social Security number of your immigration clients.

Clio has a flexible contact management module that enables you to add any type of contact, such as clients, vendors, outside counsel, or witnesses. You can also assign bills, matters, documents, and transactions to each contact. Additionally, Clio records important details from phone and email conversations with any of your contacts automatically through Gmail and Microsoft Outlook integration. You can add a new contact, either as a person or as a company.

Contact information screen in Clio

If you need to track important case milestones and schedule deadlines, then Clio’s calendar comes in handy. It is designed for law firm application as you can add key events automatically based on specific rules and filing deadlines for hundreds of courts in the U.S. Also, you can set automated email reminders so that no important events fall through the cracks. You can set up multiple per event and schedule the notification to send out days or minutes in advance.

We like the newly revamped calendar, complemented with easy-to-use buttons that allow you to easily switch between views. You can also easily add new events by clicking on the visible New event button on the top left of the calendar page.

Switching between calendar views in Clio

The task management module helps you stay on top of your deadlines so that you won’t miss any client obligations. Clio’s task management module is more robust compared to those of the similar software we reviewed.

You can assign tasks and case matters to your team members and to outside parties or cocounsel, and you can get alerted about an upcoming task and deadlines on your dashboard. The program tracks the progress of each task, and it shows all upcoming and overdue tasks on your dashboard. Another useful feature we found is the ability to compare predicted time estimates against actuals, which is important for budgeting.

For law firms with standardized processes, consider upgrading to Clio Complete so that you can create custom task lists and categories based on your workflow and the type of cases you handle. Clio will create task deadlines automatically based on the case start dates you entered or the previous similar tasks you’ve added.

Clio’s built-in trust accounting allows you to isolate accounts for your client trust funds and operating funds. Clio Manage includes a free client portal called Clio Connect, and it allows you to track and request funds easily, record trust reimbursements, and create invoices. A huge drawback to Clio is that it doesn’t perform trust bank reconciliations, so you have to integrate it with QuickBooks Online or Xero.

Clio supports different billing formats, such as flat fee, hourly, and contingency. While the bill screen already includes all the important fields you need, you can add customized items—such as discounts, grace periods, and custom interest rates. You can also set up interest to apply to late payments automatically. Invoices can be customized and sent from the portal, and then your clients can log into it to process their payments.

There are some issues we found in Clio’s invoicing. For instance, there’s no option to create a new invoice from scratch. Instead, you need to use an existing time or expense entry from the matters tab and convert it to an invoice using the Quick bill button.

Using QuickBill to convert a time entry to an invoice

Additionally, invoices in Clio are not as customizable as those in other similar programs like QuickBooks Online, but we believe that they should be enough—especially since you can send the invoice in LEDES format, which is the standard among law firms.

Here’s a PDF preview of a sample invoice created in Clio.

Sample invoice in Clio

You can send text messages, which is a convenient way to communicate with your clients or team members. Clio assigns a unique toll-free number to your firm so that you don’t have to use your personal phone number.

You can send and receive SMS and multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages from your contacts, view documents and save message conversations, and add time entries.

If you have a large volume of documents to process daily, then here’s good news because you don’t have to upgrade to a higher tier. You can store an unlimited number of documents in all the Clio plans, including documents, images, videos, and audio files. You can filter your file list by custom fields, categories, folders, and authors so that you can easily find the file you need.

The CRM feature in Clio Grow allows you to create and use online shareable forms and electronic signatures to help you better manage your client intake process. Clio streamlines various tasks, such as follow-up and data entry, appointment scheduling, and lead and revenue tracking so that you can better manage your interaction with your existing and potential clients.

To use the CRM, you need to purchase Clio Grow or upgrade to the highest tier, Clio Complete.

Also available in Clio Complete, the website builder allows you to create simple, single-page websites easily with no coding experience required. Once your website is up, you can use it to automate appointment booking, collect information from potential clients, and accept payments online.

Clio generates different types of reports on billing, clients, matters, productivity, tasks, revenues, and activities. Billing reports include accounts receivable, accounts receivable aging, and invoice payments. Other useful reports that provide meaningful insight into your business include work-in-progress, matters by responsible attorney, originating attorney by revenue, and matter productivity by user.

4.6

On App Store

4.6

On Google Play

Clio’s mobile application includes almost all of the available features in the web-based interface, including time tracking, document management, calendar, internal messaging, and task management.

One of Clio’s biggest strengths is its robust integration with third-party solutions. It integrates with more than 200 applications, as compared to similar programs that only integrate with a few. Some of the most popular apps that integrate with Clio include

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Drive
• QuickBooks Online
• Xero
• Zapier
• DocuSign
• Dropbox
• Law Ruler
• Mailchimp
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Microsoft 365