Clio reviews

Clio is the best option for a solo or small firm law practice

Opmerkingen: After 3 years, I am still working at discarding habits and practices built up over 25 years as a practicing attorney to better incorporate Clio's feature into my daily work flow. One of Clio's driving philosophy's is to make lawyers more productive with their time, and make lawyers services more accessible to persons that need legal advice. Clio's focus on providing multiple access points, including mobile apps designed from the ground up with these two goals in mind, will pay off for both Clio and my practice in the long run.

Pluspunten:

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.

Minpunten:

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.

First class tech with even more fist class people behind the scenes

Opmerkingen: Highly recommend it like anything it's only as good as the data the users put into it and quite pleased in its reliability.

Pluspunten:

Clio is always adapting to improve and take feature requests into consideration while balancing innovation with consistency of interface and only incremental changes so as to not frustrate the user experience with too many changes all the ones. Beyond the tech, right from the beginning many years ago Clio stood out in customer service in terms of being very responsive, striving to find a solution to every problem where available, and being straight up in simply admitting that they don't have certain features developed yet and it's not available rather than trying to do a sales job or sugarcoat the fact that there will always be limitations in software meeting everyone's different needs perfectly. It's a very stable platform, secure, and the developers are even aware to do any sort of systemwide updates during times of low usage.

Minpunten:

Maybe not so much a specific Clio issue, but rather mostly us as a user limited capacity challenge, there are many integrations and improvements which we could be adapting into our system but have just become stalled in locking the bandwidth. Quarterly or semiannually review (soft audit) of how each business such as ours is using the software would be beneficial with a systems person from Clio providing a couple recommendations of next steps that our group could take that would have a significant impact on better utilizing the tools.

You cannot rely on anything that employees of Clio tell you to be true.

Opmerkingen: Onboarding was a nightmare, with technical glitches that caused hours and hours of additional work and clean up. Syncing our contacts resulted in the destruction of our already used and curated list. Misrepresentations were made by salespeople as to what the software was capable of doing. As a result of all of that, we were made reasonable promises, in writing, as a condition of our not quitting Clio right then, and cutting our losses and time. Now, the first time a change has come up where that promise needs to be implemented, we were told it would not be honored. This resulted in many more hours of back and forth with "customer service". We have wasted two years of integrating our firm with this company, which we now have to undo to go to another service, costing us untold more hours of work. If they had not offered these promises, we would have left Clio during the onboarding process. Although we would not have been happy with our experience with Clio, we wouldn't have felt as strongly about not doing business with this company. Now, we have no option but to leave this service, because we cannot continue to do business with a company that places such little value on their clients and on the promises that they admit were made.

Pluspunten:

I have nothing positive to say about Clio at this time. Integrating our firm into their software was a major learning experience, which will guide me with the next software I choose.

Minpunten:

The items added in the time that we have been with Clio have caused no improvement to our use of the product, although they use these additions as an excuse for raising their prices significantly. The "client portal" that they added does not even allow you to see if clients have viewed documents, which their old version did. Their new payment system only adds to their profits, so why would they utilize that as an excuse to pass on additional costs to their clients?

Great all around product with open API

Opmerkingen: Clio has been great and this is likely the last case management software we will ever use.

Pluspunten:

There is no such thing as a perfect legal case management software. There is nothing that is going to do everything the way you want it and Clio is no different. However, clio has numerous thrid party integrations. If this software doesn't do something there is probably something else out there that will fill in the gaps. However, what really makes clio great is its easy to use Open API. I have a saying with automation. Where there is a will there is a way and this API makes that possible. If there is something you want to have done or want to automate Clio's open API makes it possible.

Minpunten:

There reporting could use some work although they have made some improvements. Some of their bigger improvements can take a lot of time. However, there are always making consistent and regular improvements. It does seem like at times they will make a partial release but complete release or complete functionality can take a back seat.

Clio has revolutionized our practice

Opmerkingen: Clio allows us to manage our cases and generate revenue from anywhere at anytime. It also allows our clients to have access to their files and participate in their cases in a way that wasn't possible before. Clio is user-friendly, it's constantly developing and improving, and the customer service and tutorial videos and articles are very helpful.

Pluspunten:

I was first introduced to Clio eight years ago at the ABA Tech Conference. I knew from the moment I saw it that it would revolutionize our practice, allowing us to work from anywhere yet stay on the same page, streamline our management of cases, and make the process easier for our clients, from following their case to being able to pay invoices online or through their phone. And I was right. Clio has done that for us and more.

Minpunten:

Document Management was something that was missing for a long time, but Clio is improving there too. We hope to be able to get rid of our current document management system and transition to Clio Drive soon.

One Stop Shop for Small Law Office Management

Pluspunten:

Great bang for the buck. Clio is a full suite of software for time entries, billing, trust account management, contact management, and document organization. Out clients love the ability to upload documents securely for us to use in their matters. Ability to access through a web browser makes it easy to work from anywhere as well.

Minpunten:

Slight learning curve to get used to the new software after having used Amicus for almost 20 years. Small hiccups in transitioning our Amicus database over, BUT it was solved in a timely manner and we were able to clean up a few other items on our own.

Excellent Management Tool

Opmerkingen: Clio has been an excellent tool in keeping my law firm organized when it comes to time management; billing and collecting receivables from clients.

Pluspunten:

The ease that it is to use and the service team that answers every question.

Minpunten:

The document tools are a bit complicated. I would use the document tool more with a zoom class or in-person tutorial.

The whole system in one spot

Opmerkingen: Initially, this was a turbo-powered Italian sports car for a novice driver; it had far more tools than I needed. Over time, we embraced the CRM integration, document integration, and began to leverage processes though the use of CLIO.

Pluspunten:

We like the CRM/case management integration and the ability to use templates. We have a real estate and estate planning practice, both of which lend themselves to form documents, and we have further customized documents through integration with the CRM component to auto-populate documents.

Minpunten:

My only issue is the way “non-billable” does not get shown on the invoices. I believe it is critical for the client to see this.

Excellent Tool for a Solo/Small Law Office

Opmerkingen: My experience has been good. Clio is never an impediment to productivity; its more like a helpful assistant that holds my information, knows where to find it, reminds me to do what I said I would do, and makes it easy to bill and collect money.

Pluspunten:

The Clio team helped me transfer data from my old billing program. Transition was seamless and painless. Clio is intuitive to use. As a solo practitioner I have neither the time for nor interest in hours of admin activity every week. Clio lets me track my work as I go, and provides the framework for organizing information about my clients and cases. At the end of the month I spend only about 2 hours reviewing and sending out bills.

Minpunten:

More flexible report options would be helpful, particularly regarding A/R.

Love Clio! The best possible customer service experience!

Opmerkingen: Clio helps our team to work with our clients collaboratively and with transparently in real time!

Pluspunten:

The service is wonderful, easy to use and very intuitive! The customer service department is always available to assist with any issues and love Clio Con!

Minpunten:

There are intermittent service access issues.

Great software and user friendly!

Opmerkingen: My overall experience has been great! They are always making sure to take the next step in integrations and constantly keep their software up to date and secure.

Pluspunten:

I liked how the IT team literally walked me through the entire set-up/integration. To be 100% honest, they recovered & transferred my crashed billing entries from Timeslips into their system. There are so many positives re: Clio software that I cannot pick what I like most; however, the Quick Bill & Payment Plan features are very convenient. Oh, I can't write a review and not mention the LawPay integration. That is also a great feature!

Minpunten:

I hate when I am asked for instructions on setting up their client portal because I have no instructions to give them. I wish Clio had a .pdf that I could hand to every new client. I also wish there were more options re: billing history printouts for the Court. This is VERY important when asking for ATTY fees.

Intuitive and Flexible

Opmerkingen: I am happy with Clio and the support they provide. It's helped keep the firm, as well as our third-party answering service, organized and consistent.

Pluspunten:

The ability to integrate other software enable using other software to address aspects of Clio which are good, but not great. As an example, Clio Management's task management is good, but there is not a kanban or gantt feature, but I can easily integrate with Asana, Monday.com, etc.

Minpunten:

Some aspects address needs in a basic manner, but are not as robust as software which is specifically designed for a single purpose. Using the same example as mentioned in the "Pros" - the task management works and can be automated, but it does not have highly specific features such as kanban or gantt.Additionally, the syncing between Clio Grow and Clio Manage could improve. The two do not sync completely - certain items (ex. emails, I believe) do not sync.Lastly, when trying to export specific sets of data, Clio is time-consuming. We had an attorney who left our firm, and providing her the information from her clients required going to each client and selecting "export" for each aspect of the clients' data (such as, emails, documents, contacts, transactions, etc.)

Easy to use and great support

Opmerkingen: The overall experience has been an absolute pleasure. I love it! It makes time recording, billing and credit control very straightforward. It sets out the matter and client information in a very simple and straightforward manner. Support is great too which makes a big difference. Everyone who has joined our company has got on with it with just half an hour of general training. Nobody complains about it.

Pluspunten:

Clio is very user-friendly and intuitive. Even if you do not have experience or training on Clio, there is a certain about of functions which you can work out how to use but by having a play with the system. Time recording is very straightforward and it makes our billing easy.

Minpunten:

Downsides are: there is no currency conversation; cannot split invoices on one matter (e.g. we have to 2 or more entities responsible for payment say, 50/50, but there is no way of automatically splitting the invoice; no summary front sheet for an invoice.

Clio Review

Opmerkingen: My overall experience has been positive. There are plenty of resources for day to day activities and for more complex matters the live support has been indispensable. I find it easy to navigate and learn.

Pluspunten:

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.

Minpunten:

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.

Clio is a mixed bag

Opmerkingen: The worst is retainers. Without being able to customize my email message globally, I can't use the trust payment request. It just confuses clients. Did I say hours and hours and hours? I will say that their service is fabulous. However, they keep making new abilities that to me are inconsequential compared with retainers. Oh, and not having global text snippets? How hard can that be? I have to go to 8 different users if I add something. Really a waste of time. Fix the real stuff. Then add bells and whistles.

Pluspunten:

I love that billing is so much easier, that my team can enter time remotely.

Minpunten:

Clio was not developed by any sort of accountant. The reports are lacking, you can't memorize reports, everything within the software isn't consistent (like using the term everyone one place and all users in another place). The reports are inconsistent with what you can filter by on each report. There are still things where my account names are redundant - like Johnson - Divorce: Divorce. The biggest gripe I have is about replenishing retainers. The retainer replenishments don't get printed on the bill - I know it is because clio payments won't let you make a combined trust/legal fee payment, but they could have one link for anything owed and another link if a replenishment is due. Really - we webt to the moon 50 years ago but we can't figure this out? I spend hours and hours dealing with contacting clients to replenish. Also, way you enter into clio is clunky. I have to pick up my mouse all the time. It needs to be more like quickbooks entry. You never have to pick up your mouse.

Clio Review

Opmerkingen: Our overall experience with Clio has been fantastic!! The benefit of having all our information (contacts, notes, calendar, documents, etc.) in one program is huge for us as we often end up having to access this information outside of the office. The continued updates that Clio has made since we first began using it several years ago have all been excellent as well.

Pluspunten:

The software is easy to use and understand. The transition to Clio from our previous system was relatively seamless and the customer service is fantastic. I like that we can share documents with our clients and are able to see what date and time a client viewed each document. It is also extremely convenient to have our documents stored in Clio so that they can be viewed when we are not physically in the office.

Minpunten:

It would be nice if you could integrate notes from a contact directly into a new matter as you are opening one. Currently, I have to copy and paste each note from the contact into the matter notes. Also, when I put in messages for Mr. Chefalo on people he needs to call back I make a task for him. When he views the tasks on his cell phone, it would be nice if he could simple tap on the phone number in the task and have it directly call the number as opposed to him having to type the number in on his cell phone to make the call. Finally, a client suggested that it would be nice if he had the option to opt in to receiving text messages from Clio any time we share a document with him or generate a bill on his matter.

Fantastic product!

Opmerkingen: The experience has been great. The support team is very helpful and made getting set up a quick process, and they've helped solve several operator-error problems along the way. We don't yet use the full capability of what Clio can do, but it's nice to know we have room to grow our practice without outgrowing the software that helps us manage it.

Pluspunten:

Clio easily tracks time and expenses, keeps client and matter details organized, generates invoices, and gives us reports that help track our firm's growth. It is easy to learn, easy to use, easy to customize to our practice, and has very helpful and responsive customer service. Since it's cloud based, we can also work remotely as needed. Very glad to have Clio!

Minpunten:

I like most everything about Clio except that it can be slow if our internet service is being slow (not Clio's fault, but it comes with being cloud-based). Every once in a while I find a glitch that frustrates me in creating invoices. Usually, though, chatting with customer support online leads to a) their showing me how to solve my problem, or b) the problem being sent to tech support for fixing in Clio's system.

Best Decision I made was to make the switch

Opmerkingen: Easier to manage all aspects of a case with CLIO

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, customer support is awesome, helpful tutorial videos and great client experience. I have received multiple compliments on the style and ease of paying on-line.

Minpunten:

It was not syncing with QuickBooks when posting to CLIO but that may have been addressed recently. I need to check with my bookkeeper.

Why Clio sucks and you'll only find out after investing far too much.

Opmerkingen: Eh... I should have cut my losses instead of hoping they will fix the glitches.

Pluspunten:

The HelloSign integration is the only reason I stay. It has the benefits of any basic CRM.

Minpunten:

Customer service is horrendous. Sure they are polite and quite courteous in fact, however, it's like speaking to a brick wall. It's like everyone's drank the cool-aid. They avoid the acknowledging system limitations or errors like the pliegue which obviously comes from the top. There are far better CRM programs with true automation for far cheaper instead of the patch work of products branded as Clio. I could get the same, if not better, effect with Zapier. Yes, I'm bitter because I've invested thousands of hours and dollars and now I'm stuck. As a sole practitioner, I do not have the money or man power to start all over again. I tell ALL my peers they are much better off using Dubsado and HelloSign than Clio. Tyring to get technical support is a time suck! The level of work/investment needed just to get the first tier customer support familiar with the product then explaining the issue is not worth addressing it AT ALL! They obviously receive minimal training and have NO real comprehension or experience with the Clio products themselves. It's like they are afraid to admin they don't know or they don't understand. They are just key word searching in the help index which I've ALREADY DONE!

All I Need

Opmerkingen: Terrific, a true game changer!

Pluspunten:

Clio provides an all in one suite of applications that are necessary for my law firm to operate. We used to rely on a stand-alone billing software program for our billing and time-tracking. Of course every computer or user we added cost us more money on top of the software itself. When the software became outdated and no longer supported, we had to purchase the latest version. We also relied upon emails to assign tasks, and give each other messages about the cases we were working on together- without a centralized location for the team to track and review each other's notes and progress, each member had to rely upon their own notes, memos, emails, etc. This was inefficient and time consuming. Another fun part of my day was searching for contact information of opposing counsel on particular matters. Often times I would search emails, review the documents on a case, or review documents in the file to get the contact information I needed. Calendaring was also an administrative hurdle. Entering dates in a separate software system led to disorganization, and required jumping around from one program to another to manage information and learn where attorneys were supposed to be. Clio puts all of these functions , and more, under one roof. It has made the work flow in my law firm seamless, efficient, easy, and organized. Clio does it all, and I am truly grateful for this product.

Minpunten:

I would like it to be easier to review the billing entries of other users in real time.

Fantastic value, modern software, steadily improving features

Opmerkingen: I've been using Clio since 2011 to help me run my solo practice. I use it primarily for calendaring , time tracking, and billing. Those features are fantastic. Almost all of my billable time is calendared, and Clio lets me add time right to those events and assign it to a matter right from the calendar. I cut my administrative time to bill clients by 40% the first time I used Clio, and it's now down roughly 90%. I love that Clio lets me use third-party software with it rather than forcing users to rely on less convenient built-in solutions. For instance, Clio creates a folder for each client and matter for me in Box.com where I can work on my clients' documents using the rich feature set of Box. Clio Documents is okay for sharing with Clients, but there's no way they could replicate Box. There are two things I really wish Clio would improve. First is the ability to natively support joint representation. I do some consumer bankruptcy work, and many of my cases are joint petitions. The Clio solution is to add one of the joint parties as a 'related party'. Strictly speaking, this is not a related party, but my actual client. I can note the relationship type, so it works okay for conflict checks, but I'd rather the software reflect the real legal relationship. The other has to do with transaction tracking and integration with bookkeeping software. Maybe I just need to learn how to do this better, but I end up doing double work in Clio and Quickbooks for expenses and trust accounting. Bills and payments integrate, but the details, which are important for accounting disclosures, are manual in Clio. All in all, Clio continues to be the best option for me. I'm very mobile, so a SaaS/Cloud solution is absolutely required. The features were very basic when I started using it, but the folks at Clio are constantly releasing new functionality, improving existing functionality, and integrating new useful apps. Oh yeah, I'm a bit of a tech geek, so having access to an open API is extremely tempting to me. I've done one integration with Zapier, and I have some ideas for other things I might do directly with the API. Highly recommended.

Pluspunten:

SaaS platform, integrations with useful software like Box.com and NextChapter (bankruptcy service), comprehensive workflow features

Minpunten:

Detailed expense accounting is cumbersome, joint representation is not natively supported

I have been so impressed with Clio. There is so much it can do and the customer service is amazing.

Opmerkingen: There are too many to mention. I was only looking for conflict management software and didn't know if I needed a case management software because I am a solo attorney that is just starting out. It turns out that Clio does so much more. The timer feature lets you track work on different matters and easily switch to a different matter when a phone rings or interruption happens. You don't lost time. The billing is clean, neat and easy. After that you can move on to so many other options -- document automation, cloud storage, phone logs, email logs, quick and easy email drop. I have been here less than a year and I wouldn't switch. I am so pleased with Clio and how it makes the business end of practicing so much easier.

Pluspunten:

What is best? There is so much. The Dashboard (to see instantly how the I am doing, and for each client so I can see how much time and billing has occurred on each matter and easily find the information I need); Time keeping, invoicing, secured email, email drop (to easily put emails into client matters in Clio and free up inbox space, ) and DOCUMENT TEMPLATES with Custom Fields -- I have automated my engagement letter, a basic client letter, will forms, POAs, etc. It saves so much time. To write a letter and not have to look up an address or block/copy it is so nice. You generate the document and edit to start typing the body right away. It requires work on the front end but in the end it is worth it. Also, the customer service being one click on a chat icon away is great. They are so friendly and talked me through invoicing each month for the first few months.

Minpunten:

The customer service and training videos are great but sometimes it feels like an Easter egg hunt to find out what all it can do. I spent the first 8 months just keeping time and doing invoicing. I knew it did other things but wasn't sure what and how. Once I started digging around I have been amazed at what all I have found. It has saved so much time and made things for a solo attorney so much easier. I am sold.

Initially very promising, but recently quickly deteriorating

Opmerkingen: (Continued from above) so, the report may say $X, but one would have no idea whether that is for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years - you get the picture. I have been raising this issues for a long time now and was today told that it may never be fixed. This is but one example of a clear failure to even understand the topic and the issue at hand. Clio was not like this before, so I suspect that something has changed at the company. Perhaps critical people leaving (and I have noticed that some people have left), perhaps financial difficulties, perhaps something else. Overall, if I was asked a year ago about Clio, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. Currently, it would only be prudent to recommend to avoid it, at least until the situation at Clio changes, if it does change.

Pluspunten:

Clio could be, and indeed was for a long time, a fairly good and overall well featured application. As with any application, it did not have everything covered, but was slowly improving and adding features. In other words, it was a decent application that was getting better.

Minpunten:

As of few months ago, Clio, put simply, started going backwards, and fast. Features that existed for years and worked perfectly, were either intentionally removed or broken and no longer worked. The number of bugs has increased exponentially. I used to discover a bug once every few months in the past. These days, almost every day I have to report new bugs or follow up on the existing and unresolved ones. In the past, any reported issues were addressed and resolved quickly. Now, you still get emails in response, but the emails are more of the scripted/lip service type and most issues do not get resolved at all, including critical issues relating to basic features that used to work fine in the past. As I am not an insider to Clio, I am not sure what the reason is, but from many recent interactions with Clio support and their answer, it seems to me that there is no one at Clio who has their hand on the pulse or any control over the "technical team" or the "development team". From responses I get, it sounds like the "developers" run the place and if they do not think that something is important, it will not get done or fixed. To give you a concrete example, an important financial report was working fine in the past and, as one would expect, it was showing the period to which the report relates. Some months ago, when "updating" that report to a "new" report, they removed the period of the report field, so, believe it or not, the report now does not show which period it relates to

Review of Clio From Attorney Owner At Small Firm

Opmerkingen: I recommend Clio to solo and small firm attorneys. It has a lot of features that you may not use but it is nice to have the option. In spite of its many features, Clio is easy to use. My billing and collections went up when I switched to Clio because logging time and billing is very easy and the gmail feature makes sure I remember to bill for mass of emails I receive each day. My calendar, matter and contact information is available quickly wherever I am. Clio has improved my efficiency and made my work day easier.

Pluspunten:

Clio is very fast, even when I am accessing the full website on my ipad. I love the new add on for Gmail that allows me to bill directly to Clio from the email and even save the mail to Clio if I want. The program feels modern. The program is easy to use in spite of the many many features. I have three staff members, one under 30, one under 50 and one in her 70s. All three are able to easily use the program. I like the third party apps that work directly with Clio such as Dropbox, Invoice Sherpa , Gmail and Fastcase. Customer service is very responsive and Clio is constantly receiving significant upgrades.

Minpunten:

Based on all of the options and information available in Clio I am still surprised by the minimal reporting capabilities in the practice management side of the program. The basics are there but in my opinion there are many helpful reports that are missing. Even if Clio does not want to add additional reports, making an option for the user to create custom reports would be a good alternative. Clio added an option to require and maintain an evergreen retainer. That is very helpful, however, you have to send a separate request to the client for the evergreen retainer to be replenished. It would be much more helpful if you had the option to include the evergreen retainer request on the client invoice. My clients get confused when they receive a billing invoice and then on the same day or some days later yet another invoice with a new request for retainer replenishment.

Clio Is The Best

Opmerkingen: I have not had a single issue with Clio. I have used it now for three years. My bills look sharp and the time/activity record keeping is flawless, which helps when I have to push to get paid. The trust accounting is redundant and airtight. I am looking forward to developing my practice and I know that Clio is expanding its range of functions at a rate faster than any of my needs. Clio is leading the industry in coordinating with third party vendors (Lawpay, Outlook etc) to make Clio even more functional and efficient.

Pluspunten:

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.

Minpunten:

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.