Clio

Vantagens

Clio integrates with so much other software to make your life easier that is just can't be beat. Saving emails via Outlook, generating document templates, collecting e-signatures on engagement agreements—whatever you need, Clio has it.

I can also run billing, monitor bill payments, and overall run the entire law firm with minimal effort, minimal time commitment, and with confidence that everything is running smoothly.

Desvantagens

There are some smaller points that can drive you insane. For example, you cannot customize the look of the emails that go out when you share matters, bill, etc. with your clients. If you—like me—transition from a solo practitioner to running a small law firm, you will eventually need to open new bank accounts. Clio will not let you eliminate the old bank accounts and start from scratch. You can't even force the old bank accounts to be otherwise "invisible" to the system so that you cannot accidentally record money moving into a defunct account. This is a minor complaint, but man does it drive me insane.

I also still want to see a task assignment that allows me to set a supervisor for each assigned task.

Vantagens

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!

Desvantagens

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.

Vantagens

I like the fact that there are different levels of cost for the need of your business. I started with one user on the lower tier, then moved up to include more options and added a user. I like the fact that not only does it provide billing and payment integration, but, at the time I upgraded, it included the monthly cost to use Law Pay (which I have also found helpful).

Desvantagens

I feel there are some personal preferences I would like to use in my reports viewing and accounting. But there was a recent revamp rolled out a few months ago that did address some of my needs. Admittedly, although I have used the product for almost 4 years now, I have not watched all the tutorial videos or called with all of my specific questions, even though with the boutique package there is a dedicated help line.

Vantagens

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.

Desvantagens

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.

Vantagens

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.

Desvantagens

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