Clio

I have been using Clio for about 6 years. It has grown so much in that time. I am very pleased with the direction they have taken the product and I can't wait to see what else they come up with!

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.

I have been using this since 2012 - at first it fit my needs and was marketed for the solo/small practice firms. It has increasingly become more cumbersome and takes longer to calendar and bill than I would like. The interest feature on the billing can only calculate simple interest. Once you enter the interest formula, there is no way to disconnect it so you are left to manually delete all of the entries. They have changed the billing process from a process that once took about an hour to taking about 3 hours. A bill is generated and placed under the Draft tab, you can view it, edit it, submit it for approval (a waste of time for a solo), or approve it - so I view it, see it needs to be edited, and click on edit, the bill comes up for editing, then once you've completed it, you hit Approve - and nothing happens which is new - you either can hit the go to bills Awaiting Payment link, or click on the Awaiting payment screen -- from there, you are forced to sort through all of your accounts receivable to find your newly edited bill. Once you find the bill, then you can Receive Payment from the trust account - but be careful since if your client has $500 in trust and the bill is $1000, the trust payment will pop up $1000, which you know is inaccurate, so you have to do another edit. Then the bill drops out of view and you either have to return to Awaiting Payment or Paid tabs - search through all of the other bills, find your bill, then you can download it - print it, or save it, and then email it.
If you want to enter a new appointment, you can do so on the calendar, but if you want to create a method to track the new client, you have to go to another tab to set up a matter, you can only input the client's name, not the address, not the phone number, not any other stuff that should appear at this point, in my opinion. Then you add in your number. Then you have to track down the name you just entered and try and add in addresses, phone numbers, email addresses. The process is incredibly time consuming.

Pros: Cost
Cons: Overly rigid, designed for those who have a data processor employee, time consuming, not customer service oriented - was marketed for solos/small practices and this is not the case any longer.

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.

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.