In this video, the speaker advocates for law firms to replace outdated, desktop‑centric practice management systems with cloud‑based solutions like Clio (or LeanLaw) that integrate tightly with QuickBooks. He outlines the drawbacks of separate time‑tracking tools (e.g., Harvest, QuickBooks Time) and highlights how Clio consolidates time entry, matter tracking, lead management (Clio Grow), templates, custom fields, secure client communication, and trust‑accounting controls. While noting Clio’s reporting is limited, he recommends third‑party report builders (e.g., My Firm Data) and tools like LiveFlow for three‑way bank reconciliation. The speaker stresses the importance of proper data migration, validation, and training, emphasizing that accurate migration preserves data integrity. He presents a cost‑benefit argument: at roughly $65 per month, Clio saves time, improves professionalism, and supports compliance, especially for trust accounting and multi‑attorney firms. He also mentions specialized modules such as a personal‑injury add‑on for handling large, complex cases. The video concludes with an invitation to contact his firm for migration assistance.
Chapters
This week I wanted to discuss a little bit about the practice management tool Clio and why you might want to consider that with your law firm. So if you're a law firm that's using an antiquated type of system, perhaps a software that's desktop-centric, maybe not attached to any of the accounting or the ledger system, maybe QuickBooks, it's just not connected. You probably want to consider moving to a more automated type of system, one that's cloud-based. You can log in from any device, whether it's your phone, your iPad, your computer, from anywhere. You can be on the beach somewhere and in a beautiful place like Tahiti and still be able to look up your records if you need to. But you want to have that software if you're running a mid-sized firm or even a small firm. You want to be able to have that ability to pull up the documents, pull up the details, and just view how the practice is going. And on a day-to-day basis, it's important to have a tool. Don't be using something like Harvest where you're tracking time. It's a separate system, or QuickBooks Time, which is a separate system, and it's a clunky workflow where you have to kind of like download and import CSVs. It just doesn't save— make any sense, doesn't save time. It actually makes more work for you and your admin or your paralegal, whoever's helping do the billing. And this is some of the things I see, which is why I wrote that book over there, Modernize Your Law Firm. I want people to understand the significance of adding software like a Clio, like a LeanLaw that will help you really move the firm along. They are premier apps or software tools with QuickBooks. They are They connect seamlessly. They integrate beautifully. You don't have to be— you'll have a system and QuickBooks is great. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but it's great for all kinds of firms. And that's when you stick that layer of the billing software on top of it, you're going to get more of a specialized system for your industry. So in this case, it's legal industry. You're going to get with Clio, you're going to get practice management. You'll even get lead tracking if you pick up Clio Grow. You're going to get The ability to track the matters. There's templates, there's customized fields, there is reporting, although the reporting in Clio is not the greatest. If you're looking for really good reporting, you might have to go to an outside firm to get a customized form of report builder to have the reports built up. Like My Firm Data is one of the companies that we use that will actually help build that software. For the 3-way bank reconciliation, we use LiveFlow. We've created a template in our— from our firm. It's called the Proper Trust Template, and, and it's able— we're able to extract that data out. A couple of things about Clio. It just pushes everything into the header liability account, and we like to subaccount that down, which is something that LeanLaw does automatically. But with Clio, it's an extra step. But you want to be able to see with visibility, especially if you have like 200 matters that you're trying to track at any given time. You really want to see that in a, in a ledger style so that if you ever are audited, you're able to pull that, those details out. There's multiple reasons why you'd want to use Clio. Clio is going to put bumpers or brakes around whatever the retainer amount is in a client file, and you're not going to be able to overstate that trust account because whatever's in there is all you can apply to an invoice at any given time. So that's another benefit with trust accounting using a software like Clio. You're going to be able to track your client expenses. And as you get to be a bigger firm, you get 5, 10, 15, maybe more attorneys working for you. They'll all have their own login. They'll be able to get into Clio. Nobody's logging into QuickBooks at all. So you're keeping your data set really secure and separated from that aspect of the business that the attorneys have to work in. There's many reasons why we like to use a software like this. It's definitely for compliance purposes, hands down, what you really need to do if you, if you're dealing with trust accounting. You have to pay per user and the fee is nominal. When you look at how much time you're going to save with tracking time, tracking your calendar, being able to communicate properly with your clients, giving them a good experience in communication, keeping that secure, securely exchanging files, there's just so many features inside of Clio that are going to benefit you as your firm and just add that layer of professionalism on top of how you're doing your work. And I think that those reasons alone are reasons why you should have the software in place and don't skimp there. It's really not a place to skimp if you are running a good-sized firm. Look at the bottom line, look at what your revenue is and say, is this a firm that should be doing it on a spreadsheet, for example, or using some kind of weirdo timing basis to be able to track their time? When they're when they're billing, you don't want to be doing it that way. You want to be looking at a professional software. It's like $65 a month. It comes with all those pieces inside, and if you really take the time, get the training. If you're migrating from something else, reach out. We help migrate people over to the software. We are definitely a specialist in that. We know the steps to do that and to do it properly and to validate the data, which is very important. And I've written many articles on how data migration. One of the major steps is that making sure that whatever comes out of this software is the exact same data set going forward in the new software. So there's a lot of parts, working parts to that, as well as training that you want to have in the software. But really get the training and understand how the software works. Don't miss out on all the pieces that you're paying for that you might be able to save a lot of time. There's tons of templates and tons of fields that you can customize for your for your clients and your matters that you'll be able to suck into any document, which just saves time instead of having to import it all or type it all in. It's just the time— time sucks. And this way you'll be able to get all that done automatically. Anytime we can automate and use technology to our benefit is always really pivotal, and it provides a strong base for the future, for the future growth of your firm. So I highly recommend using Clio with your law firm practice. Or LeanLaw, either one, fabulous software. Don't miss out. You're gonna be very happy to be with a software that's gonna be around a long time. Clio's been— it's the grandpa of the group. It's been around a long time. There's a lot of good features. If you're a personal injury firm and said, I don't need it because my money comes in after the fact, you do need it for tracking the expenses. And Clio has a personal injury module now. So take a look at that as well because it's a special Part of Clio that you pay extra for, but it's worth it if you're tracking big cases, especially if you're doing, you know, class action suits or anything that's got a lot of things involved, a lot of working parts. You really want to aggregate that data in one good place so you can track everything. You don't want any expenses missed. So I hope that helps. If you need help with data migration, reach out. Something that we do at our firm. And until next time, we'll see you all next month. Bye now. Thank you.
