Clio Grow: Quick Start Manual

How to Use This Manual

This manual covers the core features of Clio Grow in the order you should actually set them up. Work through each section in sequence on your first pass. After that, use it as a reference.

Assumption: you have a Clio Grow account already. If you also use Clio Manage, log into both with the same email address so the accounts sync automatically.

Section 1: Account Setup

Getting your account configured properly before you do anything else saves you from fixing problems later. This takes about 30 minutes and should only happen once.

Step 1: Add your firm logo and information

Go to Settings, then select Firm. Upload your firm logo here. This logo will appear on every intake form and document you send to prospective clients. Also confirm your firm name and address are correct, since this information autofills into your documents.

Step 2: Add users and set permissions

Go to Settings, then select Account and Users. Click Invite User and enter the email address for each attorney or staff member who needs access. Set their permission level during the invitation. Attorneys who manage their own matters should have standard user access. Whoever manages your systems should be set as an Administrator, since only Administrators can build automated workflows and change account-wide settings.

Step 3: Set up your lead sources

Go to Settings, then select Contacts. Add every source from which your firm gets inquiries. Common examples: Google Search, Google LSA, Referral, Website Contact Form, Bar Referral, Social Media, Walk-In. You will assign a lead source to every new matter you create, so the more specific your list, the more useful your reporting becomes over time.

Step 4: Set up matter types

Still in Settings, select Matters. Under Matter Types, add your practice areas. Examples: Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Family Law, Estate Planning, Business. These categories allow you to filter your pipeline and reports by practice area.

Step 5: Set up matter statuses

This is one of the most important configuration steps. Matter statuses become the columns in your Pipeline, which is the visual board you will use every day to see where every prospective client stands.

Clio Grow organizes statuses into three categories: Intake, Hired, and Not Hired. You define the specific stages within each.

A practical set of Intake statuses for most small firms:

• New Lead
• Consultation Scheduled
• Consultation Complete
• Engagement Sent

For Hired, you typically just need one status: Retained (or Active Client).

For Not Hired, consider: Not a Fit, Could Not Reach, Chose Another Firm, Price Objection.

To create these, go to Settings, select Matters, and then add your statuses under each category. Drag them into the order you want them to appear in the pipeline.

Step 6: Connect your email

Go to Settings, then select Integrations or My Profile (depending on your version). Connect your professional email address. This allows emails you send from Clio Grow, including intake forms, appointment confirmations, and follow-ups, to come from your actual email address rather than a Clio generic address. It makes a significant difference in how professional your outreach looks and how often clients respond.

Section 2: Intake Forms

Intake forms are the backbone of Clio Grow. They collect information from prospective clients, automatically create a new contact and matter in your account, and drop that matter into the correct column of your pipeline. Done right, you should never need to manually enter a new client’s basic information again.

Step 1: Plan your form before you build it

Before clicking anything, write out every piece of information you need from a prospect before their consultation. Typical fields for most practice areas:

• Full name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Best time to reach them
• How they found you (this is separate from your internal lead source tag)
• Brief description of their situation
• How urgent is it
• Have they spoken with another attorney

If you handle multiple practice areas, plan a separate form for each. A personal injury intake form should ask different questions than a family law intake form.

Step 2: Build your intake form template

Go to Forms in the main navigation, then select the Templates subtab. Click New Template.

Work through the form builder. The Contacts section is pre-populated with standard fields like name, phone, and email. You can add additional fields, reorder them, and add instruction text above sections to guide the client.

Under the form’s settings, configure:

• Which Pipeline column new submissions drop into (example: New Lead)
• Which matter type gets assigned automatically (example: Personal Injury)
• Which firm user gets assigned to the matter
• Who receives a notification email when the form is submitted

When your form is complete, check the box to make it a Public Form. This gives the form a permanent URL you can share on your website, in email signatures, or in text messages. Anyone who finds the link can fill it out without you sending it individually.

Step 3: Embed or share your form

Copy the public form link from the Templates page. Give it to your web developer to embed on your website’s contact page, or add it directly to your Google Business Profile as a booking or contact link. You can also paste it into your email signature with a label like “Submit a Case Inquiry.”

Every time someone completes this form, Clio Grow creates a new contact and matter and notifies you. You log in and the lead is already in your pipeline.

Section 3: The Pipeline

The Pipeline is your daily dashboard. It shows every active matter as a card, organized by status into columns. Think of it as your intake command center.

How to navigate it

Go to Pipeline in the main navigation. You will see three subtabs: Intake, Hired, and Not Hired. Spend most of your time in the Intake subtab. Each column represents one of the matter statuses you created in Section 1.

Moving matters through the pipeline

When a prospective client’s status changes, drag their matter card from one column to the next. For example, when you schedule a consultation with someone in the New Lead column, drag them to Consultation Scheduled. When the consultation happens, drag them to Consultation Complete.

You can also use the checkmark icon on a card to move it to Hired, or the X icon to move it to Not Hired. When you click X, Clio Grow will ask you to select a Not Hired reason, which is why you set those up in Section 1.

Filtering the pipeline

If your firm has multiple attorneys, each person can filter the pipeline to show only matters assigned to them. Go to Settings, then Pipeline, and check the box to default the pipeline to your assigned matters only. This is a per-user setting, so each attorney can configure their own view.

Adding a matter manually

Not every lead comes through your intake form. For phone calls and walk-ins, use the Quick Intake button at the top of the screen. Enter the contact’s name, select the intake form template you want to send them, and choose whether to fill the form out yourself or send it to the client. Clio Grow creates the matter and adds it to your pipeline immediately.

Section 4: Appointment Scheduling

Clio Grow includes a scheduling tool called Clio Scheduler that gives clients a link to book a consultation directly on your calendar. This eliminates the back-and-forth of scheduling by phone or email.

Step 1: Set up your appointment types

Go to Settings, then Appointments. Click New Appointment Type. Create one for each type of consultation you offer. Example: 30-Minute Phone Consultation, 60-Minute In-Person Consultation. For each type, set:

• Duration
• Location (phone, in-person, video)
• Whether payment is required to book (you can charge a consultation fee upfront)
• Default automated reminders

Step 2: Set up automated reminders

Within each appointment type, configure reminders. Set at least two:

• 24 hours before the appointment: email and text
• 1 hour before the appointment: text only

Firms that implement this consistently report dramatic drops in no-shows. Text reminders require that you have SMS enabled in your settings, which you can confirm under Settings, then Text Messaging.

Step 3: Share your scheduler link

Clio Grow generates a public scheduling link for each appointment type. Share this link anywhere a prospect might be considering booking: your website, Google Business Profile, email signature, and intake form confirmation page. When someone books, Clio Grow adds the appointment to your calendar and sends confirmation emails and reminders automatically.

Section 5: Email Templates

Email templates save time and ensure every prospect gets a professional, consistent experience regardless of which staff member handles them.

Step 1: Identify the emails you send repeatedly

Most small firms need templates for:

• Form submission confirmation (“We received your information, here is what happens next”)
• Pre-consultation reminder (sent the day before)
• Post-consultation follow-up (“It was great speaking with you, here are next steps”)
• Engagement letter delivery (“Your agreement is attached, please sign at your convenience”)
• Unreachable follow-up (“We tried to reach you, please call us back or click here to reschedule”)
• Not a fit notification (“After reviewing your matter, we are not able to assist, here are some resources”)

Step 2: Build the templates

Go to Settings, then Communication Templates. Click New Template. Write each email in plain, direct language. Avoid legal jargon in these communications since prospects are often stressed and in a hurry. Every template supports merge fields that pull in the contact’s name, the assigned attorney’s name, your firm name, and other details automatically.

Give each template a clear internal name so anyone on your team can find the right one quickly.

Section 6: Documents and E-Signatures

Clio Grow lets you generate and send documents like engagement letters and fee agreements directly from the platform. Clients can sign them electronically from any device.

Step 1: Build your document templates

Go to Documents in the main navigation, then select the Templates subtab. Click New Template. You can paste in your existing engagement letter or fee agreement. Use merge fields throughout the document to autofill client name, matter type, attorney name, date, and any other variable information.

A well-built template means you never manually type a client’s name into an engagement letter again.

Step 2: Generate and send a document

When you are ready to send an engagement letter to a prospect, open their matter. Go to the Intake Process section and click the dropdown under Add Single Item. Select Prepare Document. Choose your template, confirm the contact information, and click Send. The client receives an email with a link to review and sign the document electronically.

Step 3: Track signatures

Go to Documents, then select the Pending subtab. This shows every document waiting for a signature. You can send a reminder to anyone who has not signed within a day or two. Once signed, the document moves to the Submitted subtab and is saved to the matter automatically.

Section 7: Automated Workflows

Once you have your forms, appointment types, and email templates built, you can combine them into automated workflows that run your intake process without manual intervention.

What a workflow does

A workflow is a sequence of actions triggered by an event. For example: a prospect submits your intake form, Clio Grow automatically sends them a confirmation email, then sends them a scheduling link 30 minutes later, then changes their matter status to Consultation Scheduled when they book.

Step 1: Choose your workflow type

Go to Settings, then Automated Workflows. Clio Grow offers three pre-built templates to start from:

• Rapid Intake: Send a form, change status when submitted, book follow-up appointment
• Screening Inbox Leads: Send an email with a scheduling link, change status when appointment is booked, then send intake form
• Comprehensive Intake: Send a basic form, schedule appointment after submission, send a detailed form after appointment is booked

For most small firms starting out, Screening Inbox Leads is the most practical. It works like this: a new lead comes in, they automatically receive an email with your scheduler link, when they book a consultation their status updates, and your intake form goes out automatically.

Step 2: Build and activate the workflow

Select your template, give it an internal title, and fill in each step by connecting it to the forms, appointment types, and email templates you already built. Every step is required before you can save.

Step 3: Apply the workflow to matters

Once built, you apply a workflow to individual matters. Open a matter, go to the Intake Process section, click the dropdown next to Add Checklist/Automated Workflow, and select your workflow. It begins running immediately.

You can still add manual checklist items to a matter even when a workflow is running, so automated and manual steps can coexist.

Section 8: Contacts

Your Contacts tab is your firm’s prospect and client database. Every person who comes through an intake form, a manual entry, or a Quick Intake becomes a contact.

Organizing contacts

Use the Contact Type field to distinguish between Prospective Client, Active Client, Former Client, and Professional Referral (other attorneys, doctors, etc.). Use Tags to add extra detail that doesn’t fit neatly into a field, such as the name of a referring attorney or a specific case category.

Finding contacts quickly

The Contacts tab has filters for Contact Type, Lead Source, and Tags. Use these when you want to look at all referrals from a specific source, or pull a list of everyone who came in during a particular month.

Section 9: Reports

Clio Grow has two reports worth checking regularly.

Matter Report

Go to Reports, then select Matter Report. This shows you how many matters came in over a given period, where they came from (lead source), what practice areas they represent, and your conversion rate from intake to hired. Check this monthly. If you notice that a particular lead source brings in a lot of inquiries but very few retained clients, that tells you something important about where you should and should not be spending marketing dollars.

Referral Report

Go to Reports, then select Referral Report. This shows how clients say they found you. It is only as accurate as how consistently your team logs lead sources when creating matters, which is why building that habit early matters.

Section 10: Day-to-Day Workflow

Once everything above is configured, here is how Clio Grow fits into a normal workday.

Start your day by opening the Pipeline. Look at what moved overnight: any new leads from your public intake form, any consultations that happened the day before that need to be moved forward, any engagements waiting on a signature.

Use the Agenda view for a daily task list. It shows what is due today, what is coming up, and what is overdue.

When a new lead calls the office instead of filling out a form, use Quick Intake to add them immediately. Do not let phone leads sit in a handwritten note or a sticky note. Get them into the system within minutes of the call so they receive your automated follow-up sequence like everyone else.

When a consultation is done and you decide to take the case, open the matter, click the checkmark icon, move them to Hired, and generate the engagement letter from your document template. Send it from within the matter. The client gets a signature link by email.

When you decide not to take a case, move the matter to Not Hired, select the reason, and send your not-a-fit email template. This keeps your database clean and gives you accurate conversion data in your reports.

Common Setup Mistakes to Avoid

Not configuring matter statuses before entering any matters. If you skip this, everything lands in a default column and you have to recategorize everything manually later.

Sending forms from a Clio generic email address instead of your own. Clients ignore emails from addresses they do not recognize. Connect your professional email in Settings before you send anything.

Building workflows before building the components they depend on. Workflows pull from your existing forms, appointment types, and email templates. Build those first, then build the workflow.

Not logging lead sources on every matter. Your referral and matter reports are only useful if this field is filled in consistently. Make it a firm policy from day one.

Skipping text reminders. The no-show rate reduction alone justifies the five minutes it takes to enable SMS in your settings.

 

Section 11: Website Builder

The website builder inside Clio Grow is not a full-featured platform like WordPress or Squarespace. It is a single-page law firm website that is tightly integrated with your intake and scheduling tools. With the click of a button, you can add appointment booking, contact forms, payment links, and client portal access to your website, and everything syncs directly back to Clio. Clio The main advantage is not design flexibility. It is the fact that every visitor who submits a form or books a consultation from the site flows automatically into your pipeline without any manual effort on your part.

Who this is right for

This tool is a good fit if you do not have an existing website, or if you want a fast, functional landing page for a specific practice area or marketing campaign. It is not the right choice if your firm needs a multi-page site, a blog, case study content, or a high degree of design customization. If you already have a website on WordPress or another platform, use your existing site and embed your Clio intake form links there instead.

Step 1: Access the website builder

Go to Settings, then select Website. Follow the initial prompts to begin building.

Step 2: Choose your domain

You can use the domain name offered by Clio Grow (in the format yourlawfirmname.cliogrow.com), purchase a domain through Google Domains, or use an existing domain that you already own. Clio If you already own a domain, you connect it by updating your DNS records to point to Clio’s servers. This process can take up to 48 hours to go live. If you do not own a domain and want a professional address, purchase one from a registrar like Namecheap or GoDaddy before starting this step.

Step 3: Select a theme and color scheme

Clio Grow offers a small number of pre-built themes. Choose one and select a color scheme that matches your firm’s branding. You can upload a logo, add your firm name, and choose a color palette. The themes are designed to look clean and professional without requiring any design work on your part.

Step 4: Build your page content

Fill in your firm description, practice areas, attorney bios, and contact information. Keep this content short and direct. Prospective clients visiting a law firm website typically want to know three things: what you do, where you are, and how to contact you. Do not write three paragraphs about your philosophy. Write two sentences about who you help and include a clear call to action.

Step 5: Activate your Clio integrations on the site

This is the step that makes the website valuable. Within the builder, turn on the following:

• Appointment booking (connects directly to your Clio Scheduler)
• Intake form (links to your public intake form)
• Payment link (allows clients to pay a consultation fee before booking)

Each of these connects to the tools you already set up in Sections 2 through 4 of this manual. When a visitor books or submits information, it lands in your pipeline automatically.

Step 6: Publish

When you are satisfied with the content, scroll to the top of the website settings page and toggle on Publish website. Your site goes live immediately.

Limitations to be aware of

The Clio Grow website builder may not be the best option for law firms looking for a highly-customized page. Clio There is no blogging functionality, no multi-page structure, and limited control over layout. Think of it as a digital business card with intake built in, not a full marketing website.

Section 12: Email Marketing and Campaigns

Clio Grow has two distinct email features that are easy to confuse. The first is communication templates, which are the transactional emails tied to your intake process (form confirmations, appointment reminders, and so on). Those are covered in Section 5 of the main manual. The second is the email marketing feature, which is a separate broadcast tool for sending campaigns to segments of your contact list. This section covers the broadcast marketing feature.

What it does

You can use email marketing campaigns to help your firm stay top of mind, convert leads to clients, and secure repeat business. The reporting features can help you understand how well a campaign performed, how recipients interact with your campaigns, and how much revenue you drive from email campaigns. Clio

This is meaningful because most email marketing tools show you opens and clicks. Clio Grow can tie email engagement back to actual matters opened and revenue billed in Clio Manage, so you can see which campaigns are actually generating business.

Step 1: Enable email marketing

Once enabled, email marketing is accessible to all users in your firm who have access to Clio Grow. Clio Go to the Marketing tab in the main navigation. If you do not see a Marketing tab, email marketing may not yet be enabled on your account. Contact Clio support to confirm it is included in your plan.

Step 2: Understand your audience options

Before building a campaign, decide who you are sending to. Clio Grow lets you filter your contact list using data from both Grow and Manage. Useful segments include:

• All contacts tagged as former clients (for re-engagement or referral requests)
• Contacts by practice area (for targeted newsletters, such as a family law update sent only to family law clients)
• Leads who never converted (for a follow-up sequence)
• Contacts whose matters closed within a specific date range (for check-in emails or review requests)

If you also use Clio Manage, enable shared contacts between the two platforms to get access to premade campaign templates and a broader audience pool. Clio

Step 3: Build your campaign

Go to the Marketing tab and click to create a new campaign. The campaign builder walks you through the following steps:

• Name the campaign (internal only)
• Select your audience using the filter options above
• Choose or build your email template
• Write your subject line and email body

Clio Grow includes built-in AI to help you draft subject lines and email body copy. Clio This is useful if you are not a natural writer or are unsure what to say. Use it as a starting point, but always read and edit the output before sending. Generic AI copy is easy to spot and does not reflect well on a law firm.

Step 4: Schedule or send

You can send the campaign immediately or schedule it for a specific date and time. For most campaigns, Tuesday through Thursday mornings tend to see higher open rates, though your specific audience may behave differently. Test over time and adjust.

Step 5: Review performance

After a campaign sends, return to the Marketing tab to review open rates, click rates, and any revenue attribution tied to the campaign. Pay attention to which subject lines drive opens and which calls to action generate clicks. That data tells you what to repeat and what to drop.

Practical campaign ideas for small firms

Most small law firms do not need to run campaigns constantly. A handful of well-timed sends per year drives real results without annoying your contacts:

• A quarterly newsletter with one or two relevant legal updates for your practice area
• A review request sent to all clients whose matters closed in the last 90 days
• A birthday email to existing clients (Clio Grow supports automated birthday sends)
• A re-engagement email to leads who consulted but never retained, sent 30 and 90 days post-consultation
• A year-end “thank you” to all active and former clients

Section 13: Google Local Services Ads

Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) are paid ads that appear above organic search results when someone searches for a lawyer in your area. Unlike traditional Google Ads where you pay per click, with LSAs you only pay when a potential lead contacts you through the ad, making it a lower-risk marketing solution. Clio Clio Grow is integrated directly with LSAs, which means leads from your ads land in your Clio pipeline automatically rather than sitting in a separate platform.

Before you start: check eligibility

Google’s Local Services Ads is currently only available for law firms located in the US, and only for specific practice areas: bankruptcy, business law, contract law, criminal law, disability law, DUI, estate law, family law, immigration, IP, labor law, litigation, personal injury, real estate, tax law, traffic law, and malpractice. Clio

You also need a Google Business Profile with at least one review before you can run LSAs. Personal injury firms specifically need a minimum of five reviews.

Step 1: Start the application

Go to Settings, then Marketing, then Marketing Channels. Under Local Services Ads, click Get Started. This launches a six-section application you can save and return to at any point.

Step 2: Complete your business details

You will enter your firm name as you want it to appear in ads, your phone number, the firm owner’s name and state bar license number, languages spoken, founding year, address, and whether clients can visit you in person. Every field is required.

Step 3: Get Google Screened

To run LSAs, your firm must earn the Google Screened badge. This involves submitting proof of your bar license and insurance coverage. The Google Screened checkmark appears on your ad and signals to potential clients that your background and expertise have been verified by Google. Clio This badge matters because it builds trust at the moment of decision, when someone is choosing between two law firms they know nothing about.

It can take 7 to 14 business days for your application to be approved and your ads to go live. Clio

Step 4: Set your budget

LSAs run on a weekly budget you control. You set a target number of leads per week and Google estimates a budget based on your market. You can raise or lower this at any time, and you can pause the ads entirely if you get too busy or go on vacation.

Step 5: Manage leads from your Grow inbox

Once your ads are live, incoming leads from LSAs appear in your Leads inbox inside Clio Grow under the Marketing subtab. From there, you can:

• Accept the lead, which creates a new contact and matter in your pipeline
• Run a conflict check before accepting
• Dispute a lead if it is clearly not a qualified prospect (Google may credit you for disputed leads)
• Ignore or mark as spam if the contact is irrelevant

When you intake a lead through the LSA integration, the marketing source is automatically logged on the matter, so your referral reports will accurately reflect how many retained clients came from LSAs. Clio This is important for understanding your return on ad spend.

Step 6: Monitor performance

From the same Marketing Channels screen where you set up your ads, you can view performance data including the number of leads received, cost per lead, and how leads are converting. Reviewing this monthly helps you decide whether to increase your budget, pause, or adjust your service area.

Section 14: Conflict of Interest Checks

Running a conflict check before taking on a new client is an ethical obligation. Clio Grow has a built-in conflict check tool that searches your entire database across both Grow and Manage in a single search. This is a significant improvement over searching a spreadsheet or relying on memory.

How it works

Conflict checks search your data across both Clio Grow and Clio Manage. You can run a conflict check from the global search bar, the Contacts tab, or during matter creation. Clio

The conflict check feature scans across both platforms to uncover potential conflicts in contacts, matters, notes, documents, and calendar events, all in a single search. Clio

Step 1: Set up a conflict check custom field

Before relying on the conflict check tool, create a custom field that lets you document that a check was performed on each matter. Go to Settings, then Custom Fields. Create a new field with the name “Conflict Check Performed” and set the type to Checkbox. Check the box to add this field automatically to all new matters. From now on, every new matter will include this checkbox as a reminder.

Step 2: Run a conflict check

When you are creating a new matter, you will see a button labeled Save and Run Conflict Check. Click this instead of Save alone. You can also run a check at any time by going to the global search bar at the top of your screen.

Enter the names you want to search: the prospective client’s full name, any opposing parties, companies, or other relevant names associated with the matter. You can add multiple search terms to a single check. Add an optional label to each search term to keep them organized in your results.

Click Generate Results.

Step 3: Review results and mark statuses

Clio Grow will return matches from across your contacts, matters, notes, documents, and calendar events. For each result, you review it and assign a conflict status: No Conflict, Potential Conflict, or Conflict. You can select multiple results and assign statuses in bulk. Add a note to any result that requires explanation.

Step 4: Close and generate the report

When you have reviewed all results, click Close and Generate Report. Clio Grow creates a summary report that shows the overall conflict status, who ran the check, when it was run, and the outcome of each search. You can download this report as a PDF or share a link to it with another attorney at your firm for review.

A conflict check automatically closes after three days. If you need to revisit it, you can duplicate and rerun a closed check. Clio

Who can run conflict checks

By default, only Firm Administrators and users with the General Access role can run conflict checks. To give other users this ability, create or update custom roles in your settings. Clio If you want every attorney to be able to run their own checks, adjust role permissions accordingly.

Make it a non-negotiable step in your intake process

The most reliable way to use this feature consistently is to bake it into your automated workflow or checklist. Add a manual checklist item labeled “Run Conflict Check” to every new matter, positioned before the Engagement Sent stage. This creates a visible reminder in the pipeline so nothing slips through.

Section 15: Clio Manage Sync

If your firm uses both Clio Grow and Clio Manage, connecting them properly is the single most important thing you can do to avoid duplicate data entry. When the sync is working correctly, a prospect in Grow becomes a client in Manage with no manual re-entry. When it is not set up properly, your team ends up entering the same person twice in two different systems, which defeats the purpose.

How the sync works

Grow handles everything before someone becomes a paying client: intake, scheduling, documents, conflict checks. Manage handles everything after: billing, time tracking, case management, trust accounting. The two products share a contact and matter database when connected with the same login credentials.

Clio implemented automatic synchronization of contact information between Clio Grow and Clio Manage. Contact details like names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses remain consistent across both platforms. Lawyerist

Step 1: Confirm both accounts use the same email login

When you sign up with the same email address, your accounts automatically sync contacts and matters. Clio If your firm’s Grow and Manage accounts were set up with different email addresses, contact Clio support to consolidate them. This is the root cause of most sync issues firms experience.

Step 2: Sync custom fields

If you have custom fields in Clio Manage (for tracking things like case-specific details, damage estimates, or referral information), you can pull those into Clio Grow so the same fields appear during intake. Go to Settings in Grow, then Custom Fields, and click Sync Clio Manage Custom Fields. This lets your intake forms collect information that maps directly into the corresponding fields in Manage, so nothing needs to be re-entered.

Step 3: Convert a Grow matter to a Manage matter

When a prospect in Grow signs an engagement agreement and becomes a client, you need to convert their matter. Open the matter in Grow, find the option to convert or send to Clio Manage, and confirm. The contact record, matter details, intake form information, and any custom field data transfer over to Manage automatically. From that point forward, billing and case management happen in Manage while the Grow record stays as a historical record of the intake process.

Step 4: Connect calendars

In Settings, you can connect your Clio Grow appointments and tasks to your Clio Manage calendars. Clio Do this so consultation appointments booked in Grow show up in the same calendar as your case deadlines and court dates in Manage. Without this connection, your attorneys are managing two separate calendars.

Step 5: Enable shared contacts for email marketing

If you plan to use the email marketing feature in Section 12, enable contact sharing between Grow and Manage. This gives your campaigns access to your full client database, not just contacts who came through the Grow intake process. The option is in Settings under Integrations or Account.

What does not sync automatically

A few things still require manual attention:

• Documents signed in Grow do not automatically move to a Manage matter’s document folder. You need to download and re-upload, or check whether your version of Clio handles this automatically.
• Billing information, time entries, and invoices are Manage-only. Nothing in Grow creates billing records.
• If a contact’s information is updated in Manage after conversion, verify the sync keeps both records current. The automatic sync covers the core fields, but heavily customized records may need occasional manual checks.

Section 16: Payment Collection

Clio Grow lets you collect payment from prospective clients before they ever become an active client in Manage. This is most commonly used to charge a consultation fee at the time of booking, but it can also be used to collect a retainer deposit as part of the intake process.

How it works

Payments in Clio Grow run through Clio Payments, which is Clio’s built-in payment processing system. Through Clio Payments and Clio’s other integrations, lawyers can easily accept electronic payments. Lawyerist Clio Payments is not a third-party processor you connect to. It is built directly into the platform.

Step 1: Set up Clio Payments

If you have not already set up Clio Payments, go to Settings and look for the Payments section. You will need to complete a merchant account application, which includes providing your firm’s banking information and tax identification number. Approval typically takes one to three business days. Note that Clio Payments charges a transaction fee on each payment processed, similar to any payment processor. Review the current fee schedule in your account settings before activating.

Step 2: Require payment to book a consultation

Once Clio Payments is active, go to your appointment types in Settings, then Appointments. Open the appointment type you use for paid consultations. Toggle on the option to require payment before the appointment is confirmed. Enter the consultation fee amount.

When a prospective client uses your scheduler link to book, they will be prompted to enter their payment information as part of the booking flow. The appointment is not confirmed until payment clears. This eliminates no-shows from people who are not serious, since a paid booking has much higher commitment than a free one.

Step 3: Add a payment link to your website

With the click of a button in the website builder, you can add payment links to your Clio Grow website. Clio This gives prospective clients who land on your site a direct way to pay a consultation fee or deposit without needing to call the office.

Step 4: Send a payment request manually

For situations where you want to collect a deposit or retainer from a prospect after the initial consultation but before they are formally a client in Manage, you can send a payment request directly from a matter in Grow. Open the matter, look for the payment or billing option, and enter the amount you want to collect. The client receives an email with a secure link to pay online from any device.

What happens to the money

Payments collected in Clio Grow flow into your designated Clio Payments account. Once a prospect converts to an active client in Clio Manage, any deposits or retainer funds need to be reconciled with the matter in Manage. Clio Payments integrates with Manage’s trust accounting tools, but the transfer of funds between the two systems requires a manual step. Build this into your conversion workflow so it does not get overlooked.

A note on consultation fee ethics

Rules on charging and refunding consultation fees vary by state bar. Before you start requiring payment to book, confirm your state’s rules on consultation fees and whether they need to be treated as client funds held in trust. When in doubt, check with your state bar or a colleague who practices in your jurisdiction.

 

Getting Help

Clio offers live chat support and an AI support agent available 24 hours a day through the in-app chat icon. For more complex setup, Clio sells a package where their team builds your forms and documents for you. If your forms are complicated or you have multiple practice areas, that package is worth considering.

Clio Academy has short video courses organized by feature if you prefer to learn by watching.