Clio

Puntos a favor

Clio's intuitive design is easy to use for anyone from the tech savy to the "how do I turn this thing on" person. They are constantly adding features and functionality to the software solution making the administrative side of practicing law much easier and less time consuming. Clio's support team is always quick to respond and is always friendly and helpful. The growing list of integrations is definite plus and gives us the ability to extend the already great functionality to the next level. And if you are into coding, you can always create a custom integration to suit your needs.

Puntos en contra

Really the only complaint I have about Clio is the reporting capabilities. While it has some great canned reports within the interface, there is no ability to customize reports to massage out information that would be useful to my practice. We make do, of course, but this has been my complaint for some time now. Last time I checked there was a pay integration that allowed for more robust reporting but adding yet another subscription isn't appealing when it would be relatively easy for Clio to add this capability to their platform.

Puntos a favor

I really do believe that Clio is the future of legal cloud computing and practice/file management. It's a functional piece of software that allows attorneys and legal staff to manage cases with ease. There are a few things that I find to be useful with Clio:
1. Clio integrates with tons of other software options, including Grow (a CRM management tool). Keeping things "in the family" is really useful and speeds up management.
2. Clio's billing functionality is really nice. It's one of the more functional back end management tools I've seen, and I really like the way it works. You can integrate it with Quickbooks for easy accounting, which we really appreciate and which looks great on the user end (for clients, when they receive bills).
3. Clio sports a really professional interface, which just looks nice when you're working. It looks grown up and sleek, so if someone peeks over your shoulder or you're working while in the vicinity of clients, it doesn't have a preschool feeling to it.
4. Most important - Clio's customer support is incredible. Have an issue? There are videos you can watch, or people you can talk to. They will literally stay on the phone with you for hours as you troubleshoot issues together, or learn something new. Top notch, seriously.

Puntos en contra

I do have a few gripes about Clio. If these were addressed, it would get a 5-star rating from me:
1. Mouseclicks. Clio requires so. many. mouseclicks. It is infuriating at times. I realize this sounds stupid, but over time, they add up. I am a huge fan of efficiency, and Clio is one of the most inefficient programs I've used.
2. Workflows. I really enjoy using workflows to track various projects. Clio sucks at workflows. A complete rework of how they approach them, and how they look for interface with the staff who are responsible for executing, would go a LONG WAY toward making Clio a more useful application. I think workflows are really the topic that causes Clio to lag behind other software out on the market. I would like to see something in place that allows a user to create a workflow, move tasks around in the list, add subtasks to tasks, and assign triggering dates, secondary dates, etc. It would also be useful to be able to assign various tasks to various users. Until that's in place, I'll be sad about using Clio.
3. A central location for performing various functions. Clio does have a left-hand toolbar that allows you to do SOME things, but not ALL things. It would be good if, from the left-hand menu, I could do each discrete thing that I can do in Clio by clicking a mouse a zillion times. Once that happens, I'll be happier.
4. Document management. I'm out of room, but it is not idea. Too much downloading/uploading. Dropbox is better (for collaborati

Puntos a favor

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).

Puntos en contra

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.

Puntos a favor

It's online.
The timer can be stopped and started easily.

Puntos en contra

I spend about two (2) hours a day implementing workarounds to make the system work because it was not built for family law practice or file review. It's a good backup system but it's nothing very reliable unless you're willing to invest the time into making it work.

Puntos a favor

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.

Puntos en contra

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.