Over the years, we have watched law firms trade paper bills and spreadsheet workarounds for cloud billing systems that promise speed and accuracy. When your time, costs, invoices and payments live in one system, you bill faster, miss less revenue, and spend less effort stitching records together.
Clio provides the core tools to generate professional invoices, deliver them electronically, and record payments at the matter level, which removes a lot of the friction firms used to accept as normal.
However, here’s what we see most often: adopting better software does not automatically produce better outcomes. Invoicing efficiency is a product of rhythm, ownership, and verification.
Without a billing cadence that matches your cash needs, clear approval controls, and trust transfers that are confirmed in both the ledger and the bank, the same problems simply move into a nicer interface.
In this article, we walk through Clio’s invoicing features with practical context around the business decisions that matter, the reconciliation work you cannot skip, and the role a finance partner plays in keeping billing predictable, compliant, and easier to manage.
Where Invoicing Sits In Clio’s Ecosystem
Clio connects time capture, expense posting, matter records, invoices, payments and accounting. That end to end link matters because errors show up when data moves between systems.
If you capture time in Clio, post an expense, and then generate an invoice from that same dataset, you eliminate manual re-entry and a lot of common mistakes. Treat invoicing as part of a workflow rather than an occasional admin task.
When invoicing is integrated with matter accounting and payments you get accurate revenue recognition and cleaner accounts receivable reporting. That clarity matters at month end and it matters when partners need cash forecasts.
Batch Billing And Invoice Generation
If your firm handles many matters at once, bulk billing is a game changer. Clio’s “Generate Bills” functionality lets you filter by date range, matter, and other criteria and then create multiple draft invoices in one action.
For firms that bill frequently, running batch invoices cuts admin time and reduces lag between work performed and payment requested. Use draft status as a control point. Generate bills into draft, then run a short approval loop. Sampling reviews for high-value matters reduces errors.
Also watch your filters. Narrow start dates can miss misposted or old time entries. We often run a very early start date to catch entries from prior periods or prior years. That single habit has prevented underbilling in several of the firms we work with.
Creating Client Invoices
The short walkthrough demonstrates the exact sequence we use: Bills menu, billable clients filter, date range, generate drafts, review, approve, apply trust as needed, then post payments. Watch it for the menu clicks and the workflow. Below are the practical takeaways we want every reader to keep top of mind.
- Run invoices regularly. Twice monthly billing keeps clients engaged and makes cash flows steadier.
- Use a wide start date when generating batches to catch stray old entries. We sometimes set the start date back many years just to be safe.
- Generate bills a few days after the period ends and set due dates that align to your payroll cycle. For example, run through the 15th, generate on the 19th, and set a due date a week later.
- Use the draft then approve sequence. Approvals catch rate errors, incorrect client information and accidental write offs. Delegate the approval step if headcount requires it, but preserve the control.
- Apply trust funds to invoices inside Clio, and then perform the physical bank transfer from trust to operating. Recording the trust draw in Clio does not move funds at the bank. The bank transfer is a separate required step and the most common reconciliation gap we see.
- Share invoices through Clio’s secure client delivery so clients get a consistent, professional message and easy payment links.
If you watch the video, you’ll see these steps in sequence and the exact menu clicks I use. The clip is intended to be practical and reproduceable, not theoretical.
Payment Plans and Online Options
Clio Payments supports card processing, eCheck, ACH and other electronic options. That variety reduces friction. When a client receives an invoice with a Pay Now link they are far more likely to pay quickly. Integrated payments post instantly to the invoice, which eliminates a manual posting step and reduces errors.
Payment plans are another useful lever. Instead of chasing a single large receivable you can set up installment plans that clients accept. Those plans convert outstanding balances into predictable cash and avoid eroding client relationships. From an accounting perspective, integrated payments mean fewer reconciliation items and a cleaner AR ledger.
Trust Accounting and Moving Funds
Clio gives you tools to record trust receipts, apply trust funds to invoices, and create logs for those transactions. That makes the accounting record cleaner and gives you an audit trail. However, a recorded trust payment in Clio does not move money at your bank.
That physical transfer from trust to operating must still be performed at your financial institution. If you record the trust draw in Clio but do not complete the bank transfer, your ledger will appear correct while the bank statement does not. That mismatch creates the exact reconciliation headaches that lead to compliance risks.
Use the trust management features to track and document trust applications. Then complete the corresponding bank transfers to close the loop. Document the transfer in your reconciliation notes so the ledger entry and the bank movement are traceable to one another.
Three Way Reconciliation
If your firm holds client funds you must reconcile regularly. The industry standard is the three way reconciliation: the trust bank statement balance, the firm trust ledger balance within your accounting system, and the sum of all client matter balances must match.
Do this at least monthly. For firms with frequent trust activity, reconcile more often. The three way check is the clearest way to spot stray entries, incorrect payment sources, or missing transfers before regulators or partners notice.
Clio Accounting provides reports and tools that make the reconciliation process simpler, but the work still requires an assigned owner who runs and reviews the reconciliations. Make the owner responsible for escalation notes and remediation steps when balances do not align.
Invoice Presentation
Professional presentation matters. Clio offers extensive bill theme options so you can standardise how invoices look across users and matter types. Use themes to include your logo, an appropriate footer and the messaging you want clients to see.
You can configure who signs the invoice and whether to include detailed statements of account or a compact summary. Consistency in presentation reduces client questions and gives you one less reason to answer billing disputes. It is also how small firms punch above their weight in perceived professionalism.
Accounts Receivable Automation and Reminders
Automated reminders close a lot of gaps. Clio supports automated bill reminders by email and text and you can set the cadence to suit your client base. When reminders are consistent and automated, staff do not need to chase every invoice manually.
For firms that need more aggressive AR workflows, Clio integrates with third-party AR tools that offer tiered follow-ups, promise-to-pay tracking, and reporting tailored to collection teams. Automating reminders and pairing them with flexible payment links is a simple, high-ROI step that reduces days sales outstanding.
Using Clio Features Without Losing Control
Clio speeds up billing, but the system should never outrun your process. Use the features to generate and track invoices quickly, then add firm-defined checks to make sure speed and accuracy stay aligned.
- Bulk Bill Generation: Generate bills in batches to save time, but run a sampling review for high dollar matters before final approval. Automation should not be an automatic send.
- Bill Themes And Templates: Configure templates that include matter level trust balances when your jurisdiction expects that level of disclosure. Lock down approved templates so users cannot send ad hoc formats.
- Payment Logging And Audit Trails: Use Clio’s logs so the firm has a ledger level record of who applied funds, who approved bills and when transfers were recorded. These logs are essential evidence if an audit occurs. Keep a short rotation of who can access audit logs and require a reason for any log exports.
- Pre Send Ritual: Before any invoice is approved and sent, run a quick pre-send check. Confirm all time and expense entries are in the intended billing window, verify whether trust is being applied and that the matter has sufficient trust balance, confirm the recorded payment source, make sure bank transfers for trust draws are scheduled or completed, and ensure the appropriate reviewer approved the invoice. Running this ritual consistently removes most downstream problems.
Common Mistakes Firms Make
Software reveals process gaps. The most frequent errors are not Clio problems, they are process problems. Address these deliberately:
- Applying trust in Clio and assuming the bank transfer automatically followed: Always perform and document the trust to operating transfer.
- Weak approval flows: If one person can create and send invoices without review, errors multiply. Set a short approval chain that fits your headcount.
- Narrow filter use when doing bulk billing: If your start date excludes earlier misposted time entries you will underbill. I often run a wide start date to catch these.
- Inconsistent bill themes: Different templates or missing logos create client confusion. Lock down a small set of approved themes and require them for outgoing invoices.
- Relying on software for process design: Clio is powerful, but someone still needs to design the cadence, the approvals, and the AR escalation path.
If anything about an invoice or a trust draw looks off, stop, trace the recorded transactions, and confirm the bank status before sending the invoice.
We Can Help
Clio gives you the tools to turn time into reliable invoices, take payments quickly, and keep trust accounting tidy. But tooling without process still leaves money on the table. That is where a specialist finance partner helps.
At Law Firm Velocity we focus on translating the outputs from Clio into clean month-end closes, reliable trust reconciliation, meaningful AR management and a billing cadence that keeps cash predictable.
If you would like help reviewing your Clio invoicing workflows, setting up secure bill themes, designing approval matrices, or implementing trust transfer procedures that reconcile cleanly with the bank, give us a shout.
We can review your current setup, produce a short remediation plan, and work with your team to put practical controls in place. Reach out to Law Firm Velocity and we will walk through your Clio billing in plain language and with actions you can implement next week.
