Clio

Quick links

What the Clio integration does

Clio is your system of record for matters and billing. Superpractice is where you see which marketing produced them. Connecting the two closes that loop:

• Retained matters come in from Clio. When a Clio matter is Open, Superpractice treats it as retained, links it to the right contact and matter, and counts its revenue next to the ad, search or referral that brought the client in.
• Billing sets the matter's Value. Once Clio has billed the matter, Clio's bills replace the intake estimate, line by line, with billed time keeping its hours and hourly rate.
• Payments applied in Clio become Collected. Money applied to a matter's bill in Clio shows on the matter, in Payments, and in every revenue number.
• Changes arrive within seconds. Clio notifies Superpractice when a matter or bill changes. An hourly check catches anything else.

Superpractice only reads from Clio. It never edits, closes or deletes anything already in Clio, and it never touches bills, payments, trust accounts or activity history. Writing to Clio is off by default and, when a firm turns it on, only ever adds new records. See What Superpractice never does in Clio.

Connect Clio

1. In Superpractice, open Settings > Integrations and find Clio under Practice management. You need to be an owner or admin.

2. Choose how far back to bring matters in: the last month, 3 months, 6 months, year or 2 years. You can change this later.

3. Choose whether to Bring in Clio matters you don't have in Superpractice (off by default). Off, only Clio matters whose client is already one of your contacts come in, and the rest stay in Clio. On, the others come in too, each with a new contact, so all your Clio revenue counts in Superpractice. You can change this later.

4. Click Connect with Clio and choose which Clio app to use:

   • Superpractice's Clio app. Quickest, with nothing to set up.
   • Your firm's own Clio app. Your firm creates the app in Clio and holds its keys, so you control exactly what it can see and can turn it off from your Clio account. See Connect with your firm's own Clio app.

   If your firm already set up the Clio assistant, you'll see three choices instead: Your Clio assistant's app (chosen for you, nothing to paste), A different Clio app (to keep the two on separate apps) or Superpractice's Clio app.

5. Click Continue to Clio and approve on Clio's page. Use a Clio account that can see the matters you want in Superpractice: Superpractice sees only what that person can see.

6. You land back in Settings with Clio connected. The first import starts within a minute.

The first import brings in Open matters and Closed matters opened inside the period you chose (only the ones that match your contacts, unless you turned on Bring in Clio matters you don't have in Superpractice), without starting any automations. Importing history never messages a client.

Connect with your firm's own Clio app

Your firm's own app (Clio calls it a private app) is created with the firm's normal Clio login. You don't need a Clio developer account, and Clio doesn't review it. It needs a paid Clio Manage plan above EasyStart.

Already set up the Clio assistant? Use that same app. Open it at developers.clio.com/apps and click Edit. Under Redirect URIs, keep the line that's there and add https://app.superpractice.com/api/integrations/clio/callback as a second line. Under Permissions, set Webhooks to Read and Write (write lets Superpractice set up its own change notifications; it can't change your data). Save, then choose Your Clio assistant's app in the Connect popup; there's nothing to paste. To keep the Clio card on a separate app instead, choose A different Clio app and paste that app's keys. Each app's keys are stored encrypted with its own connection.

Starting fresh:

1. Go to developers.clio.com/apps/new and sign in with the firm's Clio login (the owner or a Clio admin).
2. Fill in the form:

3. Set Permissions. Tick Read for Activities, Billing, Contacts, General, Matters, Payment distributions and Users, and Read and Write for Webhooks. Payment distributions is what lets Superpractice read the payments applied to your bills: without it, bills still sync but Collected stays at $0. Webhooks is what makes changes arrive within seconds: its write permission only lets Superpractice set up its own change notifications, never change your data. Without it Superpractice checks every hour. Add the Clio assistant's permissions too if you'll use the same app for both.
4. Leave Clio Payments → Redirect URIs blank. It's a different field.
5. Click Save. Your app opens with its App Key and App Secret.
6. In Superpractice, click Connect with Clio, choose Your firm's own Clio app (or A different Clio app if your firm already has the Clio assistant), and paste the App Key into Client ID and the App Secret into Client secret. They're stored encrypted and never shown again.
7. Click Continue to Clio and approve.

If Clio shows an error about the redirect URI, the first address above is missing from your app. If Superpractice says Clio didn't accept your app's keys, re-copy the App Secret.

Changing your app's secret. If the Clio card uses the same app as the Clio assistant, change the secret in one place only: paste the new App Secret on the Clio assistant card and sign in again. The Clio card picks up the new secret by itself. If the Clio card uses an app of its own, disconnect it and connect again with the new secret.

Whichever app you use, the rules below are the same: Superpractice reads, and never edits or deletes anything in Clio.

How your app's keys are kept. The App Key and App Secret are encrypted (AES-256) before they're saved, only Superpractice's servers can read them, and they're never shown again: Settings shows the last 4 characters of the App Key and nothing else. If the Clio card and the Clio assistant use separate apps, each app's keys are stored separately with its own connection. If they share one app, change its secret in one place, the Clio assistant card, and the Clio card follows.

How Clio matters find their place

Superpractice never creates a duplicate of a matter you already have. Each Clio matter goes through the same steps, from most certain to least:

1. Already linked. A matter Superpractice has synced before is updated in place.
2. The client. The Clio client is matched to your contacts by a link from an earlier sync, then by phone number, then by email. A match on name alone is never trusted on its own.
3. The matter. If that contact has exactly one open matter in Superpractice (from a form, a call, a contract), the Clio matter links to it and the matter becomes retained. If the contact has several open matters, the one whose practice area matches Clio's is chosen; otherwise a person decides.
4. Nothing to link to. If the client is one of your contacts but has no matter to link, a new retained matter is created for that contact. If the client isn't in Superpractice at all and Bring in Clio matters you don't have in Superpractice is on, a new contact and a new retained matter are created. Its source shows as Clio, and reports show it as unattributed rather than crediting a channel we can't prove. The contact has no texting consent on file, since they became a client in Clio rather than through your forms, so procedures email them but don't text them until they consent. With the switch off, a client who isn't one of your contacts stays in Clio.

Anything the sync can't decide on its own waits in Matters > Needs review:

• Several open matters for the same client: pick the one the Clio matter belongs to, or create a new one.
• Same name, different email and phone: confirm whether it's the same person or a different client.
• Client already has a matter synced from HubSpot, GoHighLevel or a matter webhook: decide, rather than counting the revenue twice. A client's other Clio matters never hold one up: a second Clio matter is simply a second matter.
• No client on the Clio matter: add one in Clio and it syncs on its own.

You can also Skip a Clio matter. Skipped matters are never brought in again.

Which Clio status means what

A Clio-synced matter's stage follows Clio. Changing it in Superpractice isn't allowed, because the next sync would put it back.

Practice areas

Clio practice areas are your firm's own list, so each Clio matter is placed in your practice areas in Superpractice (Settings > General > Practice Areas and Sub-Practice Areas), where its revenue is reported:

1. Main practice area comes from the category Clio gives every practice area (family, personal injury, criminal, and so on). Only practice areas you have turned on are used.
2. Sub practice area (Contested Divorce, Paternity, Car Accidents, ...) is chosen by AI from the matter's description, its billed work in Clio and the client's details in Superpractice. Only sub areas you have turned on are used, and only when the AI is confident; otherwise the matter keeps its main practice area. Notes you've hidden from AI are never read. The AI runs with zero data retention.

Fee type comes from the matter's billing method in Clio: Hourly, Flat Fee or Contingency.

You can change a Clio matter's practice area, matter type and fee type in Superpractice at any time. Your choice stays: Clio changes never overwrite it. Until you change them, the practice area and fee type follow Clio when they change there. The matter's name always follows Clio.

How Value is set

A matter keeps its Superpractice estimate (its intake line items) until Clio has billed at least that much, or Clio closes the matter. From then on, Clio's billing owns Value:

• Each billed Clio line becomes a line item. Billed time keeps its hours and hourly rate; expenses are marked as expenses. Only approved bills count. Drafts, bills awaiting approval, and voided or deleted bills don't.
• Bills covering several matters count only this matter's share, exactly as Clio states it.
• The replaced estimate isn't lost. A copy is kept on the matter's activity.
• Value never drops below Collected. If more has been collected on the matter than Clio has billed so far, one line called "Collected, not yet billed in Clio" holds the difference until the billing catches up.

Line items that come from Clio are read-only in Superpractice. Change the bill in Clio and it syncs here.

Payments

When a payment is applied to a matter's bill in Clio, it becomes a payment in Superpractice with Clio as its source, matched to the matter with nothing to review.

• Never counted twice. If the same money was already recorded from Stripe, LawPay or by hand (same matter, same amount, within a few days), the Clio payment attaches to that record instead of adding another.
• Voided in Clio means voided here. It drops out of Collected on its own.
• Trust money is not revenue until Clio applies it to a bill. Deposits into trust don't appear in Superpractice.

Close date

A matter retained through Clio takes its close date in this order: a close date already set in Superpractice, else the date of the first payment applied in Clio, else the Clio open date. Once a first payment sets it, it doesn't move again.

Settings on the Clio card

• Bring in Clio matters you don't have in Superpractice (off by default; you choose it when you connect). On, Clio matters whose client isn't one of your contacts come in too, each with a new contact. Off, only clients already in Superpractice come in (their Clio matters are linked, or added as new retained matters); the rest stay in Clio and aren't counted as revenue here, and Matters > Needs review can't add a client as a new contact.
• Let Superpractice write data in Clio (off by default). Superpractice only ever adds new records. It never edits or deletes anything already in Clio.
• Create a Clio matter when a matter is retained in Superpractice (off by default, and needs the switch above). Adds a new matter and client in Clio when Clio doesn't already have them. Not yet available.
• Bring in Clio matters opened in the last month, 3 months, 6 months, year or 2 years. Counted from each matter's open date in Clio, from the day you choose it. A longer period brings in the older matters without starting automations. A shorter period never removes anything.

Changing a write switch is recorded in your firm's consent log, with who changed it and when.

What Superpractice never does in Clio

• Never edits, closes or deletes a matter, contact or anything else already in Clio.
• Never creates, edits or deletes bills, payments, trust transactions or time entries.
• Never writes anything unless a firm owner or admin turns writing on, and then only adds new records.
• Never deletes anything in Superpractice because it disappeared in Clio.

In Superpractice, a Clio-synced matter can't be deleted and its Clio line items can't be edited, so the two systems can't drift apart by accident.

When Clio disconnects

If Clio stops accepting Superpractice's sign-in, every owner and admin gets an email and an in-app notice with a Reconnect button. New changes wait until someone reconnects.

Clio's developer terms require Superpractice to remove data it imported from Clio once Clio is no longer connected. So nothing disappears by accident, removal waits 30 days:

• Nothing is deleted when Clio disconnects, whether you disconnect in Settings or access is removed in Clio.
• Reconnecting within 30 days cancels the removal and everything carries on.
• Owners and admins get reminders by email and in the app when it disconnects, then 23, 16, 9, 3 and 1 day before removal. The Clio card shows the removal date.
• Only records Superpractice created from Clio are removed. Matters and contacts your firm had before Clio are kept and unlinked, and their original estimate is restored. Payments from Stripe, LawPay or entered by hand are kept.

An owner can also remove everything imported from Clio straight away from the Clio card (Remove everything imported from Clio…), after reviewing exactly what will be removed and typing DELETE to confirm.

Troubleshooting

• A Clio matter hasn't appeared: check that it's Open (Pending matters wait), that it was opened inside your import period, and that it isn't waiting in Matters > Needs review.
• Value looks different from Clio: Value follows approved bills only. A draft or unapproved bill doesn't count yet.
• Collected is $0 on every Clio matter, though bills show: your firm's own app can't read payments. On the app in Clio's developer portal, tick Read next to Payment distributions and save, then click Reconnect on the Clio card. Payments arrive with the next hourly sync.
• A payment shows twice: it shouldn't. If a processor payment and a Clio payment for the same money both appear, tell us and we'll look at the match.
• The card says "synced every hour" right after connecting: real-time updates switch on when the first import runs, a few seconds after you connect. Reload the page.
• The card still says "synced every hour" instead of "updates within seconds": Clio's real-time notifications aren't active for this connection. On your firm's own app, check that Webhooks has both Read and Write ticked, then disconnect and connect again so Clio grants the new permission. Otherwise reconnect once; if it persists, contact support.
• To switch between Superpractice's app and your own: Disconnect, then Connect with Clio again and choose the other app. Nothing imported is lost when you reconnect within 30 days.

Not yet available

• Creating matters in Clio from Superpractice.
• Held trust balances from Clio (money deposited but not yet billed).
• Hours and rate shown on the matter screen (they're stored today).

Related guides

• Matters
• Payments
• Revenue
• Clio assistant: let your team's Claude or ChatGPT work in Clio
• Integration basics