Text messaging in Clio lets your firm send and receive texts with clients from one firm-wide number, without sharing anyone's personal phone number. An administrator sets it up once for the whole firm, and every user can then text from Clio. You can send text messages with photos and documents attached, file texts to matters, view saved conversations from Clio, add time entries to associate with texts, export conversations in PDF format for use or storage outside of Clio, and use text messaging to send reminders for calendar events.
Note: Text messaging is only available for US and Canadian numbers (+1 country code) on the US and Canadian servers. If you are using Clio Phones, that has its own registration process. Refer to information about how to set up Clio Phones and text messaging via Clio Phones.
Set up text messaging
Note: Administrators can enable text messaging for the firm account in order for all firm members to use it.
When setting up text messaging, your firm is assigned a toll-free, firm-wide number that can be used to send and receive texts. To set up text messaging, you will need to complete a business verification process as part of anti-spamming regulatory requirements for businesses using toll-free text messaging. Verification can take up to a 72 hours.
A local number starts receiving texts right away, and you can send from your number after your registration is approved. Clio will notify you via email once your registration is complete.
Important: Once set up, your number will only receive texts from contacts. Avoid publishing the toll-free number on a website or distributing it to non-contacts. If your client tries calling your toll-free number used to send texts, they will hear an automated message that the call failed.
Tip: Make sure that your mailing address and other business information is correct and complete in Clio before starting the registration process to reduce the likelihood of issues during the registration process. When providing your firm's website address, make sure to enter it starting with https://.
Follow the steps below to enable text messaging for your firm.
- Go to Inbox > Text messages.
- Click Get your number.
- Select a local number and click Get this number or click Show other numbers.
- Complete your firm details and contact information.
Tip: Add an alternative email address or phone number for clients to contact your firm. This information can be used in text notification templates use for creating, updating, canceling, or sending automated reminders for a calendar event. - Click Next step.
- Review the form information and then click Submit.
Note: When you first enable text messaging, every contact with a valid primary phone number in Clio can be reached via text messages sent from Clio right away.
Send texts
Communicating with your contacts via text messaging is available from various locations in the Clio web app and from the mobile app. In the web app, you can send your clients texts from the main Inbox tab or from the matter or contact's Communications or Dashboard subtabs. In the mobile app, you can send texts from the Inbox. Certain file types can be attached with your text including photos, videos, GIFs, audio files, and basic .txt documents. When a received text includes an attachment, it will be saved as in the Documents folder for the contact or matter.
Note: Outbound texts have a maximum character limit of 2,048 characters. Inbound texts have a maximum character limit of 8,192 characters. Texts that exceed these limits, will fail to send / not be received.
- Go to Inbox > Text messages.
- Click the New message dropdown and select Text message.
- In the To field, search for a contact or enter a phone number.
- Optional: To file the text to a matter, click File to matter and select a matter. If the contact has only one matter, Clio files the text to it automatically.
- Type your text and click Send text.
- To add an attachment, click the attachment (paperclip) icon and upload a file or select one from Clio to send with the text messasge.
- Optional: To add a time entry to associate with the text, hover over a message and click the clock icon, or click Add time at the top of the conversation.
You can also select an existing conversation and type a new message in the text box.
- Go to the matter or contact's Dashboard.
- In the section with the contact's details, select Text next to the phone number.
- Select a contact. Once a contact is selected, any previous text correspondence will automatically appear.
- Type your text and click Send.
- To add an attachment, click the attachment (paperclip) icon and upload a file or select one from Clio to send with the text messasge.
- To add a time entry, click the Actions dropdown and select Add time.
- Open the mobile app and select the Inbox icon.
- Select the Texts subtab and then click New text.
- Select a contact. Once a contact is selected, any previous text correspondence will automatically appear.
- Type your text and click the blue arrow icon to send the text.
View received texts
Clio files texts to matters, the same way it files emails. If a contact has one matter, Clio files the text to it automatically. If a contact has more than one matter, you choose the matter.
Received documents will be saved in the Documents folder for each of the contact's matters.
Unread texts appear in bold with a blue dot, and a badge on text messages shows how many conversations are unread. To mark a conversation as unread, click the more icon (ellipses) in the conversation and select Mark unread.
Note: When you receive new texts, a badge icon will appear on the Communications tab. You can enable or disable this feature in Settings > Notifications. Scroll down to Text messages.
- Go to Inbox > Text messages.
- Optional: Click All or Filed to switch between all conversations and conversations filed to a matter, or enter a name or message in Search by name or message. Click the filter icon to filter the text conversations by matter, contact, or firm user.
- Click the conversation/thread you want to read to open it.
You can also respond to messages while when you have the text message conversation open and if you have permissions to do so.
Follow or unfollow text conversations
If you initiate a text conversation or reply to a text in a conversation, you will automatically follow that conversation. Other firm users can choose to follow any text conversation to receive notifications about text correspondance. When you follow a conversation, you will see a red badge on the Inbox tab and the Text messages subtab when a new message is received. You can also unfollow any text conversation.
Tip: Enable push notifications on your mobile device and the Clio mobile app to receive push notifications of new texts. Learn more here.
- Go to Inbox > Text messages.
- Optional: To view all firm text conversations, click All text messages or click Following to view only text conversations that you are following.
- Hover over the thread and click the bell icon to follow the thread.
- Optional: From within a text conversation, click the bell icon to follow the thread. To unfollow the conversation, click the bell icon.
- Go to a matter or contact and select the Communications subtab.
- Select Text messages.
- Optional: Click All text messages to view all firm text conversations, or click Following to view only text conversations that you are following.
- Click the down arrow next to View and select Follow replies.
- Optional: From the Communications tab of a contact or matter, when viewing a thread, select a text conversation and click the Follow button to follow it. The Follow button will now say "Following." To unfollow the conversation, click Following.
Send calendar text notifications and reminders
When creating Calendar events, you have the option to send event invitations to your clients by text. With this feature, your clients will receive automated text notifications when the event is created, updated, cancelled, and for event reminders.
You can view text message templates and enable event reminders in your Settings. You can also change the alternative contact information for text notifications. When your contact receives a text notification, your firm contact information will appear in the template, which allows contacts to respond to your firm.
- Go to Settings > Text Messaging.
- Under Event reminders, select the number of days before an event an automatic text notification should be sent.
- Under Text message templates, view the templates for creating, updating, canceling, or sending events or reminders.
- Under Your details, select Edit next to your phone number or email address to update your firm contact information.
When you send a Calendar invitation by text, your client will have the option to confirm their attendance by responding to the text. The calendar event will show whether the client confirmed or not. You can also view whether a reminder notification was sent by viewing the Calendar event.
- Go to the main Calendar tab or the matter’s Calendar subtab.
- Click New event.
- Complete the event details.
- Under Invite attendees, select your contact(s).
- Check the box next to Notify via text.
- Click Save event.
Send bills and trust requests by text
If your firm has both text messaging and Clio Payments enabled, you can use Text to Pay to text secure payment links to your clients for bills and trust requests. When sending a bill, this feature allows you to select text messaging as an additional delivery option, along with other methods such as email or the client portal. Learn how to send a bill here.
Failed text messages
If a text message fails to send, the reason for failure can be any one of the following:
- Unreachable number: There is an error with the contact's phone number. Verify that the phone number selected as the contact's texting number is a correctly formatted US or Canadian number.
- Rejected by carrier: The contact's carrier rejected the text message. A possible reason for this is that the phone number is unable to receive text messages. Verify the phone number entered for the contact and ensure that it is a correctly formatted US or Canadian number.
- Temporary error: The text message was not delivered because of an unusual error. Please try again.
- Unknown error: An unexpected and unknown error occurred when we tried to deliver the text message. Please try again.
- Carrier error: The text message was not delivered because an error occurred on the contact's carrier side. Please try again.
- Blocked messages: The text message was blocked by the service provider because your toll-free number has not been verified yet. Learn more here.
- Exceeded maximum character limit: The text message was not delivered because it exceeded the maximum character limit. Outbound texts have a limit of 2,048 characters. Inbound texts have a limit of 8,192 characters.
Note: Freedom and Shaw customers cannot send MMS messages at this time. If your client is using a Freedom or Shaw mobile device and they try to send you a multimedia (MMS) message, the client will receive an error message on their device informing them that the message was not delivered.
Export and print text conversations
If you need to export a text conversation to a printable PDF format for your records, for sharing with others, or for submitting to the court, you can do so directly from the text thread.
- Go to Inbox > Text messages.
- Optional: Click the filter icon to filter the text conversations by matter, contact, or firm user, and then click Apply filters.
- Click the conversation you want to export.
- Click the download icon at the top of the conversation.
Turn off text messaging
Follow these steps to turn off text messaging and event notifications and reminders:
- Go to Settings > Text Messaging.
- Click Turn off text messaging.
- Select Turn off text messaging.
Up next
- Learn how to communicated with client using other communication methods like email and Clio for Clients.
- Text Message Notifications and Reminders in Clio Grow: Text potential clients and send form, document, and appointment notifications from Clio Grow.
- Mobile App: Communications: Send and manage texts, secure messages, and meeting logs from the mobile app.