Set Up Evergreen Retainers

In Clio Manage, the evergreen client funds setting helps your firm track the balance of client funds on a matter. After your client pays the initial deposit, turn on evergreen client funds in the matter's Billing preference section and set the Minimum required balance. As you draw against the funds, the matter Dashboard shows the current client funds balance. When you pay a bill from client funds, you also create a client funds request for the amount needed to reach the minimum. You can add a Low balance notification to alert firm users when the matter client funds balance drops below the minimum.

Understand evergreen management in Clio Manage

An evergreen retainer follows the same cycle each billing period and enables your firm to automate the client funds request generation.

1. Collect the initial retainer. Create a client fund request, send it to your client, and record the payment. 
   • See Create Client Funds Requests and Approve and Send Client Funds Requests.
2. Set the minimum required amount and turn on evergreen client funds.
3. Record time and expense entries, then generate a bill.
4. Apply the retained client funds to the bill.
5. Review the automatic replenishment client fund request, and send it to your client.

Set the minimum required amount and turn on evergreen client funds

The Minimum required amount is the client funds balance you want to keep available on the matter. Replenishment requests top the balance back up to this amount. Set the minimum first, then turn on the settings you want. You can turn on evergreen client funds and low balance notifications separately.

1. Go to the matter you want to update, or create a new matter.
2. Click Edit matter.
3. Scroll to the Billing preference section, then find Client funds.
4. Under Minimum required, enter the client funds balance to maintain for this matter.
5. Turn on Enable evergreen client funds.
6. Optional: Turn on Low balance notification, then under Notify these users, select the firm users to notify.
7. Click Save matter.

Monitor client balances

You can track client balances on a single matter or across the firm.

On a matter, the Financial section of the matter Dashboard shows the current client funds balance, the minimum required amount, and a low-balance indicator once the balance falls below the minimum.

Across the firm, the client account management report shows unbilled activities, client funds account balances, and minimum required amounts, so you can compare your billable work against the funds you hold. See Clio Manage Reports, Presets, and History to generate a report, and Clio Manage Client Reports for what the client account management report contains.

Apply client funds and generate the replenishment request

Applying client funds to a bill automatically creates the replenishment client funds request. An Evergreen client funds section appears when the matter client funds balance falls below the Minimum required amount.

1. Generate a bill. See Generate Bills in Bulk, or Generate Quick Bills for a single bill.
2. Apply client funds to the bill. See Apply Client Funds to Bills. You can apply client funds to several bills at once from the bills table.
3. Under Evergreen replenishment review the number of requests you are about to create, then set the Issue date and Due date.
4. Optional: Click Add note to add a note to the request.
5. Optional: Select Skip the client funds request approval process to send the request without approval from another firm member.

6. Review Clear old client funds requests to prevent duplicates, then confirm to apply the client funds.

   Important: Clear old client funds requests to prevent duplicates is selected by default. Clearing deletes draft requests, voids unpaid requests, and writes off the remaining balance on partially paid requests. Clear the checkbox to keep existing requests. When a partial payment is still pending, write off the remaining amount yourself after the payment completes.

7. Review the request and send it to your client to collect the funds. See Approve and Send Client Funds Requests.

Understand the replenishment amount

The request amount is the difference between the Minimum required amount and the current matter client funds balance:

Minimum required − current client funds balance = client funds request amount

For a matter with a £2,750.00 minimum, applying client funds that brings the balance to £0.00 generates a request for £2,750.00. For a matter with a £5,000.00 minimum, applying client funds that leaves a £1,000.00 balance generates a request for £4,000.00.

When you clear old client funds requests, the new request is for whichever is higher: the amount needed to reach the minimum, or the amount still owed on the cleared requests.

Replenish manually with Autofill

If you have enabled evergreen client funds on a matter and need to manually top up the matter, you can create a client fund request and use Autofill to calculate the replenishment amount. 

1. In Clio Manage, go to the matter Dashboard.
2. In the Financial section, under Matter client funds, click New request.
3. Confirm the Issue date, Due date, Client, and Matter, and set Balance type to Matter.

4. Open the Autofill menu beside the Amount label and choose an option. Each option shows its calculated amount, so you can compare them before you choose.

   Note: The four options show the same amount when a matter has no outstanding balance and no unbilled work in progress. Replenish uses the same target as evergreen client funds: the matter's Minimum required client funds balance.

   • Replenish: Bring the matter client funds balance back up to the minimum required.
   • Replenish + outstanding balance: The replenishment amount plus any outstanding balance on the client's bills.
   • Replenish + WIP: The replenishment amount plus unbilled work in progress.
   • Replenish + outstanding balance + WIP: The replenishment amount plus outstanding balances and unbilled work in progress.
5. Optional: Edit the Amount field to override the calculated amount.
6. Click Save client funds request.

Up next

• Create Client Funds Requests: Create a client funds request and use Autofill to calculate the amount.
• Approve and Send Client Funds Requests: Approve a generated request and send it to your client.
• Record Payments on Client Funds Requests: Record your client's deposit against the request.