Matter stages are kanban-style boards that you can use to visualize and track matter progress in Clio Manage. You can create stages by practice area, add matters to specific stages, and easily move matters between stages to track matter progress. With matter stages, you get firm-wide visibility into which matters are in which stages, allowing better collaboration across your firm, less time spent identifying which matters are a priority, and effective case management for larger workloads.
Note: Matter stages are not available on all subscription plans. See which plans have matter stages here. If you need to upgrade your firm's plan, ask an administrator to go here.
Create matter stages
Matter stages vary depending on your practice area and the type of matter you are working on. Since matter stages are connected to practice areas in Clio, there is an associated matter stages board for every practice area that you created in your Clio Manage settings. Once matter stages are created, they are available across your entire firm.
Note: Since matter stages are tied to practice areas, you need to create practice areas in Clio Manage before you can get started with matter stages. Learn more here. Additionally, only administrators can create matter stages.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Select the practice area dropdown to view matters assigned to that practice area and to begin creating stages for that practice area.
- If you have not created practice areas yet, click Create practice area to get started. Once you have set up your practice areas, come back to this page to create matter stages. A matter stage for any new practice area will automatically appear as a dropdown selection.
- Matters with practice areas will appear in a No Stage Assigned column and can be moved to a new stage column after you have created your matter stages. This column will be hidden once all your matters are moved to a stage.
- Click Add a matter stage.
- Enter the name for the matter stage and then click Add matter stage.
- Example matter stages include "Pre-trial" for a Criminal law matter or "Settlement/Trial" for a Personal Injury matter.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 to create the remaining stages for your selected practice type.
- You can create up to 15 matter stages for each practice area.
Tip: Use your laptop's track pad to scroll from side-to-side to view all of your stages for the selected practice area.
View and sort matter stages
When viewing the matter stages board overview, you can switch between boards by selecting a new practice area, filter the matters shown for each practice area, and move matter stage columns to rearrange them.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click the practice area dropdown and select a different practice area.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click Filters.
- Select your filter parameters and then click Apply filters.
- You can filter each matter stages board by client, responsible attorney, and originating attorney. You can also filter by the date that the matter was last moved from its previous stage to its current stage.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click and hold a matter stage column and then drag it to the left or right of another column.
- You can also tab to highlight a stage, click enter on your keyboard, and use the right and left arrow keys to reposition the stage to another spot. Confirm placement by clicking enter again.
Edit and delete matter stages
You can change a matter stage's name at any time after it has been created. If necessary, you can also delete a matter stage. If you delete a matter stage, the matters under that column will move to the No Stage Assigned column.
Note: Only administrators can edit and delete matter stages.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click the three dots next to a matter stage's name and select Edit matter stage.
- Change the stage's name and then click Save changes.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click the three dots next to a matter stage's name and select Delete matter stage.
- When the warning prompt appears, click Delete matter stage.
Add matters to matter stages
When you assign a practice area to a matter, that matter will automatically appear on the matter stages board for that practice area. If you have not assigned a practice area to a matter, you can do so by editing the matter. Once a practice area is assigned, the first matter stage will be selected by default.
Note: Since matter stages are connected to practice areas, each matter can only be on one board at a time.
Tip: You can view a new Matter stage column in the matters table and export the column content in your PDF and CSV exports. To view the table, go to Matters > Matters. Click Columns and check that Matter stage is selected.
- Go to your matter and click Edit matter.
- In the Matter details section, select a practice area under Practice area.
- In the same section, under Matter stage, select one of the stages that you created for that practice area.
- Click Save matter.
- You can also view the matter stage for a specific matter under the Details section of the matter's Dashboard.
Move matters between matter stages
When a matter appears on a stage, the matter card will include the matter's name/number, matter description, client's name, and the number of days that a matter has been at its current stage. The count for this value begins when a matter is moved to a new matter stage column and does not include the No Stage Assigned column. Moving matters between matter stages is quick and easy. You can move matters between stages from the Stages tab or from a matter's Dashboard.
Tip: Once a matter is moved to a new stage, you can view a timeline of the activity in your Firm Feed and under the Timeline section of the matter's Dashboard.
Note: The coloured bar to the left of matter's card represents the matter's status. Open matters are green and pending matters are yellow. Closed matters will not appear on the board.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click and hold a matter card and then drag and drop it to a new matter stage column.
- You can also select a matter card, click enter on your keyboard, and use the right and left arrow keys to move the matter card to a new column. Confirm placement by clicking enter again.
Note: If a practice area is not assigned to a matter, you cannot assign a stage or change a matter's stage.
- Go to the matter and select the Dashboard subtab.
- Scroll down to the Details section of the Dashboard.
- Next to Matter stage, click the stage dropdown and select the new matter stage.
Manage matter card actions
For each matter card, you can change its practice area, mark it as pending or open, or close the matter.
Tip: Click the client's name on the matter card to view the contact's details.
- Switch practice area:
- This will move the matter from one board to another. Once moved, the matter card will automatically file into the first stage for the new practice area.
- Mark as pending/open:
- If a matter is open, you can mark it as pending by selecting Mark as pending. This will change the green coloured bar to a yellow bar. If a matter is pending, you can mark it as open by selecting Mark as open. This will change the yellow bar to a green bar.
- Close matter:
- Since closed matters are not included on the board, selecting this option will cause the matter to disappear from the board. If you want to show the matter on the board again, edit the matter and set it to open or pending. A closed matter will retain its practice area and board stage, which means that reopening it will put it back to its same board location.
- Go to Matters > Stages.
- Click the three dots next in the upper right of a matter card.
- Select either Switch practice area, Mark as pending, or Close matter.