Clio Payments Set Up and Settings for Australia

Clio Payments is Clio’s built-in payment solution for Australian customers. With Clio Payments, firms in Australia can manage credit cards, debit cards, and direct debits. Firm users can save client payment methods and create payment plans. Once set up, your clients can also pay their bills using Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Sign up for Clio Payments in Australia

All Australian customers can sign up for Clio Payments. Once the signup process is complete, you will receive an email notification that you can begin using Clio Payments.

1. Go to Online payments.
2. Click Activate today.
3. Under Business type, select your business type and business structure if appropriate, and click Next.
   • Required: Statement descriptor: When a client pays by card, the charge will appear on their credit card or bank statement as your firm’s payment descriptor. By setting a clear and recognisable descriptor, you help clients identify your firm charges and reduce the chances of chargebacks and disputes. Learn more about statement descriptors here, and see the screenshot below for an example.
   • You can always edit the statement descriptor after signing up for Clio Payments, but, at this stage of the signup process, your statement descriptor should meet the following requirements to be approved:
     • Reflects your Doing Business As (DBA) name if you have one, otherwise reflects your legal business name
     • Contains Latin characters only.
     • Contains between 5 and 22 characters, inclusive.
     • Contains at least one letter (if you are using a prefix and a suffix, both require at least one letter).
     • Contains more than a single common term or common website URL. A website URL is only acceptable if it provides a clear and accurate description of a transaction on a client's credit card or bank statement.
     • Does not contain any of the following special characters:

       < > \ ' " *

   
4. Enter your business details, complete the required fields based on your Business Type and Business Structure, and click Next. You can review the information below if you need more information about how to classify your firm when signing up for Clio Payments in Australia.
   • Optional: Business website/Business description: Enter the business website you use to promote your services and a detailed description of the legal services you offer, if applicable. Your website should accurately reflect the services you offer to clients. The description should include your specific practice area(s) and tell us when and how you get paid.

   Tip: The business type selected will dictate whether you need to add and verify representatives or beneficial owners. If you do not see the business owners screen, skip to Step 7 on payout accounts.

   Individual

   Business Structure: Individual

   • Personal details: Review the existing account information that will auto-populate, and update the information as necessary.
   • Required: Date Of Birth: Enter your birth date to verify ownership and click Next to enter your business details. If verification fails, you will need to submit a scan of an ID document.

   Company

   Complete the following information to build your payment profile if your business is a company.

   • Required - Payment profile details:
     
     • Website/ URL: If you have a business website or social media profile for your firm, enter the website URL or full social media URL in this field.
     • MCC/Merchant Category Code: This is a four-digit number that clarifies the type of goods or services your business offers.
     • Terms of Service
     • External Account
     • Contact Details:
       
       • Company Name
       • Company Address
       • Company Phone
       • Company Tax ID

    

   Business Structure: Public or private corporation

   • Required - Business details:
     • Company Name
     • Company Address
     • Company Phone
     • Company Tax ID
     • Australian Business Number (ABN)
     • Company Registration Number: Australian Company Number (ACN) 
     • Directors provided
       Note: Directors are not required in business partnerships.
     • Owners Provided
     • Executives Provided
   • Representative personal information:
     • Representative First Name
     • Representative Last Name
     • Representative Date of Birth
     • Representative Address (Not required for directors).
     • Representative Email
     • Representative Phone
     • Relationship with Company
       • representative.relationship.title
       • representative.relationship.executive

   Business Structure: Non-profit

   • Required -  Business details
     • Company Name
     • Company Address
     • Company Phone
     • Company Tax ID
     • Australian Business Number (ABN)
     • Directors provided (Not required)
     • Owners Provided (Not required)
     • Executives Provided
   • Representative personal information:
     • Representative First Name
     • Representative Last Name
     • Representative Date of Birth
     • Representative Address (Not required for directors).
     • Representative Email
     • Representative Phone
     • Relationship with Company
       • representative.relationship.title
       • representative.relationship.executive
5. Add your personal information to verify that you own the business, and then click Next. Depending on the business type you selected at the start of the signup process, you may need to also add personal information for beneficial owners on the next screen.

   Important: Directors and beneficial owners can include one or both persons who exercise significant control over your business ( i.e., executive officers or senior managers, such as CEO, CFO, COO, Managing Member, General Partner, President, Vice President, or Treasurer)., such as executives, and all persons who own 25% or more of the company.

6. Complete the declaration. Click "I declare that the above statements are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, information, and belief." This will submit the IP Address, Date, and User Agent that submitted the information. 
   • A beneficial owner who is authorised to sign for the company will need to complete this step. you can indicate the relationship by setting the relationship.executive to true.
7. Add a Trust and Operating payout account. Payments made to your firm through Clio will be sent to these accounts. 
8. Review the information you entered, check the boxes to agree to the terms and conditions, and then click Submit.
9. Optional: Go back to the Online payments page to view the status of your application. If there are any issues with your business details, you will be prompted to enter more details.
10. Once your application is approved and you receive an email that your account is ready, you will need to connect at least one Clio Manage operating account to online payments. You may also need to provide additional verification for your payments profile.
    • To connect a Clio Manage bank account to online payments, go to the main Accounts tab. Learn more about how to connect operating accounts to online payments here.
    • To provide additional verification for your payments profile, go to Settings > Online payments, and then click Go to Payment Settings. Learn more about updating your payments profile here

Set up Clio Payments

To finish activating Clio Payments, you will need to connect your bank accounts.

1. Go to Set Up Clio Payments and select Get Started.
2. Connect each relevant bank account to ensure existing payment links work seamlessly.
3. Once finished, click Next.
4. Read and check all terms, then click Activate Clio Payments.

Enable surcharging

The surcharging feature allows firms to recover card network fees as a business expense when billing clients. When enabled, clients who pay by card will incur a 1.75% fee + $0.30 fee (excluding GST), and your firm will pay GST on the surcharge fee. 

1. Go to Settings > Online payments.
2. Click Go to Payment Settings.
3. Click Surcharging.
4. Toggle on Pass on card fees. 

Add payout account

Payout accounts are your real-life accounts, where payouts are deposited. After signing up for Clio Payments, you can add a new payout account, however, you can only map one Clio Account to a payout account. When you add a new payout account, the name will automatically update to your financial institution and will not be available for use in Clio Manage until it is fully verified. 

1. Go to Settings > Online payments.
2. Click Go to Payment Settings.
3. Click Banking.
4. In the Payout accounts card, click Add payout account to add a new account.

Update payments profile

After signing up for Clio Payments, you may be prompted to provide additional verification details. You can provide these details and address any errors in your payment settings. 

1. Go to Settings > Online payments.
2. Click Go to Payment Settings.
3. Click Payments profile.
4. Make any necessary changes to address the errors.

Edit statement descriptor

When you review your credit card or bank statement, the individual line items are each merchant's statement descriptor. Statement descriptors serve as explanations of the transactions on your statement. For example, if you recently paid for a Netflix subscription, you might see something like "netflix.com" and the amount charged on your statement. Netflix's statement descriptor is easily identifiable and you know immediately that this charge on your card is from Netflix. 

Similarly, when your client makes a card payment for their bill, the amount your firm charged will appear on your client's credit card or bank statement. An easily identifiable statement descriptor will help your clients recognise your firm name and reduce the likelihood of chargebacks and disputes. You can customise your statement descriptor while signing up for Clio Payments and edit it after signing up. Any firm user with access to payments can edit it.   

1. Go to Settings > Online payments.
2. Click Go to Payment Settings.
3. Click Payments profile or Manage payments profile.
4. Under the Business details card, click Edit business details.
5. Enter the new statement descriptor in the statement descriptor field. See the screenshot below to get an idea of what a statement descriptor looks like on a credit card or bank statement. Your statement descriptor has the following requirements:
   • Reflects your Doing Business As (DBA) name if you have one, otherwise reflects your legal business name.
   • Contains Latin characters only.
   • Contains between 5 and 22 characters, inclusive.
   • Contains at least one letter (if you are using a prefix and a suffix, both require at least one letter).
   • Contains more than a single common term or common website URL. A website URL is only acceptable if it provides a clear and accurate description of a transaction on a client's credit card or bank statement.
   • Does not contain any of the following special characters:

     < > \ ' " *

   
6. Click Save.

Accepted credit and debit cards

With Clio Payments, your clients can pay their bills by credit card, debit card, direct debit, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. 

Complete identity confirmation for payout accounts

For your protection, when connecting a payout account to Clio Payments, you may be prompted to provide additional identity confirmation. Once you have completed the identity verification form, your submission will be sent to Clio for processing and review. Upon successful confirmation of your identity, you will be notified via email that your submission has been accepted, and you will be able to connect additional payout accounts to Clio Payments.

Disconnect Clio Payments

If you no longer want to use Clio Payments, contact Clio's support team and state that you want to disconnect Clio Payments from your account. Your account's Primary Subscriber or an administrator will need to authorise the disconnection via email before Clio Payments can be disabled from your account.