Banking

Connecting your bank accounts to Clio Accounting brings your bank transactions into Clio as a bank feed, so you can keep your books in sync with what actually happens in your accounts. This article describes how to connect, upload, and manage your bank accounts, view each account's history, and record deposits and transfers.

Once your transactions are in Clio Accounting, you can review bank transactions to match or categorize each one. This keeps your books accurate and is an integral part of reconciling your operating and trust accounts.

Connect bank accounts

If you went through the setup wizard when you first launched Clio Accounting, your bank accounts (along with your ledger accounts in your chart of accounts) should already be set up. If you did not proceed through the setup wizard or if you need to add an additional account at a later time, connecting an additional bank account is simple. Once connected and fully set up, transactions will sync almost instantly from your bank to Clio Accounting. We recommend connecting all your operating, trust, and credit card accounts in your chart of accounts to your bank accounts. 

1. Go to Banking and click Sync transactions via Plaid, or click Add account Sync > transactions via Plaid.
2. Follow Plaid's prompts and enter your online banking credentials to connect your bank account.
3. Click Continue on the last Plaid screen. Once your bank account is connected, you need to link at least one ledger account within your chart of accounts to the connected bank account. 
   • If you skip this step, you will not be able to use the automatic bank feed feature. You can finish setting up and linking to a general ledger account at a later time by going to the connected account in the Banking tab and then clicking Link to a general ledger account.
4. Connect the bank account to a general ledger account and then click Confirm.
   • Bank account name: Enter a distinguishable name for this bank account. You can view the name in the Banking tab.

   • General ledger account: Select a ledger account from your chart of accounts to connect to this bank account.

     Important: Selecting a general ledger account is a key part of bank feed matching. Clio Accounting will automatically show you transactions in the ledger account that match transactions from your bank, allowing you to easily review and match them.
   • Download bank transactions from: Enter the date from which you want the bank feed to start.

Upload transactions via a bank file

If your banking institution or account type does not integrate with Plaid, you can still manually upload bank files with transactions into Clio Accounting. First, you will need to download a file of your financial transactions from your banking institution in CSV format to your computer. For the bank file to be read correctly, it must be formatted in one of the two following ways:

Date, Description, Amount
01/24/2025, Funds paid out to vendor X, -100.00
01/26/2025, Funds received from client Y, 200.00

Date, Description, Credit, Debit
01/24/2025, Funds paid out to vendor X, 100.00, 
01/26/2025, Funds received from client Y, , 200.00

Once the file has been uploaded, you can review and match the transactions. Do this on a regular basis to remain up to date with your accounting activities.

Disconnect bank accounts

If you disconnect your bank account from your bank, Clio will stop downloading bank transactions, but the bank account will still be connected to its general ledger accounts and stay in the Banking tab. You can reconnect the bank account to your bank at any time to continue downloading transactions.

1. Go to Banking.
2. For the bank account that you want to disconnect, click the elipses and select Disconnect from bank.
3. Click Disconnect from bank to confirm.

Remove bank accounts

If you remove your bank account from Clio Accounting, it will be removed from the Banking tab, all unreviewed bank transactions will disappear, and it will be disconnected from any connected general ledger accounts. Your existing accounting records will not change. If you want to use the bank account again, you will need to connect it as a new bank account. 

1. Go to Banking.
2. For the bank account that you want to remove, click the three dots and select Remove Account.
3. Click Remove bank account to confirm.

View account history (bank register)

Each bank account that is connected in Clio Accounting should have an account history. The account history is a list of accounting records that were recorded in the general ledger accounts within your chart of accounts and is often referred to as a "bank register" by accountants.

1. Go to Banking.
2. For the bank account that you want to view, the three dots and select View Account History.
   • You can now view transactions that you recorded in the general ledger accounts connected to this bank account.

Add operating deposits

Adding operating deposits is part of the bank feed matching workflow. You can add deposits when reviewing unrecognized transactions or add deposits separately from the global Add transaction menu. Recording operating deposits can help you differentiate between what has actually been deposited and what has not (e.g. if a firm member forgot to deposit a check, it is easier to spot that the money has not been deposited even if there is a record of the bill payment in Clio Manage). You may need to add an operating deposit for any of the following reasons:

• When client payments are directly deposited into operating accounts.
• When multiple invoices are paid in one payment transaction.
• When multiple checks are deposited together at the bank.
• When one bill payment includes multiple line items, each with interest. 

For example, if your firm received multiple checks and entered them as payments in Clio Manage, and later deposited the checks, you may see a lump sum deposit in your bank feed. You can then create a deposit that matches the lump sum and select the checks as the payments the deposit comprises. 

1. In the Clio Accounting header, click the global Add transaction menu and then select Operating deposit.
2. Select the bank account for the deposit and the deposit date.
3. From the list of transactions, select those associated with the operating deposit.
4. Optional: If applicable, add or adjust funds to account for fees and/or expenses associated with this operating deposit. Click Add transaction to add multiple fees and/or expenses. 
5. Optional: Enter a description under Memo or any associated attachments.
   • Adding attachments such as documents and receipts is highly recommended for any transactions that you record. This can help you determine if your records are accurate during a review.
6. Click Add operating deposit.

Add bank transfer

When moving funds between operating accounts you can use the "bank transfer" transaction type to ensure that your funds out and funds in ledger entries in Clio Accounting and related details match.

1. In the Clio Accounting header, click the global Add transaction menu and then select Bank transfer.
2. Select the operating accounts to transfer from and to, the date, and amount.
3. Optional: Add a memo and attachments that may help you during audit or review processes.
4. Click Save.

Add trust deposits and trust withdrawals

Adding trust deposits and withdrawals is part of the bank feed matching workflow. You can add trust deposits and withdrawals when reviewing unrecognized transactions or add them separately from the global Add transaction menu.

• Trust deposits: These are trust fund payments that clients made to their trust accounts (i.e. payments for trust requests in Clio Manage).
• Trust withdrawals: These are transactions of earned money moving in the bank from trust to operating to pay an invoice.

For example, a trust withdrawal allows you to group trust fund payments into one transaction that moves the money from trust to operating. In Clio Manage, when you apply a client's trust funds to an invoice, payment is recorded and invoice is paid, but the money does not get moved anywhere. At the end of any given billing cycle, your firm will likely review the total amount of payments using trust funds. You can move those funds from trust accounts to your operating account as one transaction using a trust withdrawal.

Up next

• Review Bank Transactions: Match, categorize, or exclude the transactions in your bank feed so every transaction has a matching record in your ledgers.
• Operating and Trust Reconciliation: Once your transactions are reviewed, reconcile your operating and trust accounts against your bank statements.