Regularly reviewing your firm's financial situation and accounting health is an important part of running your business. Not only can this help you spot discrepancies easier and remain compliant, but getting an overview of unpaid client invoices, monthly expenses, net change of money in and money out, and net income and expenses is a key part of running a successful business.
This feature is just one component of Clio Accounting. Learn more about the other features by reading the articles listed below. We recommend starting with "Clio Accounting: Basics and Guidelines to Get Started" and routinely reviewing the recommended guidelines list to stay on top of your accounting and bookkeeping.
Navigate the dashboard
Your firm's Dashboard provides a bird's eye view of your firm's financial status, allowing you to view trends quickly and get an understanding of your firm's financial health. It includes the following sections:
- Bank accounts:
- This section shows a summary view of your operating, trust, and credit card bank accounts. For each account, you can view the running balance in Clio Accounting and the number of new bank transactions that need to be reviewed (categorized and matched). Click the three dots next to a bank account's name and select Review transactions to start the bank feed review.
- Accounts receivable:
- This section shows the running balance of your accounts receivable (i.e. the total outstanding balance from all outstanding client invoices), the number of invoices that have been fully paid in the current month, and the number of total invoices with amounts owing to date. Click View to go to the Accounts receivable tab, where you can view outstanding balances by client.
- Operating expenses:
- This section shows this month's operating expenses and the percentage change compared to the previous month. Click View to go to the Operating expenses tab to view your firm's created, matched, and reconciled operating expenses.
- Hard costs:
- This section shows you the hard costs for review, and any yet to be invoiced. Click Review to go to the Hard Costs tab, where you can view invoiced and to be invoiced hard costs. When reviewing hard costs, click the blue text to go to the corresponding area in Manage.
- Profit and loss:
- This section shows the net income (income minus expenses), total income, and expenses for the last two months. Click View to go to the corresponding report.
- Accounting best practices:
- This section provides accounting tips, with weekly and monthly checklists that highlight key accounting tasks. This tool is designed to help you get a better understanding of accounting and how to stay on top of your books each week and each month.
Navigate accounts receivable
The Accounts receivable tab is where you can find a summary of outstanding invoices with remaining balances, along with specific outstanding balances by client or invoice number. When invoices are generated and approved in Clio Manage, they will automatically sync to Clio Accounting. The Accounts receivable tab will show fully paid invoices and invoices with an outstanding balance. It includes the following sections:
- Invoices issued month to date:
- This is the total number of invoices issued month to date, with the percentage of month to date invoices compared to the previous month to date.
- Accounts receivable running balance:
- This is the total owning balance of all invoices. It also includes the total invoices fully paid for this month and the invoices with an outstanding balance.
- Accounts receivable aging:
- This is the total dollar value of invoices that are overdue and how long they have been overdue.
- Invoice table:
- Click the client's name to get directed to their contact card in Clio Manage. Click the Bills tab within the contact card to view outstanding and partially paid invoices.
- Go to report:
- Click this button to generate the accounts receivable and/or accounts receivable aging reports in Clio Manage.
View outstanding invoices in accounts receivable
In the accounts receivable table, you can view invoices that are overdue (including outstanding and partially paid invoices) by client or invoice id. Invoices will appear here when they are generated and approved but not fully paid. The client view will also show whether the client has a trust balance that you can apply to the outstanding invoices.
Note: You cannot generate or pay an invoice in Clio Accounting. If an invoice is partially paid or overdue, you will need to record a payment in Clio Manage. Once the payment is recorded, the invoice payment will automatically be synced to and reflected in Clio Accounting.
- Go to Accounts receivable.
- Select either the By client or By invoice id quick filters depending on whether you want to sort invoices by client or invoice id.
- Optional: In the client, matter, invoice no search bar, narrow your search results by searching for outstanding invoices by client name, matter, or invoice number.
- Click on the View Invoices button under the Actions column.
- This view will also show whether the client has funds in trust.
- Payment amounts will automatically be updated as payments are recorded in Clio Manage.
- Click the invoice id to view a summary of the transactions associated with the invoice and a quick link to Clio Manage.
- Interest, discounts, and credit notes will be displayed at the bottom of the invoice detail view.
Understand invoice statuses
Your accounts receivable table will show all invoices associated with your clients. Understanding these statuses can help you determine if an invoice is unpaid, paid, partially paid or past due. An invoice can have one of three statuses:
- Unpaid: The invoice has not been paid yet but is also not overdue yet.
- Paid: The invoice is fully paid.
- Partially paid: The invoice has a partial payment and is not overdue yet.