Review Bank Transactions

Reviewing transactions means making sure every transaction in your bank account has a matching record in your Clio Accounting ledgers. This is where you match the transactions that appear on your bank account statement to the data in Clio (i.e., reviewing what is on your books). Keeping your bank feed reviewed helps you stay on top of your books and is an integral part of reconciling your operating and trust accounts.

To make this easier, Clio Accounting offers likely matches between your bank transactions and records already in Clio Manage or Clio Accounting. It also suggests a category and vendor for transactions it recognizes. You can confirm what Clio offers, correct it, or review the transaction yourself.

Understand unrecognized transactions

If Clio Accounting cannot offer a match or suggest a category, the transaction is "Unrecognized". In this case, you need to find an existing record to match it to, or categorize it, which creates a new ledger entry for the bank transaction. Unrecognized transactions can happen for a few reasons:

• Undeposited funds: Your firm logged or received a payment, but the payment has not cleared yet or is not yet available in your bank account and on your bank account statement (e.g., you received a check from a client, recorded the payment in Clio, and deposited the check, but the check has not cleared yet).
• Bank fees: If your bank charges bank fees at the end of the month, there will be a bank transaction that you may not yet have entered into Clio.
• Transaction fee: If a processing fee or bank charge was applied to a transaction and directly reduced the transaction on the bank record rather than appearing as a separate entry, the amount recorded in Clio will not match the bank transaction.
• Incorrect values: When your firm created a record in Clio, the value was entered incorrectly, so the Clio record does not match what is in your bank.
• Other errors: Deposit keying errors, overpayments, underpayments, and forgotten payments (e.g., a client gave you a check for payment and you deposited it, but you forgot to record the payment in Clio Manage) can cause discrepancies between your bank account statement and Clio.
• Mismatched totals due to lump sum records: Clio may not recognize the relationship between Clio records and your bank transactions when a single bank transaction corresponds to multiple records in Clio, or vice versa (e.g., you deposited several client checks on the same day, but the bank transaction shows one total amount for all checks; or you paid a vendor with a single check that covers work on more than one matter or contact). To group payments into one deposit, you can add an operating deposit or add a trust deposit.
• Fraudulent activity: Unauthorized transactions can cause discrepancies. Reviewing transactions and reconciling regularly helps you catch fraud and errors early, while there is still time for recourse.

Review transactions

To start your review:

1. Go to Banking.
2. For the bank account with transactions requiring review, click Review transactions.

You are taken to the Pending review subtab, where all unreviewed transactions are listed. Work through the list one transaction at a time. Depending on what Clio found for each transaction, you will do one of the following:

• Confirm Clio's offered match if it is correct.
• Search for a match in your records if Clio's offered match is incorrect or Clio could not offer one.
• Categorize the transaction if it is not yet recorded in Clio.
• Exclude the transaction if it should not be on your books, such as a duplicate.

Use the All pending for review, Match found, and Unrecognized quick filters to narrow the list. Clio also adds tags to the Category column to show what it found for each transaction:

Confirm Clio's offered matches

For each transaction where Clio found a match, you can click Confirm in the Actions column if you are confident in the match based on what you see in the table. As a best practice, click the line item to expand the transaction details and make sure the match is accurate before you click Confirm.

When Clio offers more than one match, click the line item to expand it and view details about each match. Use the radio button to select the correct option, then click Confirm.

If none of the offered matches are correct, you can search for a match in your records.

Search for a match in your records

If the matches Clio offers are not correct, you can search your other records in Clio for the right one. Similarly, if Clio cannot offer any likely matches (i.e., the transaction is unrecognized), you can search your records for a match.

1. For a transaction, click Review, or click the line item to expand its details.
2. Click Find match.

3. Use the checkboxes to select one or more records from your list of existing records in Clio.

   Tip: Click Filters to narrow the list and find the appropriate records. You can also click View for a record to open more details in a new tab.

4. Click Confirm and match.

   Note: You can only click Confirm and match when the total of the bank transaction and the record(s) you select are equal. To add an adjustment, such as a transaction fee that applied to the transaction but is not yet reflected in your Clio records, click Need to adjust difference? at the bottom of the list of records, fill out the fields, and click + Add.

If you cannot find a matching record, the transaction likely is not recorded in Clio yet. Categorize it instead.

Categorize a transaction without a match

When Clio cannot offer a likely match for your bank record, and you cannot find a match in your existing records, you likely have not yet created this record in Clio. You need to create the record in Clio first—"categorize" it—to match it to the bank record. Transactions with Suggested and Rule tags, and transactions without a tag, fall in this category.

As a best practice, record all client- and matter-related funds in Clio Manage at the time they occur, and record firm transactions, such as operating expenses and owner's draws, in Clio Accounting at the time they occur. When you do, you should always be able to find matches between your bank records and Clio records. However, you can also categorize transactions directly during review.

1. Click Review in the Actions column, or click the line item to expand its details.
2. Make sure Categorize is selected at the top of the line item so that you have access to the fields you need to fill out.

3. Review and/or fill out the fields.

   Note: Where possible, Clio may pre-fill fields using available information (transactions with the Suggested tag). Pre-filled fields are highlighted for you to review.

4. Optional: Click Split to divide the transaction across multiple ledgers, then select the relevant ledgers in the Category fields. For example, you can split one payment to a vendor between your "Office supplies" and "Equipment" ledgers.
5. Click Confirm.

Exclude transactions

During review, you have the option to exclude transactions. For example, you may want to exclude duplicate transactions caused by a glitch where your bank feed is downloaded more than once. You can exclude transactions one at a time or in bulk. Excluding transactions is rare and should not be done often.

View or undo reviewed transactions

Once you review and confirm a transaction, you can view it in the Reviewed subtab. If you made a mistake with a transaction during your review, you can undo it, then review it again and make the necessary corrections.

1. Go to Banking and open the relevant bank account.
2. Click the Reviewed subtab.
3. Optional: Use the Matched or Added to ledger quick filters.
4. For the relevant transaction, click View detail to see the matched or categorized record.
5. To reverse the review, click Undo, then click Undo again to confirm.

Review accounting automations

If your firm uses accounting automations that apply automatically, the transactions they handle skip the Pending review subtab and appear in the Reviewed subtab. Check these transactions regularly as part of your review process to make sure your automations work as expected.

1. Go to Banking and open the relevant bank account.

2. Click the Reviewed subtab.

   Tip: Set a date range from the last time you reviewed your automations to the current date, then review all transactions with a status of Auto-confirmed (the automation that matches Clio Payments to your bank feed) and/or Rule applied (any rule-based automation you created).

3. Make sure the automations handled your transactions as expected.
4. For any transaction that was not handled appropriately, click View detail, then click Undo. The transaction moves back to the Pending review subtab, where you can search for a match in your records or categorize it.

Up next

• Operating and Trust Reconciliation: Once your transactions are reviewed, reconcile your operating and trust accounts against your bank statements.
• Clio Accounting Automations: Set up rules to categorize and match recurring transactions automatically, so there's less to review each time.