You can ask for help entering and paying what your firm owes, and recording operating expenses. If your firm uses Clio Accounting, you can ask for these things from anywhere in Clio. In the top right, click the Clio icon in your header bar to open the prompt panel, or ask in a Clio Work conversation. You can also use the prompt box at the top of the Today page. Then use natural language to describe what you want.
This article provides suggested prompts, and links to the manual steps so you can see how vendors, bills, and expenses work in your books.
Important: This article describes unified Clio. Unified Clio is available to firms in stages, so your account may still use the old experience. To switch to the old experience, open the user menu. Then select Switch to the old experience. Your data and settings are the same in both experiences.
Tip: Clean books depend on consistent vendors, accounts, and categories. Each section links to the manual steps so you can see what your request relies on before you approve it.
Add and update vendors
Ask for a vendor to be added, updated, or made inactive.
- Add vendor example: Add a vendor named Lexicon Court Reporters with the email billing@lexiconreporters.com and the phone number 604-555-0188.
- Update vendor example: Update the phone number for Lexicon Court Reporters to 604-555-0199.
- Inactivate vendor example: Make the vendor Old Print Shop inactive.
Clio asks for your approval before it creates or changes anything in your accounting records. You can approve once for the single request, approve that Clio takes action anytime you prompt in the particular conversation, or reject it to start again.
Vendors carry details that matter at tax time, such as an EIN and a 1099 flag in the US. To see what you can record, see Funds Out—Vendors, Vendor Bills, and Vendor Credits.
Complete related tasks manually
- Delete a vendor: Remove a vendor you no longer use.
- Reactivate a vendor: Bring an inactive vendor back.
- Generate a vendor expense report: See what you have spent with each vendor.
Enter vendor bills
Describe a bill, or upload the invoice and ask for the details to be read. Clio shows you the vendor, bill number, due date, and each line with the account it would be coded to, and enters the bill after you approve it. Each line can be tied to a client and a matter.
- Enter bill example: Enter a vendor bill from Lexicon Court Reporters for $850, bill number 1042, due October 30, coded to Court Reporting on the Smith matter.
- Read an invoice example: Read the vendor invoice I uploaded and show me the vendor, invoice number, due date, and each line with the expense account you would code it to. After I approve, enter the bill.
Clio asks for your approval before it creates or changes anything in your accounting records. You can approve once for the single request, approve that Clio takes action anytime you prompt in the particular conversation, or reject it to start again.
To understand how bills are structured and what can be edited after you save one, see Funds Out—Vendors, Vendor Bills, and Vendor Credits.
Complete related tasks manually
- Autofill a vendor bill from an upload: Fill in a bill from an uploaded file in the bill modal.
- Delete an unpaid vendor bill: Remove a bill that has not been paid.
Pay vendor bills
Ask for a payment to be recorded from a bank account against one or more bills, including a single lump sum across several bills.
- Pay one bill example: Record a payment of $850 from the operating account to Lexicon Court Reporters for bill 1042, paid by check today.
- Pay several bills example: Record one payment from the operating account against the three open bills from Lexicon Court Reporters. Show me the amount applied to each bill before you save.
Clio asks for your approval before it creates or changes anything in your accounting records. You can approve once for the single request, approve that Clio takes action anytime you prompt in the particular conversation, or reject it to start again.
If a payment is more than a bill's balance, the overpayment becomes a vendor credit. To see how payments and credits work, see Funds Out—Vendors, Vendor Bills, and Vendor Credits.
Complete related tasks manually
- View vendor credits: See credits created by overpayments and apply them to later bills.
Record operating expenses
Ask for an expense paid by cash, check, or card to be recorded, with the account it was paid from, the date, a category, and a vendor.
- Record expense example: Record a $120 office supplies expense paid from the operating account today by credit card.
- Record with vendor example: Record a $350 filing fee paid by card today on the Smith matter. Use the Court Costs category and the court as the vendor.
Clio asks for your approval before it creates or changes anything in your accounting records. You can approve once for the single request, approve that Clio takes action anytime you prompt in the particular conversation, or reject it to start again.
Operating expenses are different from the hard and soft costs you record on client matters. To see how they work, and how most card expenses arrive from your bank feed, see Funds Out—Expenses.
Complete related tasks manually
- Autofill an expense from an upload: Fill in an expense from a receipt.
- Edit and delete expenses: Correct or remove an expense.
- Understand expense statuses: See what each expense status means.
- Create and Manage Expenses Entries: Record hard and soft costs on a client matter.
Review what you owe
Ask for a list of open vendor bills with their balances and due dates.
- List bills example: List every open vendor bill due this month with the vendor, bill number, due date, and balance. Total the balances and sort by due date.
Up next
- Post Journal Entries and Generate Financial Statements using Clio's AI features: Post journal entries, manage your accounts, and generate financial statements.
- Manage Accounts and Journal Entries: Work with your accounts and journal entries.
- Operating and Trust Reconciliation: Reconcile your operating and trust accounts.