Text Messaging in Clio Manage

With text messaging in Clio Manage, you and your clients have a convenient way to answer questions and share updates, all without having to give out your personal phone number. You can send SMS text messages using a toll-free number that is assigned to your firm, receive SMS and MMS texts from contacts, view saved conversations, add time entries, follow or unfollow text conversations, export conversations in PDF format, and send text notifications and automatic reminders for calendar events.

Text messaging vs Clio for Clients

Not sure when to use text messaging and when to use Clio's secure online portal Clio for Clients?

Text messaging:

• Fast and effective way to communicate with clients in a way that they are familiar with.
• Client does not have an email address.
• Urgent messages where clients may respond quicker via text.
• Information being sent or received is non-sensitive. Conversations stored in Clio are encrypted; however, texts in transit, like all regular texting, are not.
• Whole firm access—all users at the firm have access to the shared firm number and can view all texts exchanged in the Communications tab.

Clio for Clients:

• Ideal for securely communicating and sharing items in a shared portal between firm and client.
• Client does not have a phone number with text messaging enabled.
• Information being sent or received is private or sensitive.
• PDF or Word documents are being shared.
• Firm users need to send documents to clients.
• Read receipts—if you need to see whether your client has received or opened a message or document.

Set up text messaging

When setting up text messaging, your firm is assigned a toll-free number that can be used to send and receive text. Before receiving a toll-free number, you will need to complete a business verification process. This regulatory requirement for all businesses using toll-free text messaging helps prevent spam. Verification typically takes one week but may take longer in some cases.

Text messaging is only available after successful business verification. Clio will notify you via email upon verification. If your verification is rejected, you can resubmit the form in your text messaging settings. Common rejection reasons include:

• Issues with your website URL, such as: 
  • Your website is not secure (i.e., HTTP instead of HTTPS). Contact your website administrator to resolve this.
  • Website information does not match your provided business details.
  • Your Website URL was inaccessible during processing.
• Incomplete or inconsistent business details compared to your website.

Follow these steps to enable text messaging for your firm:

1. Go to Settings > Text Messaging.
2. Click Get started with text messaging.
3. Complete your firm details and contact information. Scroll down to add an alternative email address or phone number for clients to contact your firm. This number will appear in the text notification template that your client receives when you create, update, cancel, or send an automated reminder for a calendar event.
4. Click Next step.
5. Review the form information and then click Submit.
   • Once your toll-free number becomes available, you will receive an email notification that you can begin sending and receiving text messages.

Send texts and add time entries

Text messaging is available from the Clio Manage desktop app and the mobile app. In the desktop app, you can send your clients SMS texts from the main Communications tab, the matter or contact's Communications subtabs, the matter's Dashboard, and the contact's Dashboard. In the mobile app, you can send SMS texts from the Inbox. You cannot send your clients MMS messages.

Once you initiate the conversation, your firm can then receive texts from the contact. Contacts can text you SMS and MMS texts, including photos, videos, GIFs, audio files, and basic .txt documents. Received documents will be saved in the Documents folder for each of the contact's matters.

Communications Matter Contact Mobile app

1. Go to the main Communications tab or the Communications subtab for a contact or matter.
2. Click the New dropdown and select Text message.
3. Select a contact. Once a contact is selected, click Go to text message to view any previous text correspondence.
4. Type your text and click Send.
5. To add a time entry, hover over the message log and click the clock icon.

1. Go to the matter's Dashboard.
2. In the Contacts section, select Text next to the phone number.
3. Select a contact. Once a contact is selected, any previous text correspondence will automatically appear.
4. Type your text and click Send.
5. To add a time entry, click the Actions dropdown and select Add time.

1. Go to the contact's Dashboard.
2. In the Contact information section, select Text next to the phone number.
3. Select a contact. Once a contact is selected, any previous text correspondence will automatically appear.
4. Type your text and click Send.
5. To add a time entry, click the Actions dropdown and select Add time.

1. Open the mobile app and select the Inbox icon.
2. Select the Texts subtab and then click New text.
3. Select a contact. Once a contact is selected, any previous text correspondence will automatically appear.
4. Type your text and click the blue arrow icon to send the text.

View and respond to saved texts

Text messages are assigned at the contact-level, not the matter-level. This means that stored text messages are saved in the Communications subtabs of the contact and all the contact's matters. If a matter has a related contact, texts are also saved in that related contact's record.

Unread texts will be marked with a badge showing the number of new messages. When you open a text message conversation, the message will be marked as read.

1. Go to the main Communications tab or the Communications subtab for a contact or matter.
2. From the table subheadings, select Text messages.
3. Optional: Click Filters to filter the text conversations by matter, contact, or firm user, and then click Apply filters.
4. Click the text message you want to read or click View. Each line item in the table is a new text message thread.
5. To respond, type in a new text and click Send.

Follow or unfollow text conversations

If you initiate a text conversation or reply to a text in a conversation, you will automatically follow that conversation. Other firm users can choose to follow any text conversation to receive notifications. When you follow a conversation, you will see a red badge on the Communications tab and the Text messages subtab when a new message is received. All users can also unfollow any text conversation.

Send calendar text notifications and reminders

When creating Calendar events, you have the option to send event invitations to your clients by text. With this feature, your clients will receive automated text notifications when the event is created, updated, cancelled, and for event reminders.

Text notification template Send Calendar invite by text

You can view text message templates and enable event reminders in your Settings. You can also change the alternative contact information for text notifications. When your contact receives a text notification, your firm contact information will appear in the template, which allows contacts to respond to your firm.

1. Go to Settings > Text Messaging.
2. Under Event reminders, select the number of days before an event an automatic text notification should be sent.
3. Under Text message templates, view the templates for creating, updating, canceling, or sending events or reminders.
4. Under Your details, select Edit next to your phone number or email address to update your firm contact information.

When you send a Calendar invitation by text, your client will have the option to confirm their attendance by responding to the text. The calendar event will show whether the client confirmed or not. You can also view whether a reminder notification was sent by viewing the Calendar event.

1. Go to the main Calendar tab or the matter’s Calendar subtab.
2. Click New event.
3. Complete the event details.
4. Under Invite attendees, select your contact(s).
5. Check the box next to Notify via text.
6. Click Save event.

Send bills and trust requests by text

If your firm has both text messaging and Clio Payments enabled, you can use Text to Pay to text secure payment links to your clients for bills and trust requests. When sending a bill, this feature allows you to select text messaging as an additional delivery option, along with other methods such as email or the client portal. Learn how to send a bill here.

Failed text messages

If a text message fails to send, the reason for failure can be any one of the following:

• Unreachable number: There is an error with the contact's phone number. Verify that the phone number selected as the contact's texting number is a correctly formatted US or Canadian number.
• Rejected by carrier: The contact's carrier rejected the text message. A possible reason for this is that the phone number is unable to receive text messages. Verify the phone number entered for the contact and ensure that it is a correctly formatted US or Canadian number.
• Temporary error: The text message was not delivered because of an unusual error. Please try again.
• Unknown error: An unexpected and unknown error occurred when we tried to deliver the text message. Please try again.
• Carrier error: The text message was not delivered because an error occurred on the contact's carrier side. Please try again.
• Blocked messages: The text message was blocked by the service provider because your toll-free number has not been verified yet. Learn more here.
• Exceeded maximum character limit: The text message was not delivered because it exceeded the maximum character limit. Outbound texts have a limit of 2,048 characters. Inbound texts have a limit of 8,192 characters.

Export and print text conversations

If you need to export a text conversation to a printable PDF format for your records, for sharing with others, or for submitting to the court, you can do so directly from the text thread. 

1. Go to the main Communications tab or the Communications subtab for a contact or matter.
2. From the subheadings, select Text messages.
3. Optional: Click Filters to filter the text conversations by matter, contact, or firm user, and then click Apply filters.
4. Click the text message you want to read or click View. 
5. Click the Actions dropdown and select Export as PDF.

Turn off text messaging

Follow these steps to turn off text messaging and event notifications and reminders:

1. Go to Settings > Text messaging.
2. Click Turn off text messaging.
3. Select Turn off text messaging.