In Clio Manage, you can send and resend bills to your clients by email, text, or through Clio’s client portal (Clio for Clients). You can also share bills with co-counsel. Detailed logs of text messages, emails, and messages posted on the client portal related to bills can be found in the Communications tab.
Send bills
Clio Manage offers several bill send options, allowing your clients to receive their bills according to their preferred method. You can send bills via email, text, and/or through a client portal.
When sending bills, you can customize some components and specify certain details, including changing and/or adding recipients, selecting different email templates, and/or editing the bill message subject line and body.
To send a bill to a client via text, your firm will have to enable text messaging and Online payments. The text message will inform your client that their bill is ready and contain a link to a secure payment page where clients can also download their bill. This text message will be sent from the phone number assigned to your firm when you set up text messaging. This ensures that all communications, reminders, and payment links to your client originate from the same phone number.
- Go to the main Billing tab or the Bills subtab in a contact or matter.
- Select the Unpaid quick filter.
- For the relevant bill, click Send. You can also click the down arrow, select View, and then click Send while viewing the bill.
- Choose the method(s) for sending the bill.
- If your client has an active client portal, you can use the toggle in the Send to client portal section to send the bill through the portal. You can include a message to your clients.
- To email the bill, ensure the toggle for the Email section is on and fill in the required details. You can add or remove emails, choose an email template, modify the Subject and Body of the email, and choose specifics about how to send the bill with the email (as a secure link to a PDF or a PDF attachment). You also have the option to email the bill to Co-Counsel.
- If your firm uses text messaging, you can use the toggle in the Text message section to send a message with the total due and a secure link to a payment page.
- If your firm uses Online Payments, complete the Payments section by selecting the deposit account information and whether to include additional outstanding amounts in the bill being sent.
- Review the bill messages.
- The panel on the right shows a preview of what the bill will look like for your client. If applicable, you can switch to view what the bill will look like in the client portal and via email.
- If you checked the box for Send bill to all recipients in one email, all bill recipients will appear in the To field of the email, and each recipient will be able to see other bill recipients.
- Uncheck the box for Include client’s outstanding balance for all unpaid bills and apply payments from oldest bill to newest if you only want the payment to apply to this bill. If you leave it checked, the bill will show a line stating the amount due on the client’s other bills.
- Click Send bill.
- Go to the main Billing tab or the Bills subtab in a contact or matter.
- Select the Unpaid quick filter.
- Check the boxes next to the bills you want to send and then click Send.
- Choose the method(s) for sending the bills.
- If your clients have active client portals, you can use the toggle in the Send to client portal section to send bills through the client portals. You can include a message to your clients.
- To email the bills, ensure the toggle for the Email section is on and fill in the required details. You can choose an email template, modify the Subject and Body of the email, and specify how to send the bill with the email (as a secure link to a PDF or as a PDF attachment). Each email will be sent to the primary email address of the client for the matter being billed. You also have the option to email the bills to Co-Counsel.
- If your firm uses text messaging, you can use the toggle in the Text message section to send a message to each client with the total due and a secure link to a payment page. Each text message will be sent to the primary phone number of the client for whom the matter is being billed.
- If your firm uses Online Payments, complete the Payments section by selecting the deposit account information and whether to include additional outstanding amounts in the bills being sent.
- Review the bill messages.
- The panel on the right shows a preview of what the bill(s) will look like for your client(s). You can switch to view what the bill will look like in the client portal and via email, and you can use the forward and back arrows to view communications to specific recipients.
- You will receive notifications about which recipient(s) may not receive messages via email, text, or a client portal if the contact information is not available or a portal has not been set up.
- Uncheck the box for Include client’s outstanding balance for all unpaid bills and apply payments from oldest bill to newest if you only want the bill to sent the payment to apply to the bill sent. If you leave it checked, the bill will show a line stating the amount due on the client’s other bills.
- Click Send items.
Create bill message templates and use autofill fields
With bill message templates, you can customize the message that your clients see when they receive their new or outstanding bills. You can create templates for standard bill messages and use autofill fields to complete information that you would normally need to manually enter. Clio offers four default bill message templates. While you cannot delete default templates, you can edit or duplicate them. You can also create, edit, duplicate, and delete custom bill message templates.
Create new bill message templates
- Go to Settings > Billing > Bill Message Templates.
- Select Create a new bill message template.
- Complete the bill message templates.
- Click Add autofill fields to add bill recipient, contact, matter, or billing autofill fields that will auto-populate relevant information when sending the bill.
- Click Save template.
Edit bill message templates
- Go to Settings > Billing > Bill Message Templates.
- You can also access message templates when sending bills.
- Under Actions, select Edit.
- Update the template name, subject and the body of the message template as needed.
- Click Save template.
Duplicate or delete bill message templates
- Go to Settings > Billing > Bill Message Templates.
- You can also access message templates when sending bills.
- Under Actions, click the arrow.
- Select Duplicate or Delete.
Note: You cannot delete Default message templates.
- To confirm template deletion, click Delete template in the pop-up modal.
Personalize bill share emails
By default, bills shared from within Clio Manage are sent from notifications@clio.com. With Clio’s email personalization feature, you can change this email alias to your own Microsoft or Google email address. This means that when your clients receive their bills by email, they will see that you sent the bill, rather than Clio. You will also receive an immediate notification if the bill bounces back or is blocked. You can view sent emails in the sent folder of your connected Microsoft or Google email address.
- Go to Settings > Apps.
- Select either Microsoft or Google.
- For Microsoft, click Connect and toggle Send emails from your own email address. For Google, click Connect with Google.
Resend bills
After sending a bill, you can resend it as many times as needed. This functionality is useful for sending overdue or outstanding balance bills, resending bill share emails when clients may not have received the original emails, and for sending updated bills after making any necessary modifications.
- Go to the main Billing tab or the Bills subtab in a matter or contact.
- Select the Bills or Outstanding Balances tabs.
- Click Send next to the bill you want to resend.
- The Previously sent to section shows who previously received this bill.
- Complete any recipient, bill message, and send method details.
- Select the send method under Additional settings.
- Click Send bill.