Payment Plans

With payment plans, you can receive credit card payments toward a client’s outstanding balance in specified intervals until the bill is paid. You can also receive payments toward a client’s trust account. US customers using Clio Payments can accept either credit card or eCheck payments on a payment plan. Canadian customers using Clio Payments can accept credit card payments on a payment plan.

Payment plan terms

• If your client has multiple outstanding bills, the payment plan will fully pay off the bill with the closest due date before moving on to another bill.
• If two bills have the same due date, payment will be applied to the bill that was created first.
• If a bill has less amount remaining than the payment plan deduction amount, the plan will only take the remaining bill amount.
• An active payment plan will continue to debit payment until the bill is fully paid, regardless of whether a payment fails or is voided, or until the plan is manually stopped. 
• You cannot designate which bills should be paid off first.
• When payment is processed or fails, both you and the client will be notified.
• Both you and your client can see the outstanding balance remaining on the plan. This value appears in the payment confirmation email.
• Payments on trust fund payment plans will remain on the client-level, not on the matter-level.
• Automated bill reminders are paused when a client has an active payment plan.

Create payment plans

You can create one payment plan for each contact after a bill has been generated. When you create the plan, the client will receive a notification email. Once the payment plan is active, it will debit payment from the chosen payment method depending on the interval that you selected when the plan was created. The plan will continue to debit payment until the bill is paid or until the plan is manually stopped.

1. Go to Online payments > New payment plan.
2. Add the contact, the bank account that funds will be deposited into, payment plan amount, how often the plan will deduct payment, the start date, and enter payment method details.
3. Click Next step.
4. Confirm the payment plan details and click Create payment plan.

Edit payment plans

Once created, you can edit a payment plan's instalment and frequency details, including the payment method if an instalment fails. If an instalment fails, whether that is because your client's card is invalid, was cancelled, or another reason, you and your client will both be notified that the payment failed. You can stop the payment plan and create a new one with a valid payment method or continue the same payment plan by requesting your client to save a new payment method. When you save any changes to the plan, your client will receive an email notification.

1. Go to Online payments.
2. Select the Payment plans subtab.
3. Find the payment plan that you want to change and then click Edit.
4. Make your changes.
5. Click Save payment plan.

Stop payment plans

An active payment plan will automatically end and go into an inactive state when the entire overdue bill balance is paid. The client will not be notified by email. You can also stop a payment plan at any time. If you stop a payment plan, the client will receive a notification email. If automated bill reminders were previously enabled for this client, they will resume once the plan is stopped.

1. Go to Online payments.
2. Select the Payment plans subtab.
3. Click the down arrow next to Edit and select Stop.
4. When the warning prompt appears, click Stop.