Build It Right
Before You Depend On It
Whether you’re launching a firm, moving off another platform, or finally configuring the Clio subscription you’ve been paying for, the decisions made in the first two weeks determine what the system can do for the next five years.
Fit
Who This Is For
- Launching a firm — you want the operating infrastructure in place before the first client rather than rebuilt at year three. Firm Launch →
- Migrating from another platform — MyCase, PracticePanther, Smokeball, Filevine, or spreadsheets and a shared drive. You’ve decided to move and you want the move done without losing data or a billing cycle.
- Configuring a subscription you already own — you bought Clio, used it as a glorified contact list, and want it built properly before habits set. This is implementation rather than rescue if the existing configuration is minimal enough that there’s nothing to unwind.
If a real configuration already exists and isn’t working, the engagement is different. Clio Optimization →
Before You Commit
First: Is Clio the Right Platform?
We configure Clio more than anything else and we run it ourselves, so treat this with appropriate skepticism — but it isn’t universal, and we’d rather say so before a migration than after.
Clio is usually the right answer for firms wanting breadth, a deep integration ecosystem, strong billing and trust functionality, and a platform that will still fit after the firm doubles.
Consider alternatives if your work is heavily document-driven and lives in Word — Smokeball’s document automation is genuinely strong for transactional practices. If you’re immigration-focused, Docketwise is built around the forms your practice runs on. If you’re plaintiff-side PI with heavy case project management, Filevine is worth evaluating.
Other platforms → · Clio vs Smokeball →
The Strategy Review covers this before anyone commits to a build.
Scope
What Gets Built
- Matter architecture first — matter types, practice-area templates, naming and numbering conventions, document folder structures. Everything else depends on this, which is why nothing else starts until it’s settled. Getting it wrong is recoverable but expensive.
- Custom fields designed backwards from reporting — the right question isn’t what data you could capture, it’s what you’ll want to know in two years. Fields defined after the fact can’t be populated retroactively, and this is the single most common cause of “the reports don’t tell me anything.”
- Task templates and workflows — automated sequences for intake, drafting, review, filing, billing and closing, so the next step is assigned rather than remembered.
- Billing configuration — rate tables, bill themes, automated bill runs, time-entry structure, payment processing and collections sequences.
- Trust accounting — client ledger structure and reconciliation configured to your jurisdiction’s requirements. We build it to what your bar requires and to what your accountant expects; you and your accountant own the compliance determination.
- Intake connection — Clio Grow or Lawmatics wired to matter creation so intake data carries through instead of being retyped. Integration detail →
- Dashboards and reporting — revenue, AR aging, caseload, utilization and lead volume visible without anyone assembling a report.
- Integrations — QuickBooks, Google Workspace, your phone system, and a Zapier or Make layer for firm-specific automation.
- Training — live sessions with the people who’ll use it, inside your real workflows.
Migration
Migration: What Actually Moves
This is where migrations go wrong, so here’s the honest version.
- Moves cleanly — contacts, matters, documents, and calendar entries. Notes usually, with some formatting loss.
- Moves with effort — time entries and billing history. Both can transfer, but structures differ between platforms and the mapping needs deliberate design. Some firms choose to migrate open matters only and archive closed history in the old system for reference.
- Rarely moves well — custom field data where structures don’t align, task histories, email threads stored inside the old platform, and internal workflow states. Plan around this rather than discovering it at cutover.
Trust balances need particular care
Trust ledgers must reconcile exactly across the move, and this is the part we schedule most conservatively. We reconcile before cutover, after cutover, and again at the first month-end. Your accountant should be in that loop.
Worth leaving behind: dead matters, duplicate contacts, legacy custom fields nobody has populated in three years, and workflow conventions that exist because of a limitation in the old platform. A migration is the single best opportunity you’ll get to drop accumulated mess rather than carry it forward.
Timing. We schedule cutover around your billing cycle rather than the calendar. Moving mid-cycle means reconciling a partial month across two systems, which is avoidable work.
Timeline
How the Weeks Run
Week 1 — discovery and design
How your firm actually works, what the matter architecture needs to support, what data is coming across. Nothing is configured yet, and that’s deliberate.
Weeks 2–3 — build
Configuration, templates, billing, automation, integrations. Migration mapping runs in parallel where applicable.
Week 4 — migration and testing
Data moves, reconciliation runs, everything is tested against real scenarios before anyone depends on it.
Week 5 — training and go-live
Live sessions, documentation, go-live support. Then a 30-day review once the system has carried real work.
Three to five weeks for a firm of one to ten attorneys. Six to eight for multiple practice areas, complex billing, or a large migration.
Common Questions