Clio, The Legal Time and Billing Software Recommended for Australian Law Firms

Legal time and billing software is what lawyers use to keep track of their work and expenses, and to bill clients for that work on a case. This software makes managing every stage of the legal billing process easier and more efficient: including time and expense tracking, invoicing, bill creation, bill review and trust accounting.

The main advantage of legal time and billing software is that it allows firms to reduce time spent on invoicing and billing. The best online legal billing software is customisable, with branded invoices and flexible billing plans available to help you get paid faster. Create reports to get a clear picture of outstanding balances/accounts receivables that can be filtered by matter or person.

Clio Manage is widely recognised as the best legal billing software, with a rating of 4.5/5 or higher on G2 Crowd, SoftwareAdvice.com, Capterra, and Lawyerist.

Clio Manage is also trusted by over 150,000 legal professionals, and approved by over 100 bar associations and law societies worldwide.

Clio supports integrations with Quickbooks and Xero, which integrate with Clio Manage to provide a streamlined accounting alternative.

If they bill by the hour, lawyers may track their time in six-minute increments and then add this time to an invoice where they note which activities each time log was spent on. Lawyers may also track their time but use an alternative billing arrangement such as retainers, evergreen retainers, sliding-scale fees, flat fees, contingency fees, or subscription services.

Clio allows you to generate bills from the main dashboard of a matter. Clicking the “Quick Bill” button will instantly generate an invoice with all billable time entries. You can also generate bills in bulk.

Learn more here to see how it’s done.

Yes. Clio’s legal billing software allows you to approve and apply trust funds to your bills. This applies available trust funds to your invoice. If you are out of trust funds, you can always send a trust request.

The easiest way to share invoices with clients is over email. Once a bill is approved, click “Share”, and your client will receive an email that allows them to pay their invoice with a credit card.

Clio’s costs vary depending on the features your law firm is looking for. Our legal billing software offers pricing plans starting at just $39 a month to ensure firms of all sizes can access our software solution.

Yes. Clio’s billing software lets you customise headers and themes, and add your law firm’s branded logo to your invoices.

Yes. Clio includes a straightforward dashboard of outstanding balances that shows who’s paid their bills, who hasn’t, and when a payment is due. 

The best legal billing software has a range of features to help your law firm bill efficiently. Below is a set of standard options you should look for first (Clio Manage includes all of these):

Varied billing arrangements: Your legal billing software should let you bill by the hour, or charge flat fees or contingency fees

Custom hourly rates and fees: This lets you charge different set hourly rates for different lawyers in your firm, and different flat fees for certain activities.

Timekeepers: You should be able to track time as you work using stopwatch timers in your legal billing software, or have the option to add time entries after the fact.

Expense tracking: Printing costs, mailing costs, and filing fees also need to be billed to clients. Legal billing software helps you keep track of it all.

Accounting integrations: Your legal billing software should integrate directly with your law firm’s accounting software for easy reconciliation of accounts.

Activity codes: These are standard codes assigned to different activities within your firm such as research, document drafting, or contract review.

LEDES billing codes: For firms that need it, your software should allow you to easily format bills according to LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard). You should also be able to use UTBMS codes (Uniform Task-Based Management System Codes) to give further detail on a LEDES bill.

Invoicing: Bills should be automatically generated based on unbilled time and expenses logged to a case.

Customisable bill themes or invoice templates: Your legal billing software should allow you to create clear, professional bills featuring your firm’s logo and any standard copy needed.

Payment reminders: You should have the option to remind payments if an invoice is past due.

Outstanding client balances: You should easily be able to see the balance of client accounts and whether clients have paid or not.

Trust account management: Your legal billing software should help you keep an accurate record of all trust accounts and transactions.

Financial reporting: You should be able to see accounts receivables, outstanding balances, and more in easy to read reports, organised by client, matter, or lawyer.

The best legal time and billing software has a range of features to help your law firm bill efficiently. Below is a set of standard options you should look for first (Clio Manage includes all of these):

Varied billing arrangements: Your legal billing software should let you bill by the hour, or charge flat fees or contingency fees

Custom hourly rates and fees: This lets you charge different set hourly rates for different lawyers in your firm, and different flat fees for certain activities.

Timekeepers: You should be able to track time as you work using stopwatch timers in your legal billing software, or have the option to add time entries after the fact.

Expense tracking: Printing costs, mailing costs, and filing fees also need to be billed to clients. Legal billing software helps you keep track of it all.

Accounting integrations: Your legal billing software should integrate directly with your law firm’s accounting software for easy reconciliation of accounts.

Activity codes: These are standard codes assigned to different activities within your firm such as research, document drafting, or contract review.

LEDES billing codes: For firms that need it, your software should allow you to easily format bills according to LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard). You should also be able to use UTBMS codes (Uniform Task-Based Management System Codes) to give further detail on a LEDES bill.

Invoicing: Bills should be automatically generated based on unbilled time and expenses logged to a case.

Customisable bill themes or invoice templates: Your legal billing software should allow you to create clear, professional bills featuring your firm’s logo and any standard copy needed.

Payment reminders: You should have the option to remind payments if an invoice is past due.

Outstanding client balances: You should easily be able to see the balance of client accounts and whether clients have paid or not.

Trust account management: Your legal billing software should help you keep an accurate record of all trust accounts and transactions.

Financial reporting: You should be able to see accounts receivables, outstanding balances, and more in easy to read reports, organised by client, matter, or lawyer.