Clio vs. CosmoLex

Clio is a wonderful practice management solution for small firms that do billable work. The Clio manage software is excellent for tracking your time at different rates, tracking matter budgets, and tracking expenses. Clio is also great for firms that want to implement and use tech in their offices. If clients are at least somewhat tech-savvy (have and know how to use email), they will also benefit and enjoy the implementation of Clio.

Incentivized

CosmoLex is very well suited for the solo or small practice where you just need a little more backup to keep you organized, or where you still intend to do your own taxes or like to have a lot of control over your activity and your output. It may also be well suited for a larger practice where the task management pieces would be more useful but, a lot of those pieces get in the way in a solo practice. It is also great for anyone who wants a strong trust accounting program built into their daily activities.

Incentivized

• Timekeeping. All I have to do is open Clio in the morning and press the "start timekeeping" button if I am too lazy to type in a few words.
• Billing. The new interface is really easy to use.
• Calendar. I use two calendars for deadlines, etc. My G-Suites calendar and Clio.

Incentivized

• Cloud-based - accessible from anywhere.
• Very easy to get started.
• Intuitive user interface (for the most part).
• No need for separate accounting software.
• Check printing is very easy and smooth, especially when printing multiple checks.
• Flexibility to integrate with other software to import billing.

Incentivized

• The billing screen is serviceable but unwieldy. It is hard to get your bills to look the way that you want in many cases.
• The document management process could stand some improvement. In order to manipulate a document, you have to download it, work on it, then re-upload the new version. I'd like a local client or a seamless way to edit and then automatically see the update taken into Clio.
• The task entry is good but not great. I'd like to see a way to have it integrate into my iPhone's reminders list.
• The quickbooks online sync has been a constant source of frustration for our bookkeeper, who has to monitor daily and hardly ever goes a day without an item failing to sync.

Incentivized

• Sometimes difficult to find what you want on the clunky interface.
• Would be beneficial to offer a pared down version for solo practitioners
• Accounts payable function is weak.

Incentivized

We have been able to streamline our task management and everyday office procedures by using Clio to its fullest potential. We have a hire client retention rate because we can easily keep track of leads and follow ups. Clio Draft is saving us time on drafting legal documents and correspondence espondence. Overall, we are able to save time and money on everything tasks

Incentivized

Clio is intuitive and easy to learn. Even new staff or attorneys with limited tech experience can quickly navigate through tasks, matters, billing, and calendars. This reduces training time and increases productivity, especially in a busy mid-sized law firm. Because it’s cloud-based, Clio can be accessed from any device, anywhere. Whether I am working in the office, at home, or in court, I have full access to my cases, documents, and time entries.

Incentivized

There is far too much reliance on symbols versus words, and it is sometimes difficult to navigate to the function you need. CosmoLex offers great support, knowledge base, and training, but sometimes you just don't have an hour to spend learning how to do a basic function that you have forgotten, and you just need it to WORK. It would be great to have the option of having word labels instead of picture symbols. It would also be great to have full functionality in the smartphone app. It just is not good. Not good. Pretty much everything keeping me tied to CosmoLex is on the money management side.

Incentivized

Rather than talk in generalities, I'll give two specific examples. First, after updating my OS, I got locked out of Clio. I was back in, up and running, with no loss of data, within an hour thanks to Clio customer support. Second, I made some specific recommendation for features that I thought would be useful. Those recommendations fell in a black hole, with the suggestion that I try a very buggy third party integration app. Clio is making lots of money from lawyers using its software. Why can't Clio create the integrations and test them if Clio is not willing to build them into its platform?

Incentivized

I think that CosmoLex actually relies so much on its stellar support infrastructure that it forgets we don't actually want to have to use it. Just make the darn thing easier to navigate and understand, and you won't need all that client-facing support. You can choose chat, email, phone, knowledge base, embedded training videos within the different pages, but darn it all, I just want it to be more intuitive instead.

Incentivized

Clio offers integrations such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, QuickBooks, Zoom, Dropbox, and more. This allows me to customize my tech stack to fit my specific needs. Clio’s mobile app is more feature-rich, offering time tracking, document access, calendaring, and even billing on the go. It’s ideal for attorneys who work remotely or travel frequently.

Incentivized

I used CosmoLex over PC Law mostly because it was cloud-based, and I used it over Clio because the accounting for Clio required the use of both Clio and QuickBooks which made for very inefficient data entry. CosmoLex is slower than PCLaw when inputting entries, but I believe that in the long run, it will be better as CosmoLex is better situated to move forward with new technology.

Incentivized

• It has improved our ability to capture billable activities.
• It has increased our efficiency in regards to onboarding clients and getting retainers signed.
• The integrations with QuickBooks and other software platforms such as Mailchimp has allowed us to improve our marketing efforts and overall operations.

Incentivized

• Time is the greatest factor when it comes to managing and creating documents and client accounts.
• Tracking client data.