The firm runs on an Excel workbook, or a set of Google Sheets, or one very large Sheet with a tab per year. There is a client list, a matters tab with a status column, a deadlines tab that someone checks every Monday, and probably a trust tracker that makes you nervous. It has worked, mostly, and now it is not working, because two people edit it at once and the deadline column has three different date formats.
Moving from spreadsheets into Clio, PracticePanther, MyCase, or Filevine is a real migration, just a smaller one, and the spreadsheet's flexibility is exactly what makes it tricky. Here is how to do it without losing anything you actually need.
What your spreadsheets are really doing
A spreadsheet in a law office is usually four databases pretending to be one. There is a contact list (clients, opposing parties, referral sources), a matter list (one row per case, with status, type, and responsible attorney), a calendar (deadlines and court dates), and a ledger (fees, costs, sometimes trust). Often these are mixed: the matter tab has the client's phone number, and the client tab has the case number.
Before you export anything, name which columns belong to which of the four. A column that appears in more than one place ("Phone" on both tabs) needs one source of truth. A column that is used for two things ("Notes" holding both case status and the client's preferred contact time) needs to be split. This is the same audit that opens the Clio data migration checklist, scaled down.
Turning columns into contacts, matters, and custom fields
Every case management platform imports contacts and matters as separate tables linked by a client name or ID. Your spreadsheet probably links them by whatever the person typing chose that day, so the first job is to make the client name on the matter tab exactly match the client name on the contact tab. Fuzzy matches ("Bob Smith" versus "Robert Smith") have to be resolved by a person.
Standard fields map directly: name, email, phone, address, matter name, open date, status, responsible attorney. Everything else becomes a custom field in the new system, and this is where you decide what the firm actually tracks. A column that is filled in for a handful of rows is probably not worth a custom field. A column that every matter has (case number, court, opposing counsel, statute of limitations date) is.
Dates deserve special attention. Pick one format, convert every date column to it, and check for text that looks like a date but is not ("TBD", "ask client", "2019?"). Import tools reject those rows or, worse, import them as blanks.
Deciding what not to migrate
Closed matters from years ago do not need to be live in the new system. Export those rows to a separate archive file, keep it somewhere searchable for conflict checks, and migrate only open matters plus recently closed ones.
Columns that were only ever used by one person for one purpose can usually stay in the archive too. Color coding, which spreadsheets rely on heavily, does not import at all; if red rows meant something, add a status column that says what they meant before you export.
Trust data is the exception. If the spreadsheet is your trust ledger, it moves, and it moves after a reconciliation against the bank statement. The new platform's trust accounting is a big part of why firms leave spreadsheets, and it only helps if the opening balances are right.
The import itself
Most platforms accept a CSV per table: one for contacts, one for matters, sometimes one each for tasks and calendar events. Download the platform's template, which shows the exact column headers it expects, and rebuild your data into those headers rather than trying to import your existing layout.
Import contacts first, because matters need to link to them. Then matters. Then tasks and calendar items. Check the count after each load: the number of rows in the CSV should match the number of new records, and anything rejected should show up in an error report you can act on. Run it in a trial or sandbox account if the platform offers one.
Duplicates are the most common import error. If the same client appears on three matters and you import the contact CSV with three rows, you now have three contacts. Deduplicate contacts before import and let the matters link to a single record.
Life after the spreadsheet
The reason to move is not just storage. Once matters live in a platform, the firm can build the workflows that a spreadsheet could never trigger. A new client form can create the contact and matter automatically, which we describe in client intake automation for law firms, and deadlines can generate reminders instead of depending on Monday's manual check.
For a small office, the platform also becomes the place where marketing connects to operations. A solo practitioner working on SEO for their practice can route website leads straight into intake rather than into another spreadsheet.
Keep the old workbook read-only for a while, because someone will need a column you decided not to migrate.
Questions we get
Our spreadsheet has formulas that calculate deadlines. Do those come across?
No. Import tools take values, not formulas. Record the calculated dates as plain values before export, and then rebuild the calculation inside the new platform as a task template or a calendar rule (most systems can create a task a set number of days before or after another date). Document the formula logic so whoever rebuilds it knows what it did.
We have one sheet per attorney with different columns. How do we merge them?
Build a single master layout with every column any sheet uses, copy each attorney's sheet into it (mapping their column names to the master), and then decide which columns survive. Expect to find the same client on two attorneys' sheets with different spellings. Resolve those before the contact import.
Is a case management platform overkill for a solo with fifty matters?
Fifty matters with deadlines and trust money is enough to justify one. The cost of a missed deadline or an unreconciled trust balance is far higher than a subscription. The migration is a weekend of cleanup and a morning of imports at that scale, and the discipline it imposes is the point.
If you want help turning your workbook into a clean import, tell us what you are working with.