Clio to PracticePanther
Some firms move from Clio to PracticePanther to cut cost and complexity after concluding they use only a fraction of Clio. We work out what you actually rely on, migrate matters, billing and trust balances into PracticePanther, and tell you plainly what will not follow.
This is a deliberate simplification and it can be a sound one. A two or three person firm doing hourly work for steady clients often uses matters, time, invoices and trust and nothing else. If that is you, you are paying for an integration marketplace, a CRM and a reporting suite you never open. PracticePanther covers the core at a lower cost per user with less to learn.
The other driver is fit rather than price. Firms that never adopted Clio Grow, never connected more than one or two integrations, and found the interface heavier than they needed often find PracticePanther simply gets out of the way. Time entry and invoicing are quick and the trust ledgers do what a small firm needs.
Be clear about what does not come with you. Clio Grow leads, the integration marketplace, deeper document automation and most custom reporting either disappear or get noticeably thinner. If you are growing rather than consolidating, there is a real chance you make this move and reverse it within two years, which is the most expensive path available.
Clio
The broadest general practice management platform in legal, covering matters, billing, trust accounting and a large integration marketplace.
- Largest integration marketplace in legal software
- Mature billing and trust accounting
- Clio Grow for intake and CRM
- Well documented open API
- Deep training, support and consultant network
- Less phase-driven than PI-specific systems
- No native medical records or treatment module
- Matter custom fields are flat rather than sectioned
- Heavy plaintiff reporting usually needs add-ons
PracticePanther
A cloud practice management system aimed at solo and small general practice firms that bill for their time.
- Quick to learn and roll out
- Straightforward time entry and invoicing
- Built-in trust and operating ledgers
- Intake forms and integrated payments
- Zapier and a documented API for light automation
- Light on phase-driven litigation workflow
- No native medical treatment tracking
- Reporting is thin for high-volume caseloads
- Document automation is basic
What moves, and where it lands
How Clio records map to PracticePanther. Every row is reviewed with your team before anything is imported.
| Clio | PracticePanther | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Matters | →Matters | Carry the Clio matter number across so old correspondence still matches. |
| Contacts and Companies | →Contacts and Companies | Resolve duplicate Clio contacts in the export rather than inside PracticePanther. |
| Activities | →Time Entries and Expenses | Clio activities cover both, so split time from expense before loading. |
| Bills | →Invoices | Only open bills usually justify migration; closed bills archive as PDFs. |
| Client Funds Accounts | →Trust Accounts | Migrate per-matter balances and reconcile before you write a single check. |
| Documents | →Documents | PracticePanther folder depth is shallower, so flatten deep Clio structures. |
| Tasks | →Tasks | Open tasks only; Clio task lists and templates do not transfer. |
| Calendar Entries | →Events | Connect calendar sync first, then migrate the remaining internal events. |
| Matter Custom Fields | →Custom Fields | Clio field sets collapse into one flat list per PracticePanther matter. |
What to watch for
- Trust history is the thing to protect. Clio client funds accounts hold a transaction-level ledger that PracticePanther can receive as balances but not always as full history. Export and retain the Clio ledger and reconciliation reports as PDFs before you cancel, because your bar may expect you to produce them years later.
- Clio Grow leads have no destination. PracticePanther intake forms capture new inquiries, but there is no lead pipeline to receive your existing Grow records, so export the lead list and any conversion reporting you care about before the subscription ends.
- Clio custom field sets scoped by matter type flatten into a single field list in PracticePanther. Consolidate overlapping fields during the mapping rather than recreating forty fields that each apply to one practice area.
- Anything running on the Clio API stops working. Court rules calendaring, e-signature tools, accounting sync and document automation add-ons need a PracticePanther equivalent or a manual process, and those gaps are much easier to find before the cutover than after.
- Do not cancel Clio on the go live date. Keep read-only access for at least one full billing and reconciliation cycle, ideally a quarter, so you can check any migrated number against the original record.
- Clio matter stages and the reporting built on them do not migrate. If you use stages to track progress, plan how PracticePanther will represent that, usually through matter status plus tags, and accept that it will be coarser.
Three to six weeks is normal, and this direction is often faster than the reverse because there is less to configure. Time goes on deciding how much history to carry, exporting the records you must retain for compliance, and replacing whatever integrations were doing real work. Keep Clio available in read-only mode through at least one full reconciliation cycle after go live.
Questions about this move
Is moving from Clio to PracticePanther a step backwards?
What happens to our trust accounting records?
Can we keep our Clio document folder structure?
How long should we keep Clio running alongside?
Move from Clio to PracticePanther.
Tell us how many matters, users, and documents are involved. We will come back with a plan, a field map, and a realistic timeline.