Migrate from Clio to Salesforce Sales Cloud

Clio Clients are person-centric; they map to Salesforce Contacts with an optional Account for the associated organization. Individuals without a firm name attach to a default 'Individual Client' Account. Client billing preferences are preserved as custom fields on Contact. We also map the primary phone number to the Phone field and capture any secondary contact details in custom fields for downstream follow‑up.

Clio Matters map to Salesforce Cases by default for matter management workflows. Firms tracking client development or revenue pipeline from matters map to Opportunities instead. The mapping decision is made during discovery; mixed mapping (some matters to Cases, some to Opportunities) is supported via a matter-type custom field.

Clio matter types (Litigation, Corporate, Real Estate, Family Law, etc.) map to Salesforce Case Types or Opportunity Record Types depending on the chosen matter-to-object mapping. Each matter type requires its corresponding Record Type created in Salesforce before migration. If your firm uses custom matter type labels, we capture them in a separate picklist field and map each to the appropriate Salesforce type during data load.

Clio Bills have no Salesforce native equivalent. We create a custom object (Clio_Billing__c) with fields for invoice number, total amount, status, date, and linked matter. Trust accounting transactions (Ledger__c) are a separate custom object. Your admin maps these to an accounting integration post-migration.

Billable time entries migrate as a custom object linked to the matter Case. Non-billable time entries map to Salesforce Tasks with Type='Time Entry'. Each time entry preserves the original hours, rate, total, date, and user who recorded it. Rate hierarchy is preserved for post-migration billing rebuild reference.

Clio expenses map directly to a custom Expense__c object with fields for amount, date, description, vendor, matter link, and user. Expenses do not map to Salesforce native expense features because Salesforce has none at the CRM level. We also capture the expense category and any billable flag so reporting can distinguish between client‑reimbursable and internal costs.

Clio rate hierarchies (user default rate, client rate, matter rate, activity type rate) are preserved in a Rate_Structure__c custom object and as custom fields on Contact. The effective rate at migration time is stored; the full hierarchy structure is exported as JSON for your admin to rebuild in Salesforce.

Clio documents download and re-upload to Salesforce Files. The ContentVersion record stores the file blob; ContentDocumentLink attaches it to the related Case. Document names, versions, and upload timestamps are preserved. Inline images in document text are downloaded and rehosted as Salesforce Files.

Clio calendar events map to Salesforce Events with original start and end times, subject, attendees (linked Contacts), and assigned user preserved. Recurring events split into individual Event records per occurrence to match Salesforce's non-recurring model. All‑day events retain their IsAllDayEvent flag, and any meeting location or conference room information is stored in the Location field for reference.

Clio tasks map to Salesforce Tasks directly. Status, priority, due date, subject, description, and assigned user are preserved. Tasks linked to specific matters attach to the corresponding Case record via WhatId. We also capture the task's original created date in a custom field to preserve the full audit trail for compliance review.

Clio matter contacts (parties, opposing counsel, staff) map to CaseContactRole junction records on the Salesforce Case. Role labels (Attorney, Client, Opposing Counsel) map to the CaseContactRole Role field value-by-value. If a contact has multiple roles across different matters, each role generates a separate CaseContactRole entry to preserve the full relationship history.

Clio custom fields map to Salesforce custom fields using the __c suffix. Field type mapping: Clio text → Text(255), Clio number → Number, Clio date → Date, Clio dropdown → Picklist. Long text fields map to Long Text Area. Your admin creates the fields in Salesforce Object Manager before migration.