The Benefits—and Ease—of Switching to Clio’s New Built-In Online Payments

How getting started with Clio’s new online payments was easy

Sarah Gold had been using another payment processor with Clio, but she was on the lookout for a solution that offered more transparent fees and the ability to process eCheck payments in Clio. At the announcement of Clio’s new online payments, Sarah immediately booked an appointment with an account manager to get started that day.

What were the benefits of switching to Clio’s built-in payments from a third-party integration?

1. Sarah’s invoicing in Clio remained exactly the same

Sarah worried about how switching payment processors would affect her clients. Her account manager walked her through the invoicing process and reassured her that everything she loved about her other payments processor would remain exactly the same when switching to Clio.

“I had the exact same experience doing the invoices that I had all along, and I had all the options available to me to do what I needed to do.”

2. Quick to set up—and quick to start collecting

Once she switched, the payments came in just as fast, if not faster.

3. Sarah’s clients want to pay by eCheck—and now they can

Both Sarah and her clients prefer to handle billing and payments electronically, meaning they don’t need to deal with the hassle of physical envelopes and paying for postage. eChecks give her clients the ability to pay an invoice directly from a bank account without having to use a credit card.

4. Transparent fees are more predictable and easy to keep track of

For Sarah, processing fees are a cost of doing business, and well worth the investment to make the payment process easier and more convenient for clients. With other payment processors, however, it’s a real challenge to predict and keep track of the different processing charges and unexpected network fees that would appear on her monthly transaction summaries. With Clio, she knows how much each transaction will cost, and she can monitor every charge in real time.

“I never knew what that fee was going to look like because I never knew what my client was going to use as a card. And a lot of the electronic providers were like, well, if it’s this card, it’s gonna be X amount. If it’s this card it’s gonna be [something else]. And I couldn’t tell you, even in my own wallet, what those qualifications are, and it’s the same thing for my clients. So the fact that now I have a consistency in the fees, I can predict budgetarily what my bills should look like, which is convenient for me.”

5. Payment plans open up Sarah’s services to more clients

Sarah charges clients on a flat fee basis, but not everyone—her not-for-profit clients in particular—could afford her services if they had to pay for them in one installment. Having more flexibility with her payment plans lets her create automated payment schedules that work better for her clients, and require little-to-no follow-up on her part.

6. Automated reminders eliminate the hassle of following up with unpaid bills

More than anything, Sarah doesn’t want to follow up with clients each month for payment, and with Clio’s automated bill reminders she doesn’t have to. Automated reminders are fully customizable with an accompanying message that adds a personal touch.

“The reminders go through automatically. And I’m always pleasantly surprised when I get the email back going, oh, I’m sorry. The email kind of fell through the cracks—the payment’s coming through right now. Those things, take another step off my plate.”