What Clio data migration moves — and how to move your documents
Clio publishes exactly what its data migration can and cannot move, and the answer for documents is different from the answer for everything else. This reference reproduces the master scope lists from Clio's own help center, shows how the scope varies by source system, and lays out the three practical paths for the document side of the move.
Does Clio's migration move your documents?
Clio's data migration moves your structured records — contacts, matters, calendars, tasks, notes, emails, phone logs, unbilled time, and summative balances — through a standard process. Documents are the exception: Clio's own Data Migration Overview lists them as migratable only "subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume." Documents are excluded from the standard self-serve export path; Clio's migrations team scopes document migration separately, with fees based on volume. Document migration is not impossible — it is a separate, separately priced workstream.
That one distinction is the thing most firms discover at the kickoff call instead of before it. Everything below unpacks it: the exact lists from Clio's Data Migration Overview (recently updated, as of mid-2026), how the scope shrinks or shifts depending on which system you're leaving, and the three realistic ways the document side actually gets done.
One framing note from Clio's overview worth keeping in mind throughout: "Migrations can be completed independently using Clio's self-serve tools and migration templates, or with the assistance of Clio's migrations team." The self-serve path covers structured data. The documents line is the one place where the overview attaches scoping and fees — which is why it gets its own section of this page.
What moves, what doesn't
Reproduced from Clio's Data Migration Overview. The documents row is the one to read twice.
| Contacts | |
| Matters | |
| Related contacts | |
| Tasks | |
| Notes | |
| Calendar events | |
| Emails | vendor-dependent — see index below |
| Phone logs | |
| Unbilled activities | time entries only |
| Accounts receivable balances | single summative line item per matter at export |
| Trust balances | single summative line item per matter or contact |
| Documents | "subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume" |
Documents are on the can-migrate list — but unlike every other row, they sit outside the standard self-serve path. Clio's migrations team scopes them as a separate project, priced by volume.
- Accounting and financial history — trust account transactions, trust account requests and payments, operating account transactions, invoices, billed time entries, accounts receivable ledgers, bill payments, and historical bills. You get the summative balance line items (left column); the transaction history behind them stays in the old system.
- Billable rates — user rate, client rate, and matter rate. Rebuilt by hand in Clio.
- Reports — saved reports don't transfer; Clio's reporting is configured fresh.
- User permissions — access structures are set up new in Clio.
- Settings — workflows, templates, and configuration are a rebuild, not a transfer.
Practical consequence: keep the old system readable until post-cutover questions about historical bills and trust transactions stop coming up.
Scope qualifier that applies to everything on this page: the exact migration scope varies by source system — Clio's per-vendor migration guides are the authority for each vendor, and Clio updates these articles frequently (the overview itself was recently updated, as of mid-2026). Confirm current scope with your Clio onboarding rep before you plan around any row above.
Why documents are the exception
Structured data is bounded and predictable. Contacts and matters export to spreadsheets; balances reduce to one line per matter. A migration team can template that work — which is exactly what Clio's self-serve tools and migration templates do.
Document libraries aren't bounded the same way. Two firms of identical size can differ by an order of magnitude in storage volume, and the structure varies as much as the size: some systems keep files in a clean per-matter directory, some scatter them across a database, some never had the documents at all because they lived on a shared drive next door. There is no template for that — which is why Clio's overview attaches "subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume" to the documents line and to no other line.
The corroborating detail: across every per-vendor export guide Clio publishes — fourteen of which are indexed in the next section — none of the standard export lists includes documents. The vendor guides cover contacts, matters, tasks, balances, and the rest of the structured set; the document directory is consistently outside the standard export, handled either by the scoped Clio project or by you. That's a scoping boundary, not a refusal: the files can absolutely get into Clio. The question is which of the three paths below carries them.
The per-vendor index
What the standard path moves from each system, per Clio's own vendor guides — and the catch specific to each. Documents are separate in every row.
| Leaving | Standard path moves | The vendor-specific catch | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tabs3 / PracticeMaster | 11 data types — documents separate | Tabs3 has no export function of its own; data exits through the PracticeMaster interface | Tabs3 → |
| Time Matters | 11 data types — documents separate | Clio's backup instructions literally skip the Documents directories and email attachments | Time Matters → |
| Needles | 5 data types only — documents separate | A five-type standard list: contacts, matters, matter notes, tasks, and calendar events | Needles → |
| Amicus Attorney | Varies by edition — documents separate | Three product variants with three different lists; Small Firm Edition exports "are not guaranteed" | Amicus → |
| AbacusLaw | Structured data per Clio's guide — documents separate | AbacusLaw and Abacus Sky carry separate lists; PostgreSQL-server firms can't use the standard backup export | AbacusLaw → |
| MyCase | 11 data types — documents separate | Emails can't come across — Clio's guide: "We cannot import emails because they cannot be exported properly from My Case" | MyCase → |
| LEAP | 6 data types — documents separate | A fee may apply to the LEAP data export itself | LEAP → |
| Smokeball | 8 data types via CSV report exports — documents separate | Calendar events can't migrate; Clio's guide points to Smokeball/Outlook calendar sync as the workaround | Smokeball → |
| PracticePanther | 12 data types — documents separate | One of the longest lists; only administrators can export client data | PracticePanther → |
| PCLaw | 8 data types — documents separate | Several exports run through print-to-PDF rather than clean CSV downloads | PCLaw → |
| Filevine | 6 data types via report-builder exports — documents separate | Every export is assembled through the report builder, column by column | Filevine → |
| CosmoLex | 9 data types — documents separate | Accounting-led system, but transaction-level accounting and trust history stays behind — balances arrive as summative line items | CosmoLex → |
| Rocket Matter | 7 data types — documents separate | Classic and NextGen have separate export instructions — confirm which one your firm runs | Rocket Matter → |
| Docketwise | 2 data types — documents separate | The narrowest standard list: contacts and matters, exported via the blue-cloud icons — the integration with Clio syncs the same two types | Docketwise → |
Counts reflect Clio's per-vendor lists as published: A–B · C–F · G–M · N–S · T–Z. Clio revises these articles frequently — treat each vendor guide as the authority for that vendor, and confirm current scope with your Clio onboarding rep. Leaving a document management system rather than a practice manager? The NetDocuments-to-Clio guide covers the DMS-source version of the move, where the documents are the whole migration rather than the separate workstream.
Three ways to move the documents
The path Clio's own documentation points to: documents migrate "subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume." You hand the migrations team your document export or backup, they assess the volume and structure, and they quote the project. Clio's data migration page frames the economics directly: "Clio offers a complimentary data migration service for many common systems. However, the cost can vary for more complex migrations or systems not directly supported." The complimentary tier is the structured data; documents are where the cost-can-vary clause does its work.
Trade-offs. Lowest effort for your staff and the team that best knows Clio's import side — but it requires the scoping conversation before you can plan budget or timeline, and the fee scales with how much you ask them to move. Strongest fit when the source system makes documents hard to extract or when volume is large enough that hand-carrying is unrealistic.
Specialist migration vendors move documents and metadata in bulk from legacy practice-management systems into Clio, typically preserving folder structure and handling the matter mapping programmatically. These are usually consultant-led, four-figure engagements priced by volume.
Trade-offs. The strongest option when version history or complex metadata has to survive the move, or when you're consolidating from multiple sources at once. The cost only makes sense above a certain library size — and you're adding a third party to a project that already has two.
Export or locate your files first — your old system's document directory, the backup the vendor guide had you create, or the cloud storage where the files actually lived all along. Then upload them into Clio matters using Clio's web interface, Clio Drive, or browser upload tools like Send to Case that send files to a matter directly from the browser.
Trade-offs. No scoping call and no per-volume fee — the cost is your time, paid matter by matter. That makes it the natural fit for solos and small firms, for libraries that are already organized by client or matter, and for the long tail of files that surface after the formal migration closes. It's the weakest fit when version histories matter or when the library is large and disorganized enough that the labor exceeds what a scoped service would have cost.
Scope is one piece of the move
Knowing what migrates is the first planning input, not the plan. The migration itself still needs sequencing: cleaning data before export, deciding what's worth moving versus archiving, running the old and new systems in parallel long enough to validate, and timing the document workstream so it doesn't stall the cutover. Clio's overview also carries one warning worth elevating: once you export from your previous system, stop entering data there — anything added after the export has to be transferred by hand. And before the old system goes away, verify the migration actually landed — reconcile document counts per matter and spot-check a sample while the source is still live.
For the end-to-end sequencing — timeline, dual-running discipline, the pre-export cleanup checklist, and where the document phase fits — see our practical guide to switching your firm to Clio. This page covers the scope question; that one covers the process.
Does Clio's data migration move documents?
+Yes, but not in the standard path. Clio's Data Migration Overview lists documents as migratable 'subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume' — meaning documents are excluded from the standard self-serve export path and handled as a separately scoped project by Clio's migrations team. Structured data (contacts, matters, calendars, balances) moves through the standard process; documents get their own scoping conversation and a volume-based fee.
What does the standard Clio migration include?
+Per Clio's Data Migration Overview (recently updated, as of mid-2026): contacts, matters, related contacts, tasks, notes, calendar events, emails, phone logs, unbilled activities (time entries only), accounts receivable balances as a single summative line item per matter, and trust balances as a single summative line item per matter or contact. The exact scope varies by source system — check the per-vendor migration guide for your current software and confirm current scope with your Clio onboarding rep.
Why are documents treated differently from other data?
+Volume and structure. Structured records are bounded — a small firm has thousands of contacts and hundreds of matters in predictable formats. Document libraries range from gigabytes to terabytes, with inconsistent folder structures and version histories. That's why Clio's overview attaches 'subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume' only to the documents line, and why none of Clio's per-vendor export guides includes documents in the standard export list.
Can I move my documents into Clio myself without paying for migration?
+Yes. If you can export or locate your files — from your old system's document directory, a backup, or cloud storage — you can upload them yourself using Clio's web interface, Clio Drive, or browser upload tools. The trade-off is labor: you handle the matter-by-matter organization that a paid migration service would script. For modest libraries this is often the fastest path; very large libraries usually justify a scoped service.
Do emails migrate to Clio?
+Generally yes — emails appear on the master can-migrate list in Clio's Data Migration Overview. But it is vendor-dependent. Clio's MyCase guide, for example, states emails cannot be imported because they cannot be exported properly from MyCase, and the Time Matters backup instructions skip email attachments. Check the per-vendor guide for your system before assuming email history will come across.
Does billing or accounting history migrate to Clio?
+No. Clio's overview lists accounting and financial history as non-migratable: trust account transactions, trust requests and payments, operating account transactions, invoices, billed time entries, accounts receivable ledgers, bill payments, and historical bills. What you get instead is a single summative line item per matter for accounts receivable, and a single summative line item per matter or contact for trust balances — the balance as of export, not the transaction history behind it.
Do billable rates migrate to Clio?
+No. Billable rates — user rates, client rates, and matter rates — are on Clio's cannot-migrate list, along with reports, user permissions, and settings. Plan to re-enter rate structures in Clio as part of setup.
Is there a per-file size limit when moving documents into Clio?
+Yes. Clio caps a single file at 5 GB, the same through the web Documents area and the Clio Drive desktop app. A file over 5 GB has to be split first, or stored externally and referenced from the matter — no upload method raises the cap, and zipping rarely shrinks video or scanned PDFs enough to make a difference. Most matter documents are far under it; plan around it only for oversized media.
Keep going
Migrating to Clio
The process playbook — timeline, dual-running, cleanup checklist, and cutover sequencing for the whole move.
Read guide →Clio bulk upload
Moving documents in volume once you've decided to handle the file side yourself.
Read guide →Clio document management
How matter documents are organized in Clio once the migrated files land.
Read guide →