Clio's Outlook add-in, in detail

Clio's help center documents the add-in as available on Outlook 2016 or later with a Microsoft 365 Business subscription, on Microsoft-backed email accounts, in Outlook on the web and Outlook desktop for both Windows and Mac. The mailbox matters more than the version number. Clio's list names a Microsoft 365 Business subscription on a Microsoft-backed account and nothing else, so a personal Microsoft plan, or an Exchange server your firm runs itself, isn't on it — ask Clio before planning a rollout around either. Shared inboxes aren't supported, and neither is Internet Explorer 11. Clio's steps don't name new Outlook for Windows. Support boundaries move as Microsoft retires older clients, so confirm the current list in Clio's help center before planning a rollout around it.

You get it the way you get any Office add-in: from Microsoft's add-ins store for Outlook, either through Microsoft's own listing page (now Microsoft Marketplace) or from the Add apps entry inside Outlook itself (All Apps, or Get Add-ins on older builds, in classic Outlook for Windows). After it installs you open a message, launch the add-in, and sign in to Clio Manage to authorize the connection. Installing it on one surface is generally enough, because Office web add-ins register against the mailbox rather than the computer — add it in Outlook on the web and it should turn up on the desktop, and the reverse. The exact menu wording drifts between Outlook builds, so follow Clio's current help center article rather than a remembered click path.

Start with where you're looking. In Outlook desktop the Clio icon sits on the Home ribbon or toolbar; if it isn't showing, open More actions (the three dots) and choose Clio, then use Customize Toolbar to drag the icon into view. In Outlook on the web, open an email and choose the three dots, then Apps, then Clio's Outlook Add-in; the icon needs a wide enough reading area to show on the message itself, and Customize actions pins it there. In new Outlook and Outlook on the web, Microsoft also lists installed add-ins under Apps on the message's action bar. If there's no All Apps button at all, Microsoft says your administrator may have turned off add-ins for your organization. Then check Clio's list: Outlook 2016 or later, a Microsoft 365 Business subscription on a Microsoft-backed account, and not a shared inbox. Quitting and reopening Outlook is a reasonable general first step too, though it isn't one Clio's article lists.

Clio describes the add-in as filing the email and its attachments to Clio Manage, and the practical behavior is worth verifying on a throwaway matter before you standardize a firm workflow on it, because how attachments land — as their own documents in the matter, or carried inside the email record — has varied across versions and clients. What doesn't vary is the filename. An attachment arrives in the matter under whatever the sender called it, so a signed agreement that left the other side as a camera timestamp or a scanner default will land in your matter under that name. If your firm runs a naming convention, someone still has to apply it after filing.

Yes. The add-in offers an optional time entry attached to the act of filing a message, so the minutes spent reading and answering client email can be captured at the moment they happen rather than reconstructed on Friday afternoon. Clio also supports time entry templates with common rates and durations, which is what makes the feature realistic to use at inbox speed — nobody types a full narrative forty times a day. Entries can be billable or non-billable. Treat it as a capture tool rather than a billing review step: the entry still lands in Clio Manage, where it goes through the same review and invoicing path as time entered anywhere else.

Clio's help article for the add-in doesn't say which Clio Manage plans include it. What it documents is the Microsoft side: Outlook 2016 or later with a Microsoft 365 Business subscription on a Microsoft-backed account. Check your own plan with Clio. If the add-in installs from Microsoft's store but stalls when you connect, and Microsoft asks for an admin's approval, that's your tenant's consent setting: your Microsoft 365 administrator has to approve the app.

Yes, and it's worth having one, because the add-in only covers Outlook. Clio's web Documents area accepts drag-and-drop, multiple files at once, and whole folders, so anything already saved on your computer can go straight into a matter with no add-in involved. For files that arrive somewhere other than your inbox — a court portal, an evidence platform, an expiring share link from opposing counsel — the add-in has nothing to work with, and firms generally pair it with either a browser-based upload path or an automation rule. Which pairing makes sense depends on where your document volume actually comes from.

Clio's documented reason is a shared inbox. The add-in doesn't support shared mailboxes, and when you open a message in one, File Email shows as inactive. Microsoft's own rules point the same way: you can't install add-ins in a shared mailbox, and an add-in you install is added to your primary mailbox. Clio's suggested workaround is for one person at the firm to manage a non-shared inbox and file the relevant emails from there, so everyone else can see them in Clio Manage.

Yes. Compose the message, click the Clio icon, choose File Email, and select the matter before you send; Clio files it automatically once it goes out, with an optional time entry like any other filing. With the Matter folders in Outlook setting on, the sent message appears in that matter's Outlook folder; with it off, it stays in Sent Items. Outlook and Clio sync on a schedule rather than at the moment of filing, so give it a little time before checking the matter.

Filing creates a record in Clio Manage: the email is logged on the matter's Communications tab under Logs, then Emails, and appears in its Documents tab, and that log is edited or deleted inside Clio, where Clio describes deleting it as permanent. Clio's add-in documentation doesn't state outright what deleting the Outlook original does, so test it on a throwaway matter before relying on it. The documented catch is timing: Outlook and Clio sync on a schedule, not at the moment you file, so wait until the message carries the Filed to Clio category before deleting it. Uninstalling the add-in, by contrast, is documented as leaving filed emails, matter folders and the Filed to Clio tag where they are.