Switching from PracticePanther to Clio without losing your documents
PracticePanther is a strong product — especially for intake-heavy small firms — and its strong user ratings reflect that. If you've outgrown it and Clio is your next move, Clio's complimentary migration team handles the structured data. Documents are usually a separate conversation, and that's where switchers get stuck.
Why firms outgrow PracticePanther
A respectable product with a real ceiling for growing firms.
PracticePanther earned its reputation by doing the basics well for solo and small-firm work — clean intake, fast invoicing, an actually-good workflow engine. For firms running fewer than 30–50 active matters per attorney, it's hard to argue with the product.
The patterns we hear from firms making the switch are consistent. Integration breadth comes up first: Clio's app directory spans hundreds of integrations, which becomes load-bearing once a firm wires in e-signature, accounting, document automation, and a handful of practice-area-specific tools. PracticePanther's integration set is narrower, and growing firms eventually hit something they need that isn't there.
Multi-office expansion is the second pattern. Reporting across offices, role-based access at scale, and trust accounting that survives a multi-jurisdiction setup are areas where Clio's enterprise tooling has the edge. None of this is a knock on PracticePanther — it's just that the product fits a band, and growth eventually pushes a firm above it.
If you're earlier in the decision and weighing the broader picture, the migrating-to-Clio pillar guide covers the full structured-data side. This article is the document-specific companion.
What Clio's free migration team handles
The complimentary tier covers structured data. Confirm PP-specific scope on your kickoff call.
Clio's PracticePanther migration guide lists what a standard migration moves:
- ✓ Contacts — clients, opposing counsel, vendors
- ✓ Matters — case shells with metadata
- ✓ Contact and matter notes
- ✓ Tasks and calendar events
- ✓ Unbilled time and expense entries — billed entries don't migrate
- ✓ Email and phone communications
- ✓ Outstanding and trust balances — summative line items at time of export
The PracticePanther-specific scope can vary. Some elements that often need a closer look on the kickoff call:
- Documents — migratable, subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume
- Custom workflows — usually rebuilt manually
- Custom fields — mapping is firm-specific
- Intake forms — Clio Grow is a separate product
Clio's general migration policy is the right reference point, but ask your onboarding rep for a written confirmation of what's included for a PP source. The pillar guide goes deeper on the broader pattern.
Why documents are usually scoped separately
An industry pattern, not a Clio quirk.
Document migrations are non-trivial across every legal-SaaS vendor, and the third-party migration market reflects that. Specialist migrators routinely charge four figures for document moves, priced by volume, and they're not overcharging — files vary wildly in size, folder structures are inconsistent across matters, and version histories sometimes need to be preserved and sometimes don't. Mapping all of that into a clean Clio matter structure takes real work.
That's why structured data and documents almost always get scoped as two separate workstreams. The structured-data side is bounded — a CSV the migration team can validate row-by-row. The document side is a per-firm conversation about volume, source storage, and retention.
Important nuance for PracticePanther firms specifically: many PP firms are already using the cloud-storage integration (Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, or Google Drive). For those firms, the documents already live in cloud storage — the "migration" is really about reconnecting that storage to Clio matters, which is much faster than a true document move. The next section explains how to tell which situation applies to your firm.
How PracticePanther stores your documents
Native, cloud-synced, or both — and it changes the migration plan.
PracticePanther supports two storage models. The first is native document storage — files uploaded to PP and stored within the PP system. The second is an optional integration with one external cloud provider per workspace: Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, or Google Drive. Per PracticePanther's own integration documentation, a workspace syncs with exactly one of those four at a time, not multiple.
That's a real product capability — PracticePanther isn't lacking here. Many small firms specifically choose PP because the cloud-sync option means their documents already live in a familiar Dropbox or Drive account they own and control directly.
The practical implication for switching: where your documents physically live determines how the move actually works. If you're cloud-synced, the files don't really need to "move" — they're already in your cloud account, and the work is associating them with Clio matters. If you're native-only, the files need to come out of PP first. Many firms are a hybrid of the two and need to handle each set differently.
References: PracticePanther document management · PP Dropbox integration
The four document situations switchers hit
Find yours. Each has a different best-path, and one of them might not even apply to you.
Native PP only
All your documents live inside PracticePanther's native storage — no external cloud provider connected.
WHAT TO DO
- • Per-matter download from PP, then upload to the Clio matter
- • If you have hundreds of matters, open a Clio support ticket about a paid scoped document migration before going DIY
- • Tag closed/archived matters and skip ones past your retention policy
Synced cloud (Dropbox/Box/OneDrive/Drive)
Your PracticePanther workspace syncs to one cloud provider, and files actually live there. This anxiety might not apply to you.
WHAT TO DO
- • Files stay in your cloud account — they don't need to "move"
- • Connect that cloud storage to Clio, or upload from the cloud provider's web UI directly to matters
- • Reconcile per-matter to confirm naming and folder structure carry over cleanly
Hybrid — both
Some matters are native PP, some are synced to cloud. Common when a firm enabled the cloud integration partway through.
WHAT TO DO
- • Audit before you cut over — map matter-by-matter which storage is in use
- • Treat the native subset as situation (a) and the synced subset as situation (b)
- • Don't deactivate PP until both subsets are fully reconciled
PP-template-generated documents
Output files generated by PP's document-template engine — engagement letters, retainer agreements, demand letters.
WHAT TO DO
- • Treat the generated outputs as concrete files — same as situation (a)
- • The templates themselves don't migrate; you'll rebuild template logic in Clio's document automation
- • Don't try to regenerate historical documents from Clio templates — preserve the originals as-issued
A document playbook
Five steps. Run them in order and PP-to-Clio document moves stay boring.
Audit where docs live, per-matter
Pull a matter list from PracticePanther and tag each one: native, synced cloud, hybrid, or template-generated. This is the work that prevents surprises later. If your firm uses the cloud-sync integration, also confirm which provider — Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, or Drive — and which account owns the data.
Consolidate into a per-matter folder
Whether documents start in PP, Dropbox, OneDrive, or all of the above, get them into one folder per matter — locally or in your cloud — before the upload step. This is where naming inconsistencies and stray attachments get cleaned up.
Create matters in Clio
Clio's free migration team usually handles this — matter shells with metadata land automatically on the structured-data side. Confirm they're in place before you start the document upload, and verify the matter naming convention matches your folders from step 2.
Upload per matter
For most firms this is drag-and-drop multiple files at once into a Clio matter. Send to Case auto-extracts ZIP archives so you can drop a whole consolidated archive without unzipping first, and the batch page-scan handles downloading from a portal in one pass. See how bulk upload works · Extension overview.
Reconcile counts
Spot-check matter folders. Did 47 documents from a PP matter become 47 documents in the Clio matter? Reconcile before you deactivate PracticePanther — once it's gone, there's no easy way back to native files. If something didn't land, troubleshooting guide.
What Send to Case does — and doesn't
Send to Case is not a migration tool.
It does not move matters, contacts, calendars, billing, time entries, or notes. It uploads documents from your browser to a Clio matter, one or many at a time.
What it actually does: a free Chrome extension. Right-click a file or link and choose "Send to Clio." Drag and drop one or many files onto a matter. Run a batch page-scan over a portal page to capture every downloadable document at once. Drop a ZIP and let it auto-extract.
Within those bounds, Send to Case complements Clio's free migration team. The team handles structured data; Send to Case handles the document side, particularly when files come from cloud storage, browser-based portals, or downloads that need to land in the right matter quickly.
What you'll rebuild in Clio
A few real, honest gaps to plan for.
Custom workflows. PracticePanther's workflow engine is genuinely strong — that's a real reason firms picked PP in the first place. Clio's workflow features sit behind plan upgrades and don't transfer automatically. Budget one to two weeks of admin time to rebuild the flows you actually use day-to-day. Send to Case doesn't help here, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise.
Intake forms. If you used PP intake, the equivalent in Clio is Clio Grow — a separate subscription with its own setup fee. The functionality is comparable, but you'll rebuild forms and re-test the funnel. Don't assume zero rework.
Custom fields. Custom fields don't always map one-to-one. The migration team usually handles this with a manual mapping spreadsheet on the kickoff call — be ready with a list of which fields you actually use and which can be retired during the move.
A brief, honest pricing note
Clio Manage's entry tiers generally run higher than PracticePanther's per-user pricing, though real-world cost depends on contract terms, add-ons, and firm size. Confirm current pricing with both vendors directly.
Coming from a different practice management system? See the migrating-to-Clio pillar, the MyCase, Smokeball, or PCLaw guides.
Does Clio's free migration team move my PracticePanther documents?
+Clio's standard PracticePanther migration covers structured data — contacts, matters, contact and matter notes, tasks, calendar events, unbilled time and expense entries, email and phone communications, and outstanding and trust balances as summative line items. Historic billed time, invoices, and other accounting history don't migrate. Documents can be migrated, subject to scoping and additional fees based on volume. Exact scope varies — confirm with your Clio onboarding rep on the kickoff call.
How does PracticePanther actually store documents — natively or in Dropbox/Box?
+Both. PracticePanther supports native document storage and an optional integration with one external cloud provider per workspace — Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, or Google Drive. Many firms use the cloud option, in which case files already live in that cloud account and the migration job is mostly about reconnecting them to Clio matters.
Can I export all my PracticePanther documents in one ZIP?
+PracticePanther's native document export is per-matter rather than a single firmwide ZIP. If your firm uses the synced-cloud option, a bulk download from Dropbox/Box/OneDrive/Drive is usually the faster path. For native-only firms with high matter counts, a Clio support ticket about a paid scoped migration is worth pricing.
What happens to my custom workflows when I switch?
+PracticePanther's workflow engine is genuinely strong, and that's a real gap to plan for. Clio's workflow features sit behind plan upgrades, and custom workflows don't transfer automatically. Budget one to two weeks of admin time to rebuild your most-used flows in Clio.
Will my Clio Grow / intake forms work the same as PP intake?
+Clio Grow is a separate subscription from Clio Manage, with its own setup fee and intake form configuration. Functionally similar to PracticePanther's intake, but you'll rebuild forms and re-test the funnel. Don't assume zero rework.
Do I have to cancel PP the day I switch?
+No, and you shouldn't. Keep PracticePanther active until document reconciliation is complete. Cancelling early can lock you out of native documents and stale-but-needed records. Two to four weeks of dual-running is normal.
Is Send to Case a migration tool?
+No. Send to Case is a free Chrome extension that uploads documents from your browser into Clio matters. It does not move matters, contacts, calendars, billing, time entries, or notes. It complements Clio's free migration team by handling the document side, one matter at a time or many files at once.
How long does a PP-to-Clio document migration usually take?
+About two weeks of focused effort for most small firms, on top of Clio's structured-data migration (processing time varies with the size and complexity of your data). Cloud-synced firms move faster because files already live in Dropbox/Box/OneDrive/Drive. Native-only firms with hundreds of matters take longer.
Is there a file-size limit for uploads to Clio?
+Yes. Clio limits a single file to 5 GB, the same whether you upload through the web Documents area or the Clio Drive desktop app. A file larger than 5 GB must be zipped or stored externally and linked from the matter; no method raises the ceiling. It only comes up for unusually large files, such as long video.
Keep going
Document management in Clio
After the move — the complete guide to managing documents in Clio.
Read guide →Clio file management & storage
Where migrated files live: Documents area, Clio Drive, and storage limits.
Read guide →Document retention & records
Set a retention schedule for the closed matters you bring over.
Read guide →Start with Clio's free migration team
When the matter shells are in place, Send to Case handles the document side. Free, 10 uploads per month.