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Migration · PracticePanther to Clio
Both systems are modern, both have real APIs, and the records come out cleanly. On the practice-management side this is genuinely one of the more straightforward pairs on this page, and a small firm with tidy data may not need me.
What does not get easier because both systems are cloud is the trust ledger. Client funds are bar-regulated wherever they happen to be stored, and they need the same reconciliation and the same sign-off they would need on any other pair.
PracticePanther exposes a documented API and data exports; Clio does the same on the intake side. That makes extraction the least interesting part of this engagement, which is a good thing — it means the assessment can produce hard record counts quickly and cheaply, and the cost concentrates on decisions rather than plumbing: how much billing history to carry, how custom fields map, and getting the trust reconciliation right.
Each of these gets its own record count in the assessment and its own line in the reconciliation report. Depth of history is a scope decision made with real numbers in front of you, not an assumption baked into a quote.
Contacts and related parties
Clients, opposing parties, counsel, and the relationships between them that conflict checking depends on.
Matters
Matter records with practice area, responsible attorney, open and close dates, status, and your matter numbering convention.
Notes and matter activity
The chronological record against each matter with dates and authors preserved.
Time entries and expenses
Recorded time with rates and timekeepers, plus expenses, to an agreed history depth — including unbilled work in progress.
Invoices and payment history
Issued invoices with their amounts and payment application, so matter-level payment history still reconciles.
Trust balances
Client trust balances by matter and by account, reconciled independently and signed off before cutover. Same standard as any other pair, cloud or not.
Calendar and tasks
Appointments, court dates, and task lists, with migrated deadlines flagged for attorney review.
Documents
Documents and their associations to the correct matter — genuinely straightforward here, since both systems store files rather than pointing at a share.
Written down before you spend anything, because the alternative is finding out in week six. This list is specific to PracticePanther to Clio; the assessment turns it into your list, with record counts attached.
— Custom workflow automation and document-assembly templates. Rebuilt on the Clio side.
— Calculated deadline rules. Dates migrate; the rules that computed them do not, and every calendared deadline needs attorney review after cutover.
— Client portal logins. Clients re-register on the Clio side — worth a scheduled communication rather than a surprise.
— Payment processor history and stored payment methods. Historical payments migrate as records; the processor relationship and any stored client payment methods are re-established, which needs planning if you take card payments routinely.
— Custom reports. Rebuilt against Clio's reporting layer.
— PracticePanther internal record IDs. Clio issues its own; anything keyed externally needs the mapping table.
None of this is in either vendor's documentation. It is the category of thing that looks fine in a test load and produces a wrong number in month two, which is why the process puts a full sandbox load and a reconciliation you sign in front of any production cutover.
01
The temptation on a clean cloud-to-cloud pair is to treat trust as one more balance in the general load. It is still a bar-regulated ledger. It is extracted separately, reconciled independently, and gated — cutover does not proceed until it ties at both the account and the matter level.
02
Because the data comes out cheaply, firms tend to migrate the entire billing history simply because they can. Volume still costs money to validate, and old billing history is exactly what a read-only archive is for. The assessment gives you record counts so this is a decision.
03
If clients are on automatic payment arrangements, those arrangements have to be re-established, which means asking clients to re-authorize. That is a client-communication project with its own timeline, and it belongs in the cutover plan rather than in a surprised email the following week.
04
Cloud-to-cloud does not mean schema-to-schema. Fields your firm added in PracticePanther map into Clio custom fields where a home exists and get flagged explicitly where one does not.
01 — 02
A read-only audit of your PracticePanther instance produces record counts, a risk register, and a fixed quote. Then a field-by-field mapping document you sign before any code runs.
03 — 04
The complete migration runs into a Clio sandbox — not a sample. You spot-check records you choose, and sign a written reconciliation. If the counts don't tie, we don't cut over.
05 — 06
Scheduled around your calendar with the rollback plan written in advance, followed by 30 days of included corrections for the things that only surface in real use.
Most firms land in Standard Migration, at the lower end. Firms with heavy custom-field use, multiple trust accounts, or a long billing history they insist on carrying move upward. The assessment is what makes a fixed migration price possible, and its fee is credited toward the migration if you proceed.
Tier
Scope
Price
Migration Assessment
A read-only audit of your source system.
$1,500 – $2,500
Standard Migration
One source system to one destination.
$6,500 – $15,000
Complex / Multi-Entity Migration
Multiple locations, systems, or long history.
$18,000 – $40,000
Quite possibly, and I would rather say so. A small firm with clean data, a single trust account, and someone with time can make this move without help. Independent work earns its fee where there are multiple trust accounts, heavy customization, a prior migration already in the data, or where you want the trust reconciliation signed and the rollback documented by someone accountable to you.
Extracted separately and first, reconciled independently at both the account and matter level, and signed by you and your bookkeeper before cutover proceeds. It is a named gate on the engagement, not a checklist item.
A new portal to register for, and — if they are on automatic payments — a request to re-authorize. Both are worth scheduling as deliberate communications rather than letting clients discover them.
Most firms carry two to three years plus open balances and current WIP, and keep the old system read-only for anything older. Carrying more is possible and costs more to validate. The assessment gives you the counts so it is a decision rather than a default.
The assessment is the read-only audit — what data exists, what is extractable, what will be lost, and a fixed-price quote for the migration itself. It is priced at $1,500 – $2,500 depending on scope, fixed before anything starts, and the report is yours whether or not you go further.
Tell me what you're moving. I read every one of these personally and reply within one business day, usually with a couple of specific questions about your source system — the answers change the price, so it's worth asking early.
Nothing is committed by this form. No payment, no contract, no scheduling sequence. It starts a conversation.
If your destination vendor can handle it, I'll say so. Some conversions genuinely don't need an independent migration.
Standard – Complex
Fifteen years of custom fields.
Complex
Trust accounting must reconcile exactly.
Standard – Complex
Access is the constraint, not effort.
Every pair
Twenty-odd pairs are written up across seven industries — and the written ones are not the limit of the work. Search the full list, or just ask.
PracticePanther and Clio are trademarks of their respective owners. This page describes independent data migration work involving those systems and does not imply any affiliation with, partnership with, or endorsement by either vendor.
Before you give notice on PracticePanther
The most expensive mistake in this category is losing source-system access before the extraction is done. The assessment is read-only, fixed-price, and yours to keep either way.
I respond personally within 1 business day. No pitch — just a real conversation.