Clio's Document Automation feature allows you to create a document template with Merge Fields from your Contacts and Matters. These Merge Fields automatically pull information from a Matter in Clio and put them into your documents - saving you time on data entry and proofing. Merge Fields are available for client's name, address, trust account balance, Custom Fields, and much more.
Accessing the List of Available Merge Fields
Creating the Template
Tips
Accessing the List of Available Merge Fields
You can view the complete list of available Merge Fields by going to the Clio Settings panel, then click "Documents" in the System column.
For quick access to the page, bookmark: https://app.clio.com/document_template_example
Open the template document that you want to add Merge Fields to. Supported template file types are: ".doc", ".docx",".ppt", ".pptx", "xls", ".xlsx", and "PDF".
File names can be a maximum of 100 characters in length (including the .docx extension) - if the file name is longer you will need to rename it before uploading to Clio.
In your document, add Clio Merge Field tags wherever you want that information to appear. To copy a tag from Clio, click on the clipboard icon in the appropriate row then paste into your document.
Below is an example of a Word document with Merge Field tags added throughout.
Once you have uploaded your template and generated a document in Clio, the merged document will look something like the example below.
Spacing
The spacing of your document template will affect the finished document. For example, the following merged address is double spaced.
If this is not the desired spacing, you can adjust the paragraph spacing in your template at the line where you've pasted the address Merge Field so that the address has single line spacing.
For details on how to adjust line spacing in a Word document, click HERE.
Making Changes to a Template
If you make changes to a template, you must delete the template from Clio and re-upload the updated version. Once the updated template has been uploaded, generate your document again and the spacing should be corrected.
Adding Merge Fields for Related Contact Information
You can also include Related Contacts' information. If you have included a Relationship on your Matter, such as for a witness, you can pull in your witness' Contact Card information. To add a relationship, first open your Matter, and then click Add related contact on the right-hand side.
Once saved, you will see your witness listed under your Matter's Contacts area.
Now when visiting your list of available Merge Fields, you will see your related contact's information listed.
Note: You may have multiple related contacts of same type (children, witnesses, business partners, shareholders etc.). If all such contact are added with same relationship name then Merge Fields will show all names together in the first field, however only show unique contact information for only the last related contact of same type. In order to have separate Merge Fields available for unique related contacts of same type, you need to add unique relationship names when adding a related contact (i.e. child 1, child 2. witness 1, witness 2 etc.).
