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Clio Integration
Connect Sortio to Clio Manage, match local files to the right matters (OCR included), and upload them with categories, clean names, and an audit trail.
What the Clio integration does
Sortio turns an unsorted local folder into filed Clio matter documents. Point it at a folder of intake scans, downloaded filings, or exported email attachments and it proposes a destination Clio matter for every file, each with a confidence score and a one-line rationale. You review the preview, override anything you disagree with, and only then does Sortio upload.
📄 Reads the documents, not just names
Sortio can analyze file contents on your Mac, including OCR on scanned PDFs and images, so a file named "scan0043.pdf" still lands in the right matter. Content analysis is off until you turn it on, and Sortio offers it before matching.
🏷️ Categories and clean names
Each upload can carry your firm's Clio document category (Pleading, Correspondence, Discovery…) and an AI-suggested professional document name. Your local file is never renamed.
✅ You approve every move
Nothing reaches Clio until you confirm the preview. Low-confidence files default to Skip, and any suggestion can be overridden with a matter search.
🧾 Audit trail on every document
Every uploaded document's description records its original filename, timestamp, match confidence, and Sortio version, so chain of custody survives the move.
The integration is available on Sortio Pro and Team plans, is listed in the Clio App Directory, and currently supports firms on Clio's United States region.
Connecting your Clio account
Connect once and Sortio keeps a local, read-only index of your open matters so matching is instant, even against thousands of matters.
1. In Sortio, open Integrations and click Connect on the Clio card.
2. Pick your Clio region (United States today; EU, Canada, and Australia are coming) and sign in to Clio in the browser window that opens.
3. Approve the requested permissions: Documents (read/write), Custom actions (read/write), Matters (read), Contacts (read), Users (read).
4. Sortio builds its local matter index. A firm with a few thousand open matters indexes in under a minute, and the index refreshes automatically.
💡 Open in Sortio, from inside Clio
After connecting, Sortio adds an "Open in Sortio" action to the matter page in Clio Manage. Click it on any matter and Sortio opens ready to file a folder of documents straight into that matter.
Filing a folder into matters
The main workflow is Sort a folder to Clio matters, available from the Integrations page and from the sort success screen once Clio is connected.
1. Pick a folder. Sortio scans it (up to 5,000 files per run) and checks how many files have analyzed content.
2. Analyze if needed. If most files haven't been read yet, Sortio offers to analyze them first, locally, with OCR for scans, so matching can use the client names, parties, and matter numbers inside the documents. You can also proceed on filenames alone.
3. Review the preview. Every file shows its proposed matter, confidence score, rationale, document category, and suggested document name. Confident matches are preselected; weak ones default to Skip until you assign a matter.
4. Upload. Files go directly from your Mac to Clio Documents under each matter, paced under Clio's API rate limit, through a queue that survives an app restart. Uploaded originals can optionally move into a dated "Sortio Uploaded" archive folder.
Re-running the flow on the same folder is safe: files already uploaded are recognized by content hash and skipped instead of duplicated.
Privacy and data flow
Document contents and the files themselves never pass through Sortio's servers. Uploads go directly from your computer to Clio, and Sortio's servers never store your Clio tokens after the initial connection hand-off.
Classification sends only filenames, file types, and the party names Sortio extracted locally, alongside the candidate matter names it is choosing between, to Sortio's cloud classifier by default. Firms that prefer nothing leave the machine at all can switch to a local model (Ollama) or their own API key in Settings → AI Provider, which keeps matter and party names on-device too.
🔒 Full details
The exact data flow is documented in our Privacy Policy (third-party integrations section) and in the confidentiality overview for law firms.
Troubleshooting
"Clio is asking you to reconnect"
Your Clio session was revoked or expired. Disconnect and reconnect from the Integrations page; the matter index rebuilds automatically.
A new matter isn't matching
The index refreshes on launch and on connect. To pick up a matter opened minutes ago, reopen the app or reconnect; the matcher only considers open matters.
Lots of files land in "needs a matter"
Two things help most. First, file under folders named for the client or matter: Sortio reads the folder chain, so a scan in "Clients/Smith v Jones/Discovery" matches even when its name is "Scan_0042.pdf". Second, turn on content analysis when Sortio offers it before matching; it then reads each document's subject line and the parties inside, which is what separates two matters for the same client. Files with nothing to go on are shown as "pick a matter" rather than given a guess.
Something else?
Email marcus@getsortio.com. Include the approximate time and what you were doing; the local audit log at ~/Library/Application Support/Sortio/ makes issues quick to pin down.