Clio's export page gives an administrator CSV files of matters, contacts, notes, tasks, calendar, communications, time and expenses. Documents, bills, trust transactions and custom field definitions are not in it. What each gap means, where each one can be recovered, and what to do before you cancel, since Clio deletes a cancelled account's content no less than 90 days later.
[ KEY TAKEAWAYS ]
Clio's export page is the first place a firm looks when it wants its data. It produces clean CSV files, and for a lot of questions that is all you need. It was never meant to be a complete copy, though, and the parts it leaves out are the parts firms tend to need most: the documents, the bills and the trust records.
What Clio's built-in export includes, and what it does not
In the export, as CSV
Not in the export
| Left out | Why it matters | Through the API |
|---|---|---|
| Documents | The matter file itself: pleadings, correspondence, signed agreements. For most firms this is the part they cannot rebuild. | Yes, with folders |
| Bills | What was invoiced to whom and when. Needed for collections, disputes and the books. | Yes, as data |
| Trust transactions | Client money held and moved. Bar rules on trust records are strict, and the history matters. | Where the account allows |
| Custom field definitions | What each custom column means. Values without their definitions are hard to read later. | Yes |
| Trust ledger reports, bill PDFs | The formatted versions Clio renders on screen. | No, use Clio's reports |
Documents are the largest gap and the one that takes longest to close. They can be downloaded one by one in Clio, synced with Clio Drive, or read through the API, which returns each document with its matter and folder so the copy can keep the structure your team already knows. A careful export names each file with its Clio id as well as its original name, so two files called "Letter.docx" in the same folder never overwrite each other.
Bills and trust line items can be read as data through the API, where your Clio account and plan allow it. What cannot be read that way are the formatted outputs: bill PDFs as Clio renders them, and trust ledger reports. Download those from Clio's reports and keep them with the copy. If you are closing books or changing accounting systems, do that while the account is active.
The export gives you the values a firm entered. The definitions tell you what each field was: its name, its type and, for a picklist, the options. Without them, a column of numbers in a CSV file is a guess. The API returns both.
The 90-day window
Clio's terms delete a cancelled account's content no less than 90 days after cancellation. Your duty to keep matter files usually runs for years. Clio's own help centre recommends that you "retain a local backup of your data." If you are changing systems or closing a practice, take the complete copy and check it while the account is still active.
Through Clio's API. There are several ways to use it, and they suit different firms:
A hosted backup service
FileScience runs a daily cloud-to-cloud backup and keeps the copy in its cloud. Clio Data Escrow keeps a weekly copy of information and documents in a secure location.
A document download tool
Faster Suite has a backup tool that downloads all Clio documents.
Your own script
Clio's API is documented and open to any account with API access. Budget for the rate limit, about 50 requests a minute, and for resuming after interruptions.
A free, open-source command
clio-export copies records, bills and every document in a folder per matter to your own computer, read-only, and reports anything it could not read.
Get the documents, bills and folders out of Clio
The free export runs on your computer under your own Clio app, and tells you if anything is missing.
The full walkthrough, with every route compared and the steps for the command, is in how to export all your data from Clio. If you want the copy every night in your firm's own storage, see how to back up Clio on a schedule.
No. Clio's built-in export produces CSV files of records. Documents have to come out through Clio's API or a tool built on it.
No. Bills and trust transactions are not in the built-in export. Both can be read as data through Clio's API where the account allows it. Trust ledger reports and bill PDFs come from Clio's reports and screens.
Clio's terms delete a cancelled account's content no less than 90 days after cancellation. Your obligation to keep matter files usually runs much longer, so take the complete copy before you cancel.
Administrators on the account.
NEWSLETTER
[ WRITTEN BY ]
Petar Jovanović
Co-Founder & Tech Lead
Co-Founder and Technical Lead at Oktopeak. Builds regulated software for legal and healthcare teams, and leads the rescues of codebases other vendors left half-finished.
[ LEGAL TECH ]
CLIO INTEGRATION
Nov 3, 2026 · 9 min read
Clio's built-in export gives an admin spreadsheets and leaves out documents, bills and trust transactions. Here is every way to get a complete copy of a Clio account, from the export page to the API, hosted backup tools and a free open-source command, with the steps, the limits and how long each takes.
Read ArticleCLIO INTEGRATION
Jul 4, 2026
What Clio's native export actually covers, what only the API can reach, and how firms build automated Clio backups to OneDrive or SharePoint with mirrored folder structure and incremental sync.
Read ArticleLEGAL TECH
Aug 27, 2026 · 10 min read
Leaving Clio costs more than the last invoice. Five cost lines from real migrations reported by lawyers: what the export leaves behind, zip codes that lose their leading zero, contacts that arrive in quadruplicate, every connected tool re-wired, and staff time. Plus how Clio's exit terms compare with LEAP and Smokeball, and how to leave without the mess.
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