For small law firms using Clio, every minute matters, especially when time spent sorting emails or logging billables directly impacts productivity and profitability. Yet, many firms still rely on outdated or manual methods to track communication and time.

It’s a silent productivity killer: lawyers and staff spend hours each week sorting through client emails, manually associating them with the right matter, and logging time. According to the Clio Legal Trends Report, lawyers spend only 2.5 hours daily on billable work, yet they work over 8 hours. That means 5+ hours are going to non-billable admin tasks.

One of the biggest culprits? Timekeeping and email management.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to automatically sync client emails to the right matter in Clio, capture time as you go, and turn tedious email review into a streamlined, billable workflow using Tempello.

Why Email Is a Timekeeping Black Hole for Lawyers

1. Volume and Complexity

Lawyers handle hundreds of emails a day. Client communication, internal threads, and opposing counsel responses flood the same inbox. Knowing which email belongs to which matter (especially when clients have multiple open cases) requires context and time.

2. Manual Tagging Is Error-Prone

Even diligent attorneys can mislabel an email or forget to associate it with a matter. If an email goes untagged or unlinked in Clio, that’s billable time and critical context lost.

3. Admin Overload Reduces Profit Margins

Every hour spent manually organizing communications is an hour not spent practicing law. For firms billing by the hour, this administrative burden directly cuts into revenue.

What Is Tempello—and How Does It Help?

Tempello is built specifically for lawyers who use Clio. It connects your email inbox to Clio and does three things automatically:

• Grabs every email related to a legal matter
• Syncs it to the correct matter in Clio
• Books the time based on reading, writing, and replying, no timers needed

Results You Can Expect:

• 20%+ increase in billables per month
• 3 hours per week saved per lawyer or staffer
• No missed time entries or communication logs

It’s the kind of automation that doesn’t just capture time, it captures productivity.

Step-by-Step: How to Automatically Sync Client Emails to the Right Matter in Clio

Let’s walk through how Tempello works to simplify your workflow and ensure every email lands where it belongs, without any manual effort.

Step 1: Connect Your Inbox

Whether you use Gmail or Outlook, you start by securely connecting your email account to Tempello.

• OAuth Authentication: Tempello uses secure sign-in protocols and does not store your password.
• Data Security: All email data is encrypted and handled with privacy best practices to comply with legal data standards.

Step 2: Match Emails to Clients and Matters

Once your email is connected, Tempello begins scanning the metadata of incoming and outgoing emails. It uses intelligent matching algorithms to determine which Clio matter an email relates to.

Here’s how it works:

• Client recognition: Based on email address, domain, signature, or prior history
• Matter recognition: If a client has multiple matters, Tempello uses subject line patterns, participant info, and content cues to determine the right match

This solves a common problem: the same client may have a divorce and a business litigation matter, but they send everything from one email address.

Step 3: Auto-Sync Email Content to Clio

Once the right matter is identified, Tempello:

• Logs the whole email thread
• Creates a contact log in Clio, associated with the correct matter

This ensures complete visibility and legal compliance, without needing to forward or manually tag anything.

Step 4: Auto-Capture Time (No Timer Required)

One of the most powerful features is that Tempello captures time spent for every email.

• If you read an email for 4 minutes, log it.
• If you compose a 15-minute reply, it is logged.
• If you exchange emails with a client for over an hour, they are all captured and attributed to the right matter.

And it happens without a single timer or manual entry.