Clock-spin models are attracting great interest, due to both their rich phase diagram and their connection to parafermions. In this context, we derive an exact local mapping from clock-spin to fermionic partition functions. Such mapping, akin to techniques introduced 1 by Fedotov and Popov for spin 2 chains, grants access to well established numerical tools for the perturbative treatment of fermionic systems in the clock-spin framework. Moreover, in one dimension, it allows to use bosonization to access the low energy properties of clock-spin models. Finally, aside from the direct application in clock-spin models, this new mapping enables the conception of interesting fermionic models, based on the clock-spin counterparts.