To me the idea of having a clone , implies that it is rooted already. Now almost all clones are going to be Female, lets just assume this, only the females make buds. so IMO the answer is yes, you can take clones and go directly into flowering.
Now a CUTTING, that may or may not take off if put directly into flowering. Usually flowering means you are going to be using HPS lights, in my experience the cuttings under HPS tend to dry out and wilt away and roots never developed.