Clio Overdue Document Requests Email Escalation (n8n)

Automate Clio overdue “Document Request” reminders with compliant, tiered email escalation

This n8n workflow automatically checks Clio for overdue Document Request tasks every day at 8:00 AM, sends tiered client reminder emails only after a compliance/opt-out approval guardrail, and escalates urgent cases to internal staff via SMTP.

What this workflow does

• Runs on a daily schedule (server timezone) and pulls firm users, open matters (including client email addresses), and all pending tasks from the Clio API.
• Filters to overdue “Document Request” tasks that have a due date, calculates days overdue, and assigns a reminder tier:
  • Tier 1: 1–2 days overdue
  • Tier 2: 7–8 days overdue
  • Urgent: 14–15 days overdue
• Sends reminders only when needed: it keeps tasks due for a reminder today and requires a resolvable client email address. If nothing qualifies, the run is cleanly skipped.
• Builds tier-appropriate emails (plain text + HTML), then routes them through a dedicated compliance/opt-out guardrail sub-workflow.
• Sends via SMTP only after approval—the workflow posts the client reminder email only if the sub-workflow approves.
• Escalates urgent items internally by sending a separate internal escalation email to the responsible staff member (or a configured fallback address) via SMTP.

Use cases

• Reduce document-request delays by auto-reminding clients as tasks move into Tier 1, Tier 2, and urgent status.
• Ensure outbound outreach is compliant by passing every reminder through an opt-out/approval step.
• Route highly overdue cases to paralegals or responsible staff without manual monitoring.

Technical details

• Integration: Clio (OAuth2 via API credentials, plus CLIO_BASE_URL).
• Email delivery: SMTP (client reminders + internal escalation emails).
• Workflow components: if, code, no op, filter, split out, and email send.
• Core setup variables: FIRM_NAME, FIRM_EMAIL, FIRM_FROM_EMAIL (plus optional FIRM_CLIENT_PORTAL_URL and FIRM_PARALEGAL_EMAIL).