n8n IMAP to Clio Google Drive Auto-File with Compliance Logs

Auto-file IMAP attachments into the right Clio matter on Google Drive—with compliance logs

This n8n workflow monitors an IMAP intake mailbox, matches inbound email attachments to the correct Clio contact and open matter, uploads the documents into the appropriate Google Drive folder, and records every outcome in a compliance audit workflow. If no confident match is found, it logs the exception and alerts staff with the original attachments for manual filing.

What this workflow does

• Receives new emails via IMAP, extracting sender email, subject, received date, and any attachments.
• If an email has no attachments, processing stops with no further action.
• Searches Clio for an exact contact email match (only accepts a matching sender email).
• Retrieves the contact’s open Clio matters and selects a matter only when there is exactly one open matter or when the matter number appears in the email subject.
• Finds (or creates) the Google Drive folder for the matched matter under your configured parent folder.
• Uploads each attachment to the matter folder, prefixing the filename with the received date.
• Aggregates upload results and calls a separate compliance audit sub-workflow to log the auto-filing event.
• If the contact or matter can’t be confidently identified, it logs the exception via the compliance audit workflow and emails staff a manual-filing alert with the original attachments.

Use cases

• Law firms auto-organizing incoming documents received by email into Clio matter folders on Google Drive.
• Teams needing audit-ready compliance logs for successful auto-filing and exception handling.
• Reducing manual work when attachments arrive in an intake mailbox but must be filed correctly by matter.

Technical details

• IMAP trigger for intake mailbox monitoring
• Clio lookup and matter selection logic (exact email match; single open matter or subject matter number)
• Google Drive folder search/creation and attachment upload with received-date filename prefix
• Compliance audit sub-workflow invocation and staff notification workflow
• Workflow nodes include: if, code, no op, email send, sticky note, and Google Drive