DEV Community: Zachariah Mi

How to Automate Client Intake for Law Firms Using n8n

Zachariah Mi — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:41:22 +0000

How to Automate Client Intake for Law Firms Using n8n

Lawyers bill by the hour. Admin work doesn't bill at all.

Client intake is one of the worst offenders. A potential client fills out a contact form. Someone on staff manually enters them into the CRM. Someone else sends a welcome email and the intake questionnaire. Another person follows up two days later if the form hasn't come back. Someone else schedules the consultation. None of that requires a law degree.

Here's how to automate the whole chain with n8n.

What You're Building

A workflow that:

Captures new intake form submissions
Creates the contact in your CRM automatically
Sends a personalized welcome email with the intake questionnaire
Follows up automatically if the questionnaire isn't returned in 48 hours
Notifies the attorney when a completed intake comes in
Schedules the initial consultation based on real calendar availability

The whole thing runs without anyone touching it.

What You Need

n8n (self-hosted or cloud — cloud is easier to start)
Your intake form tool (Typeform, JotForm, Gravity Forms, or whatever you use)
A CRM (Clio, MyCase, Salesforce, HubSpot — all have n8n integrations)
Gmail or Outlook for the email steps
A scheduling tool like Calendly or Acuity (optional but recommended)

Step 1: Set Up the Trigger

In n8n, create a new workflow and add a Webhook node as the trigger. This gives you a URL that your intake form will post to when someone submits it.

In your form tool, go to the integrations or webhooks section and paste that URL. From that point on, every new form submission fires the workflow.

If you use Typeform, n8n has a native Typeform trigger node — even easier, no webhook setup needed.

Step 2: Create the CRM Contact

Add a node for your CRM. If you use Clio:

Action: Create Matter or Create Contact
Map the form fields: name, email, phone, case type, how they heard about you

If you use HubSpot or Salesforce, the setup is nearly identical. Map the form fields to the CRM fields, save.

Now every intake form submission creates a contact automatically without anyone doing data entry.

Step 3: Send the Welcome Email

Add a Gmail or Outlook node.

To: the email from the form submission
Subject: "Thanks for reaching out — here's what's next"
Body: a short, warm message explaining what happens next and including a link to the intake questionnaire (if you didn't capture everything in the initial form)

Keep the email short. People who just submitted a form don't want to read an essay.

Step 4: Add a 48-Hour Follow-Up

Add a Wait node set to 48 hours.

After the wait, add an If node that checks whether the intake questionnaire has been completed. How you check this depends on your setup — you might check for a tag in the CRM, a field update, or a second webhook from the questionnaire form.

If not completed: send a short follow-up email. One sentence. "Just checking in — did you get a chance to fill out the intake form? Here's the link again."

If completed: skip the follow-up and move to the next step.

Step 5: Notify the Attorney

When the intake comes in complete, send a Slack message or email to the responsible attorney with a summary: client name, case type, key details from the intake, and a link to the CRM record.

They should never have to go hunting for this information.

Step 6: Send the Scheduling Link

At the same time as the attorney notification, send the client a scheduling email with a direct Calendly or Acuity link. Let them pick a time that works without any back-and-forth.

If you want to get more sophisticated, you can use the Calendly API in n8n to pull available slots and embed them directly in the email rather than sending them to a landing page.

What This Saves

A typical law firm intake process takes 45-90 minutes of staff time per lead across all the manual steps. For a firm handling 20 new inquiries a month, that's 15-30 hours of admin work eliminated every month.

More importantly: response time drops from hours or days to minutes. Leads who get a response in the first hour are significantly more likely to retain you than those who wait until the next business day.

What to Build Next

Once intake is running, two natural extensions:

Document collection. Add a step that creates a client folder in Google Drive or SharePoint automatically and sends a document request for the initial paperwork.

Conflict check. Add a step that searches your CRM for the opposing party name and flags any potential conflicts before the consultation is scheduled.

Both can be added to the same workflow.

If you want this built for your firm's specific stack, whether you're on Clio, MyCase, or a custom setup, Aplos AI builds these for law firms at a fixed price. Most intake automation builds come in under $6,000 and recover that cost in the first two months.

Running a different practice management system? Drop it in the comments.

How to Automate Invoice Processing for HVAC Companies Using Make.com

Zachariah Mi — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 21:54:54 +0000

How to Automate Invoice Processing for HVAC Companies Using Make.com

If you run an HVAC company, you already know how this goes. Job wraps up Friday afternoon. Technician drives home. Invoice doesn't go out until Tuesday. Client forgets. You follow up. They pay late. You chase it again.

The whole thing is automatable. Here's how to build it with Make.com.

What You're Building

A workflow that watches for completed jobs, pulls the job details, generates an invoice from a template, and emails it to the client as a PDF. All without anyone touching it.

Specifically:

Watches for completed jobs in your CRM or a Google Sheet
Pulls job details (client name, address, technician, services performed, total)
Creates a professional invoice from a Google Docs template
Emails it to the client automatically
Logs the invoice so nothing gets sent twice

No code required. Free to start on Make.com's basic plan.

What You Need Before Starting

A Make.com account (free tier works fine for low volume)
Google account with Drive, Docs, and Gmail
Your job data somewhere Make can read it: Google Sheet, Airtable, Jobber, ServiceTitan, or HouseCall Pro all have direct Make integrations
An invoice template, which we'll set up in Step 1

Step 1: Build Your Invoice Template in Google Docs

Open a Google Doc and lay out your invoice the way you want it to look. For any field that changes per job, use double curly braces as placeholders:

Client: {{client_name}}
Service Address: {{service_address}}
Date of Service: {{service_date}}
Technician: {{technician_name}}

Services Performed:
{{services_performed}}

Parts: {{parts_list}}
Labor: {{labor_cost}}
Parts Total: {{parts_total}}
Tax: {{tax}}
Total Due: {{total_due}}

Payment Due: {{due_date}}

Save the doc inside a Google Drive folder called something like "Invoice Templates." Make will use this to generate a new document for each job.

Step 2: Set Up Your Data Source

If you track jobs in a Google Sheet, add columns for each placeholder above. You'll also want a column called "Invoice Sent" that starts blank.

If you use Jobber, ServiceTitan, or HouseCall Pro, you can trigger the scenario directly when a job is marked complete. No spreadsheet needed.

For this tutorial, we'll use the Google Sheet approach since it works for everyone.

Step 3: Build the Make.com Scenario

Log into Make.com and create a new scenario. You need four modules:

Module 1: Google Sheets — Search Rows

Connect your sheet and filter for rows where "Invoice Sent" is blank. Set the limit to 1. Processing one invoice at a time keeps things clean and easier to debug.

Module 2: Google Docs — Create Document from Template

Select your invoice template. Map each {{placeholder}} to the matching column from your sheet. Point the output to a folder like "Invoices/2025" so everything stays organized.

Module 3: Google Drive + Gmail — Convert to PDF and Send

Add a Google Drive module to export the new doc as a PDF, then a Gmail module to send it. Set the recipient to {{client_email}}, attach the PDF, and write a short professional body. Something like:

Hi {{client_name}}, please find your invoice attached for the service on {{service_date}}. Let us know if you have any questions.

Module 4: Google Sheets — Update Row

Mark "Invoice Sent" as TRUE so this job never gets invoiced again.

Step 4: Test It

Add a row to your sheet with real-looking test data. Run the scenario manually. Confirm:

The Google Doc was created with the right fields filled in
The PDF came through on the email
The row is now marked as sent

Fix anything that looks off before scheduling it.

Step 5: Schedule It

Set the scenario to run every hour, or once a night at 6 PM, whichever fits your workflow. From that point on, any completed job without an invoice gets one sent automatically.

What This Actually Saves You

Businesses that automate invoice processing cut processing costs by 60-70% compared to doing it manually. For a small HVAC company sending 15-30 invoices a month, that typically works out to 3-5 hours of admin time per week.

The bigger impact is timing. Invoices go out same-day instead of days later. That change alone tends to move the needle on how fast clients pay.

What to Build Next

Once this is running, two natural extensions:

Payment reminders. If no payment comes in after 14 days, trigger a follow-up email automatically. Same scenario, just add a scheduled check against your sheet.

QuickBooks sync. Add a QuickBooks module right after the Gmail send. The invoice gets created in your accounting software at the same time it goes to the client. Your books stay current without any manual entry.

Both can be added to the same scenario without rebuilding anything.

If you want this built for your exact setup, whether that's Jobber, ServiceTitan, HouseCall Pro, or a custom CRM, Aplos AI builds these for HVAC companies at a fixed price. Most invoice automation builds come in under $5,000 and pay for themselves in the first quarter.

Running a different field service stack? Drop it in the comments. Always curious what people are actually using out in the field.

I automated a law firm's client onboarding with n8n. Here's the exact flow.

Zachariah Mi — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 04:44:59 +0000

Most law firm onboarding is a chain of manual tasks. Someone fills out an intake form. Someone else runs a conflict check. A paralegal sends the retainer. Another person sets up billing. Someone eventually remembers to send the welcome email.

Each handoff is a place where things stall. Here's how to wire it so one form submission handles all of it.

The stack

Typeform (intake form)
n8n (orchestration)
Clio or MyCase (conflict check + case management)
PandaDoc (retainer agreement)
Stripe (billing)
Gmail (welcome packet)

You can swap Zapier or Make for n8n if you prefer. The logic is the same.

The flow

Client submits Typeform → n8n webhook fires
n8n checks opposing party names against existing Clio contacts
If conflict found → notify attorney via Slack/email, stop workflow
If no conflict → create new contact in Clio, trigger PandaDoc to send pre-filled retainer
PandaDoc webhook fires when retainer is signed
n8n receives the signed event → create Stripe invoice or payment link → send to client
On payment → trigger Gmail node to send welcome packet with next steps

The part most tutorials skip

The conflict check is usually treated as an afterthought. It's not. Most bar complaints around conflicts come from manual processes falling through — someone forgot to check, or checked the wrong name variant.

In n8n, you make a GET request to the Clio API with the opposing party name from the intake form. If the response returns any matches, you branch the workflow to a notification node instead of continuing.

Takes about 20 minutes to set up. Not optional.

What this actually saves

A typical firm doing 15-20 new matters a month is burning 2-3 hours per intake on coordination. This workflow cuts it to about 10 minutes of attorney review time per matter. The rest runs automatically.

The retainer goes out faster. Billing gets set up before the client forgets they hired you. The welcome packet doesn't depend on anyone remembering to send it.

Code?

n8n lets you export workflows as JSON. If you want the template for this flow, drop a comment — I'll share it.

DEV Community: Zachariah Mi

How to Automate Client Intake for Law Firms Using n8n

How to Automate Client Intake for Law Firms Using n8n

What You're Building

What You Need

Step 1: Set Up the Trigger

Step 2: Create the CRM Contact

Step 3: Send the Welcome Email

Step 4: Add a 48-Hour Follow-Up

Step 5: Notify the Attorney

Step 6: Send the Scheduling Link

What This Saves

What to Build Next

How to Automate Invoice Processing for HVAC Companies Using Make.com

How to Automate Invoice Processing for HVAC Companies Using Make.com

What You're Building

What You Need Before Starting

Step 1: Build Your Invoice Template in Google Docs

Step 2: Set Up Your Data Source

Step 3: Build the Make.com Scenario

Step 4: Test It

Step 5: Schedule It

What This Actually Saves You

What to Build Next

I automated a law firm's client onboarding with n8n. Here's the exact flow.

Built by https://aplosai.com — we set up automations like this for small businesses and professional services firms.