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Appointment Based Automations

Updated over 2 weeks ago

Appointment automations in Lawmatics are a powerful tool that let you trigger actions relative to the start or end time of a scheduled appointment. These automations are ideal for:

  • Sending reminders like "1 day before" or "30 minutes before"

  • Sending follow-ups like "2 hours after" the appointment ends

  • Using custom HTML emails for confirmations or reminders

  • Triggering other non-email actions tied to the appointment

Alternative to Automations: Appointment Confirmations & Reminders

Before creating appointment automations, consider whether your needs can be met by built-in automatic confirmations and reminders:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Appointments/Events

  2. Configure confirmation and reminder rules for each appointment type

These do not require automations and will send automatically based on your configured schedule.

Use this method if you only need basic reminders.


When to Use Appointment Automations

Use appointment-based automations if:

  • You want to send a custom HTML email as a confirmation or reminder

  • You need to trigger other actions (e.g., tasks, forms, documents) around the appointment time


How to Set Up an Appointment-Based Automation

Step 1: Create a New Automation

  1. Go to the Automations > Workflows tab.

  2. Click + New Automation.

  3. Select Appointment as the automation type

  4. Enter in the Name, Target type, Eligible Matter Status (if applicable,) and Folder (if applicable.)

  5. Choose the Appointment Type this automation will be based on

Step 2: Create Time-Relative Entry Condition

  1. Once you create this new automation, you will be prompted to choose the timeframe relative to the appointment:

    • Examples: “1 day before,” “30 minutes before,” “2 hours after”

  2. Click the green checkmark to Save this condition.

The time-based trigger can be used in conjunction with additional entry conditions or a shared rule, if necessary.

Step 3: Add Actions to the Automation

  1. Click the plus icon to open the list of Automation Actions

  2. Add your action(s), just like in a standard automation:

    • Send Email

    • Assign Task

    • Send Form

    • etc.

Repeat this process to add multiple time-relative automations for the same appointment (e.g., 1 day before, 1 hour before, 1 day after). You can easily duplicate the original and edit the duplicates' time-relative trigger by clicking the pages icon to the right of your new automation:

Activating Your Automation

After you've set up all time-based automations and actions:

  • Turn the Status toggle at the top of the page to ON to Activate.

    • If there are current matches, you can choose "Activate" to schedule all current matches to run through the automation when they meet the relative timeframe.
      If you do not want the current matches scheduled, you can choose “Future Matches Only” to only schedule newly created or updated appointments to run

Rescheduling & Cancelations

If an appointment is rescheduled:

  • All appointment automation triggers will adjust automatically to the new date and time.

Example:
Appointment originally on March 18th, "1 day before" reminder triggers on March 17th.
If rescheduled to March 20th, the reminder will adjust to trigger on March 19th.

If an appointment is canceled:

  • All appointment automations linked to that appointment will be canceled and will not run.


FAQS

How do I create an automation to run when an appointment is created or scheduled?

You'll use a Trigger Automation with the entry condition "Appointment Created." This automation will run at the time the appointment is scheduled, not relative to the appointment date/time.

Common use: Send a confirmation email immediately when the appointment is booked.

How do I trigger actions relative to a date that isn’t an appointment (e.g., a custom date field)?

You'll use our Date Field-Based Automations instead.

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