This tutorial will show you how you can connect an intake form created with Google Forms [Google Sheets] to Clio via Zapier which will automatically create a new Person Contact and Matter in Clio. This form needs to be created in Google first before continuing. For general information about getting started with Zapier, please see the Zapier Support article HERE.
Contents
Creating the Intake Form
Connecting Google Sheets to Clio through Zapier
Adding Google Sheets as the Trigger Application
Adding "Find or Create Person Contact" as the Search Step
Adding "Create Matter in Clio" as the Action Step
In Google Drive, click "New" then select "Google Forms".
This will open the Google Forms editing screen. Start by renaming the untitiled form then create the fields that you would like to have in your intake form.
In order to have your intake form create a new Person Contact and Matter in Clio, you are required to create a first name and last name field, and a field that will be used as the Matter Description (i.e. a comments or details field). Other optional contact fields that you may want to connect are a phone number field, an email address field, and fields for the client's mailing address. Clio Contact Custom Fields are also supported through Zapier, so feel free to create a form field for any of your Clio Contact and Matter Custom Fields.
When you are happy with your form, click the Responses button at the top of the form.
Next, click the Spreadsheet Icon to create a Google Sheet which will correspond with the Intake Form.
This will open a new Google Sheet that you will connect to Clio through Zapier. When the Sheet opens, please don't make any changes to the Sheet as changes may effect the ability to sync data between the connecting form and Clio.
Now, go back to the Google Intake Form and click the Preview Icon in the top right of the screen.
Complete the form with the details for a test Contact and associated Matter that you would like to add to Clio. This first Contact/Matter entry is required for Zapier to validate the connection between Google Forms and Clio. This Contact and Matter will be added to Clio when Zapier validates the connection between Google Forms and Clio.
Connecting Google Forms to Clio through Zapier
Adding Google Forms as the Trigger Application
Open Zapier and click Make a New Zap
In step 1, select Google Forms as you Trigger app and New Response in Spreadsheet as the Trigger Event. Next, you will be prompted to connect your Google account to Zapier and authorize the connection.
Finally, you will be required to select the Google Spreadsheet connected to your intake form. Select the Google Spreadsheet you created.
For the "Worksheet", select "Form Responses 1".
Click on Continue.
Zapier will need to test the connection with Google Sheets. For the test to work, you must already have at least one submission to your intake form.
Click Test & Continue, and Zapier will search for an existing submission to use as the test entry. Select an entry when it appears, and move on to the next step.
Click Continue to complete the Trigger set up.
Adding "Find Person Contact in Clio" as the Search Step
To add the Action, click on the large "Do this..." section below.
In step 2, select Clio as your Action app and Find Person Contact as the Action type. Next, you will be prompted to select your Clio account.
Once you have connected to Clio, you should see the "Customize Contact" section, asking how you would like to search for this Contact.
From here, you have the option to try to search by First Name + Last Name (which works unless you have a lot of similarly-named Clients), or by Email Address (which works unless you do a lot of work for Corporations and may have the same email listed for multiple Contacts).
In my example, I'm going to use Email Address as the search value. Click the "Insert a Field" icon at the far right of the Search Value box, and you can pick from all the metadata from previous steps. So, I'm going to select Email Address.
Next, make sure that the checkbox for "Create Clio Contact if it doesn't exist yet?" is checked. You will then be prompted to fill out the Contact details -- make sure to use the fields from the Google Forms step by clicking the "Insert a field" icon on the right.
Once you've filled out the First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number (or anything else you included in your Google Form, including Custom Field data), click Continue at the bottom.
Zapier will try to run the test (like it does at every step to ensure there are no errors so far) using the email address you used in your Test Submission in the Form. If that email address doesn't match an existing Contact in your Clio account, it will create one, based on your template.
Click Test & Continue to ensure everything is working up till this point. If the test is successful, click the + icon to add a new Action Step.
Adding "Create Matter in Clio" as the Action Step
Select Clio as the App, and select "Create Matter" as the Action Event. Select your Clio Account, then click Continue.
On the Customize Matter page, use the metadata from the previous 2 steps to fill out the relevant information. Fill in the relevant fields, as well as map any additional information you may have captured through the Form to their respective Custom Fields.
Note: For the Client field -- since we used a Search Step to find a specific Contact, make sure to select the "Custom" tab under the "Client" field, and then select the "Find or Create Person Contact in Clio" step (or whatever you named Step 2) and then choose the "ID" field from the metadata of the Search Step.
Fill in any other data for the Matter, including the Group (Matter Permissions) and Description, which are required.
Once you're done, click Continue, and run the final Zapier Test to ensure everything is working so far.
You should already have some data in the intake form spreadsheet if you followed the steps at the beginning of this tutorial. A successful test of the Zap will create a new Matter and Contact in Clio. The Contact will have the name, email, and phone number from the Intake Form, and the Matter will have the description from the Intake Form. The Contact will be linked to the Matter as the Client.
Warning: Do not delete rows from the intake form spreadsheet! This could break the Zap.
Finally, give the Zap a name, and turn it on. Congratulations! You've streamlined your client intake process!