Automation rules

What automation covers

Colabra has a dedicated automation settings page at the workspace level which covers two related surfaces:

• Assignment automation for tasks and files
• Status automation for task workflow updates triggered by review events

Automation is useful when your team wants consistent routing and workflow updates without manual triage on every deal.

The best use of automation is not to make the workflow clever. It is to remove the repetitive routing and status updates that happen on every deal anyway.

Start with the routing pain you already repeat

Real deal example: automate the boring part first

If every German-language contract gets sent to the same specialist group and every financial deal-breaker gets escalated to finance, that is a good automation target. If the right owner depends on subtle judgement every time, keep it manual.

Assignment automation

Assignment automation is split by target type:

• Tasks
• Files

Each rule has:

• a rule name
• one or more conditions
• one or more actions
• an enabled or disabled state
• a position in the rule order

Rules can be reordered, which matters when your team uses multiple overlapping routing rules.

That order matters most when you mix broad baseline rules with narrow escalation rules. Put the narrow rules where they can win when the condition really matters.

Task assignment rules

Task rules currently support these condition types:

Condition	Meaning
Project	Only fire for tasks in a specific project
Category	Match a task category
Subcategory	Match a task subcategory
Red flags	Match the highest red-flag severity on the task
Gaps	Match the gap verdict on the task

Task rules currently support these actions:

Action	Meaning
Assign → Specific user	Send the task to one named person
Assign → Group round robin	Rotate matching tasks across members of a selected group
Set status	Move the task into a selected workflow status
Set due date	Set a due date offset in days from when the rule fires
Set priority	Set the task priority automatically

The finance escalation rule

Real deal example: task routing by risk

Create a task rule where Category is Financial and Red flags is Has deal breakers. Assign matching tasks to the finance group by round robin, set priority to urgent, and add a seven-day due date.

File assignment rules

File rules currently support these condition types:

Condition	Meaning
Category	Match a file category
Subcategory	Match a file subcategory
Red flags	Match the highest red-flag severity on the file
Governing law	Match files by governing-law extraction
Jurisdiction	Match files by jurisdiction
Language	Match files by detected primary language
Type	Match files by file type

File rules currently support these actions:

Action	Meaning
Assign → Specific user	Send the file to one named reviewer
Assign → Group round robin	Rotate matching files across members of a selected group

The multilingual contract queue

Real deal example: file routing after upload

Create a file rule where Category is Contracts and Language is German. Route those files to the DACH legal group by round robin so specialist reviewers get the right contracts immediately.

If your routing logic depends on language, governing law, or jurisdiction, the upstream setup matters too. Cross-border deals explains how extraction, diligence settings, and automation fit together.

Condition logic

The rule builder supports grouped conditions with and / or logic. That means you can build simple rules or more targeted structures such as:

• Category is Financial and Red flags is Has deal breakers
• Red flags is Has deal breakers or Gaps is Open gap
• one grouped branch for severity plus another grouped branch for category or jurisdiction

Use broad rules for baseline staffing and narrower grouped logic for escalation rules.

Status automation

Task status automation is separate from assignment routing.

The product supports two sets of task-status triggers.

Review automations

Trigger	Result
On review request	Move the task to a selected status
On signature	Move the task to a selected status
Make task immutable if…	Lock tasks once they enter selected workflow stages

Status automation is most useful when the team already agrees on what a given event should mean. If reviewers still debate what “ready for review” means, fix the workflow model first and automate second.

When to use automation vs. manual assignment

Use automation when:

• the same routing logic repeats across deals
• specialist groups need consistent work allocation
• severity or gap state should trigger immediate escalation
• the team wants workflow status to follow review activity automatically

Use manual assignment when:

• staffing is bespoke for one deal
• a temporary exception is needed
• the review owner depends on judgement that the rule builder cannot express cleanly

Automation works best as the default operating layer, with manual assignment left for exceptions rather than routine work.