Notion Integration

Certum Draft integrates with Notion to manage your client, matter, and lead databases. Search existing clients when creating matters, write new matters back to Notion, sync notes bidirectionally, and capture phone-call enquiries as PNM Leads.

What You Can Do

Feature	Direction	Description
Search clients	Read	Find existing clients when creating matters
Search matters	Read	Look up matters by number or client
Create matters	Write	New matters land in Notion with client relation, type, status
Create clients	Write	New clients are added to your Clients database
Capture Leads (PNM)	Write	Phone-call enquiries logged to a separate Leads database
Watcher tagging	Write	Default firm members tagged on every new Lead
Team tagging	Write	Selected team members tagged on every new matter
Stale-write detection	Read	Detects when a Lead has been edited elsewhere before saving
Address verification	Write	Verified-address metadata round-trips to structured properties
Certum link	Write	A certum:// URL is saved on each matter page for reopening

Setting Up Notion

1. Create a Notion Integration

   Go to Notion Integrations, click New integration, give it a name (e.g., “Certum Draft”), select your workspace, and click Submit.

   Enable these capabilities:

   • Read content
   • Update content
   • Insert content

   Copy the Internal Integration Token — Notion’s current tokens start with ntn_; older tokens start with secret_. Both are accepted.

2. Share Databases with the Integration

   In Notion, open your Clients database, click ⋯ (More) → Connections → find your integration and connect it. Repeat for your Matters database (and later, the Leads database).

3. Find Your Database IDs

   Each Notion database has a 32-character ID in its URL:

   https://www.notion.so/yourworkspace/abc123def456...?v=...
                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                       This is the database ID

   You can also paste the full URL into Certum Draft — it extracts the ID for you.

4. Configure in Certum Draft

   Open Settings (⌘,) → Notion. Paste your Integration Token and click Save Token. Enter both Database IDs and click Save Database IDs.

5. (Optional) Set up the Leads database

   For the PNM (Potential New Matter) feature, click Find or Create Leads Database… in the Leads section. Certum Draft detects the page hosting your Clients database, searches for an existing Leads database there, and either adopts it or creates a fresh one — only after you confirm. See Potential New Matters for the full PNM workflow.

Connection Diagnostics

After configuring, click Test Connection in the Connection section. Four rows show:

Check	What it Verifies
Authentication	The integration token is valid
Clients Database	The database exists and the integration can read it
Matters Database	The database exists and the integration can read it
Schema Validation	Expected property names are present

A passing run shows record counts (e.g., “1,420 clients”).

Database Schema

Certum Draft reads from and writes to specific property names. The names below match the live O’Neill Solicitors workspace and are verified at compile time against the source code.

Clients Database (21 properties)

Property	Type	Notes
Client Full Name	Title	Format: SURNAME, Given Names
Email	Email
Phone	Phone	Mobile and landline combined with | separator
Address (Legacy)	Rich text	Combined address — legacy plain-text field
Postal Address (Legacy)	Rich text
Client Address	Place	Google-Maps location property — handled separately
Client Postal Address	Place
Unit	Rich text	Structured unit / level / suite / shop
Street	Rich text	Street address only
Suburb	Rich text
State	Rich text
Postcode	Rich text
Country	Rich text	Stored only when non-AU
Address Verified	Checkbox	True when MapKit-verified or manually confirmed
Address Verified Source	Select	mapkit, manual, migration, or unknown
Address Verified At	Date	When verification was stamped
Address Verified Fingerprint	Rich text	Canonical hash (v1:<16-hex>) for drift detection
Related Matters	Relation	→ Matters database
S/C Packet No	Rich text	Safe custody packet number
Deceased	Relation	For estate matters
Last Edited	Last edited time

Tip

Phone format: When both mobile and landline are provided, Certum Draft combines them with a pipe: 0412 345 678 | 02 9876 5432. The mobile number comes first. When reading back, if the value contains a pipe, it’s split; otherwise the whole value is treated as a mobile number.

Note

Address fields: The six structured fields (Unit, Street, Suburb, State, Postcode, Country) are written explicitly from the matter form — Notion does not auto-parse them from the combined Address (Legacy) field. The Address Verified checkbox + source + fingerprint round-trip so verified addresses stay marked as verified even if the matter is reopened on a different machine.

Matters Database (26 properties)

Property	Type	Notes
Description	Title	Matter name / Re: line
No.	Number	Matter number (only written when numeric)
Type	Multi-select	Matter type categories
Status	Select	Active, Completed, Closed, On Hold, Not started
Client	Relation	→ Clients database
Property	Rich text	Property description for conveyancing matters
S/C Packet No	Rich text	Safe custody packet number
People	People	Person(s) with carriage
Date of Instructions	Rich text	Open date stored as text
Finalised	Select	Close-state marker (a select, not a date)
Shared Note	Rich text	Used for file reference; syncs bidirectionally with the matter workspace
Rod Note	Rich text	Free-form note field
Phone	Phone
Deceased	Relation
Created time	Created time
Mel Date / Michael Date / Rod Date	Date	Per-practitioner date markers
Link to Certum	URL	certum://open?matter=000150

Caution

The matter number field on Notion is a Number type, not text. Certum Draft only writes to it when the matter number is purely numeric. Matters with non-numeric prefixes or custom identifiers skip the No. field to avoid Notion API errors.

Leads Database (16 properties)

Created by Find or Create Leads Database… in Settings → Notion → Leads, or adopted from an existing database in the same page. The schema is fixed; Certum Draft creates it with these properties:

Property	Type	Notes
Name	Title	Lead name (caller name or matter description)
Stage	Select	new, contacted, quoted, instructed, declined
Source	Select	referral, repeat client, google or web, other
First contact channel	Select	phone, email, walk-in, web form, other
Practitioner with carriage	Rich text
Next action by	Date	When to follow up
Contact	Relation	→ Clients database (linked once client created)
Raw caller name	Rich text	The caller’s name as captured on first contact
Raw caller phone	Rich text
Raw caller email	Rich text
Likely matter type	Rich text
Notes	Rich text
Decline reason	Select	no response, client declined, conflict, out of scope, referred elsewhere, other
Linked matter	Relation	→ Matters database (linked on conversion)
Conversion state	Select	not_converted, matter_creation_attempted, matter_created, lead_linked, needs_repair
Watchers	People	Firm members notified on every new Lead

How Data Flows

Client Name Handling

Client surnames are stored uppercased in the Client Full Name title field. Format: SURNAME, Given Names (e.g., SCHRUTE, Dwight Kurt). When reading back from Notion, Certum Draft parses this title into separate surname and given_name fields for templates.

Matter Number Handling

Matter numbers are stored in Notion’s No. field, which is a Number type. Certum Draft only writes when the matter number is purely numeric — non-numeric prefixes (custom identifiers, legacy formats) skip this field to avoid API errors.

When Creating a Matter

1. Client selected from Notion — Name parsed into components; phone split on | into mobile/landline; verified-address metadata round-tripped if present.
2. Matter created — New page created in the Matters database with:
   • Description (matter name), Type (multi-select), Status set to “Active”
   • Client relation linked
   • Date of Instructions written as today’s date (text)
   • People property populated with selected team members (if Team Tagging is configured)
   • Link to Certum URL saved
3. New client created (if not found in Notion) — Added to the Clients database with structured address fields and verification metadata.
4. Shared Note initialised — Available for editing in the workspace.

Phone Number Handling

Certum Draft separates mobile and landline numbers in the matter form, but Notion has a single Phone field.

Writing to Notion:

• Both numbers combined with a pipe separator: {mobile} | {landline}
• If only one number exists, no pipe is added

Reading from Notion:

• If the value contains |, it’s split: first part is mobile, second is landline
• If no pipe, the value is treated as a mobile number

Address Verification Round-Trip

When an address is confirmed in the Matter Workspace (via the MapKit-assisted AddressField), Certum Draft writes the structured components (Unit, Street, Suburb, State, Postcode, Country) plus the verification metadata (Address Verified checkbox, source, timestamp, fingerprint) to the Clients database. Re-opening the matter on a different machine preserves the “verified” state — the address won’t ask to be re-confirmed unless it materially changes.

Shared Note Sync

The matter’s Shared Note field syncs bidirectionally with the workspace footer:

• From Notion: Loads when you open the matter, showing @mentions with highlighting.
• To Notion: Edits save back with proper Notion @mention formatting.
• @mentions: Typing @Name creates a real Notion mention — the person is notified.

PNM Lead Stale-Write Detection

When you edit a PNM Lead in the inspector, Certum Draft fetches the latest last_edited_time from Notion before pushing your changes. If Notion’s copy is newer than yours, the write is refused and the inspector shows a “this lead was updated elsewhere — refresh?” banner. This prevents accidental overwrites when two staff edit the same Lead concurrently. Reads/writes also coalesce with a 1.5-second debounce so rapid edits don’t flood the API.

Watchers on New Leads

Settings → Notion → Leads lets you select firm members who should appear on every new Lead’s Watchers people property. Notion notifies them automatically. If a watcher is later removed from the workspace, Certum Draft silently drops them from new Leads and shows a one-shot dismissable banner so you know to refresh the selection.

Certum Link

Each matter in Notion has a Link to Certum URL:

• Format: certum://open?matter=000150
• Purpose: Click the URL to reopen the matter in Certum Draft from anywhere — Notion mobile, a Slack message, a calendar invite.

Note

Notion displays custom URL schemes as text rather than clickable links. The link is still valid — copy it and paste it into Safari, or use the Open in Notion button on the matter header to round-trip the other direction.

Dashboard Cards

When Notion is connected, the home dashboard shows three signal columns that pull from your Notion data:

• Open Leads — Active PNM Leads grouped by stage. Drives the firm’s intake pipeline at a glance.
• Recent — Matters you’ve opened recently on this machine.
• Recently Updated in Notion — Matters most recently edited in the Notion workspace (anyone’s edits), so you see what colleagues have been working on.

All three columns pull from Notion lazily and refresh on dashboard re-entry. Client names are resolved from the local matter index rather than per-row API calls.

Not Using Notion?

Notion integration is optional. Without it:

• Client details are entered manually for each matter.
• Client information is stored in the local matter metadata.
• All other features work exactly the same.
• Matters exist only on disk (no cloud sync).
• The dashboard signal columns are hidden.
• The PNM (Potential New Matter) capture flow is hidden.

Troubleshooting

”Test Connection” button is greyed out

All three credentials must be set: Integration Token (click Save Token), Clients Database ID, and Matters Database ID (click Save Database IDs).

”Not authenticated” Error

• Check the token is valid (regenerate at Notion Integrations if unsure)
• Verify the integration is shared with the database (Connections menu in Notion)

“Database not found” Error

• Verify the database ID is 32 characters (or paste the full URL — Certum Draft extracts the ID)
• Ensure the integration is shared with the database
• Check that you haven’t copied a view ID instead of the database ID

”Missing properties” Warning

• Schema validation found expected property names missing from your database
• For new workspaces, this can fire because you haven’t added the optional structured-address properties yet. The integration still works — only writes to missing fields are skipped.
• Add the missing property in Notion if you need it

Matter not appearing in Notion

• Check the integration has Insert content capability
• Verify the Matters database is shared with the integration
• The matter may be filtered out of your default view — switch to “All matters” or remove the filter

@mentions not working

• The person must be a member of your Notion workspace
• The name in the Shared Note must match exactly (case-insensitive) as it appears in Notion
• The integration needs permission to mention users

”This lead was updated elsewhere” banner (PNM Inspector)

Stale-write detection has fired — someone else edited the Lead in Notion (or you edited it on another machine) after you opened the inspector. Click Refresh to load the latest version, then re-apply your changes.

Leads database setup says “Configured database isn’t reachable right now”

A previously-configured Leads database ID exists but the integration can’t currently see it (transient network blip, or the database was unshared from the integration). Click Retry — Certum Draft preserves your configured ID until you explicitly adopt a different database or create a new one.

Rate Limit Errors

• Notion permits roughly 3 requests per second
• Certum Draft throttles writes via a built-in rate limiter
• Bursty operations (bulk client import) may still trigger 429 responses — wait a few seconds and the next write succeeds