Identify clients at risk

Automatically flag clients who had a placement in the last year but haven't had recent consultant engagement, so your team can reconnect before the relationship goes cold.

CompanyStandardAdvanced

How it runs

Trigger firesCompany engagement date exceeds 90 days with no consultant activity

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Criteria checksCompany had a placement in the last 12 months

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Actions runNotification to consultant to reconnect before the relationship lapses

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RepeatsOngoing for each qualifying company while conditions are met

This recipe uses two automations

Note-based list conditions are not available on Company (ClientCorporation) records in Bullhorn Automation. To track consultant engagement at the company level, you need a companion automation that runs on Sales Contacts and updates a custom date field on the parent Company record whenever a note is added. The main automation then uses that custom field to identify companies that have gone quiet. Build the companion automation first.

What you'll need

A custom date field on the Company (ClientCorporation) record to store the last engagement date — work with your Bullhorn administrator to create this field before building
Sales Contact records linked to Company records so the companion automation can update the parent
An understanding that this setup tracks engagement going forward from activation — historical engagement data will not pre-populate the custom field, so existing lapsed clients may not be caught immediately

Build it

Part 1: The companion automation (Sales Contact)

1

Create a Sales Contact-based standard automation

In the Automations tab, click + Add Automation and select Blank Automation. Choose Sales Contact as the entity type and select Standard. Name it something like "Update Company Last Engaged Date" and save.
2

Build an Always Updated list for note activity

Set the list to Always Updated. Add a condition using Has Activity to detect recent note additions on the Sales Contact record. This will cause the automation to fire each time a consultant adds a note to a linked contact, capturing real-time engagement activity.
3

Add an Update Field step targeting the Company record

Add an Update Field step. Set the target to the custom date field you created on the Company (ClientCorporation) record and set the value to today's date using the current date token. This writes the engagement date up to the parent company record each time any linked Sales Contact has a note added, giving you a single field to query in the main automation.
4

Save and activate the companion automation

Activate this automation first. From this point forward, every note added to a Sales Contact will update the parent Company's engagement date field. The main automation in Part 2 depends on this field being populated.

Part 2: The main automation (Company)

5

Create a Company-based standard automation

Create a second automation. Choose Company (ClientCorporation) as the entity type and select Standard. Name it "Identify Clients at Risk" and save.
6

Build an Always Updated list for at-risk companies

Set the list to Always Updated. Add two conditions: your custom engagement date field is more than 90 days ago (or is empty), and the Company has a related Placement with a start date within the last 12 months. The first condition identifies dormant client relationships; the second filters for clients who are genuinely active with your agency, to exclude prospects and historical accounts that are no longer relevant.
7

Add a Send Notification step

Route the notification to the Company Owner — the consultant responsible for the account. Include the company name, the last known engagement date from your custom field, and the most recent placement date so the consultant has context. The message should be a clear prompt: this client hasn't heard from you in 90+ days — now is the time to reach out before they go elsewhere.
8

Configure re-entry settings

In the automation settings, configure re-entry so the notification is not sent repeatedly for the same company while it remains in the list. A re-entry restriction of 30 days strikes a reasonable balance — the consultant gets one reminder, and if the company still hasn't been contacted a month later, they get another nudge.
9

Save and activate

With the companion automation already running, activate this automation. Test by checking a Company record where the custom engagement date is more than 90 days old (or empty) and a recent placement exists — the notification should fire for the Company Owner. Once active, the system will alert consultants automatically when a client relationship starts to slip.

Historical data gap

The companion automation only updates the engagement date field going forward from the day it is activated. Existing company records will have an empty field until a new note is added to a linked Sales Contact. This means lapsed clients with no historical data in the field may appear in the at-risk list immediately after activation, even if they were contacted recently. Consider running a one-time data cleanup to populate the field for your most important accounts before activating the main automation, or accept that the first few weeks of alerts may include some false positives.

How to measure it

These metrics help you track whether at-risk clients are being caught and retained:

Notification volume: how many at-risk alerts fire each month. A high and sustained volume suggests consultants are not acting on the notifications — consider reviewing the workflow or escalating unresolved accounts to managers.
Re-engagement rate: the percentage of at-risk clients where the consultant adds a note or logs contact within 14 days of the notification. Track manually by comparing notification dates against note dates on Company records.
Client retention rate: the percentage of flagged at-risk clients who go on to register a new job or placement within 90 days. This is your highest-value metric — it tells you whether the early warning system is actually preventing client churn. Track manually in your ATS.