A web agency maintaining 150 client sites kept getting burned by silent domain and SSL expirations. Daily automated checks now open renewal tasks at 30 days, chase client approvals, and page the team a week out, so certificates and domains typically stop expiring unnoticed.
Typical results
0
Expired certs in 12 months
150
Sites checked daily
30 days
Renewal task opens before expiry
7 days
Emergency page threshold
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Expiry dates for 150 domains and certificates lived across registrars, hosting panels and an outdated spreadsheet. Seven certificates lapsed in a single year, five caused client-noticed outages — the kind that start with an angry morning phone call — and a monthly manual audit ate six hours while still missing domains registered under clients' own accounts.
Before and after
Expired certs per year
−100%Client-noticed outages
−100%Monthly manual audit time
−92%The automation
We built a Make workflow that sweeps the entire portfolio daily, checking domain and SSL expiry, ownership and configuration. At 30 days out, a renewal task opens automatically with the registrar, cost and client attached. Where a client's approval or payment is needed, the request email goes out on its own and reminders follow. Anything within seven days of expiring pages the team until it's resolved, and a live dashboard shows the whole portfolio.
How it works
- 01
Daily portfolio sweep
Every domain and certificate is checked daily for expiry, ownership and configuration.
- 02
Tasks open at 30 days
Approaching expirations create renewal tasks with the registrar, cost and client attached.
- 03
Clients asked early
Where client approval or payment is needed, the request email goes out automatically with reminders.
- 04
Seven-day alarm
Anything within a week of expiring pages the team until it's resolved.
- 05
One live dashboard
The whole portfolio's status in a single view, exceptions on top.
Starts from
- 150 client domains
- SSL + domain expiry dates
Delivers
- Renewal tasks at 30 days
- Client approval requests
- 7-day emergency pages
The impact
Expired certificates and domains typically drop to zero, down from about seven lapses and five client-noticed outages a year. The monthly audit shrank from six hours to a half-hour dashboard review, and renewals turned from firefighting into a quiet, billable maintenance line.
Questions about this automation
How does the automation find every domain and certificate?
It starts from a portfolio list in a sheet or database and reads expiry dates from registrar APIs, WHOIS lookups and a live check of each site's SSL certificate. A daily sweep compares the results against the list and flags domains held in a client's own account, so nothing depends on a monthly manual audit.
What happens when a renewal needs the client's approval or payment?
At 30 days out the renewal task records the registrar, cost and client. If the client must approve or pay, an email request goes out automatically with a link to confirm, and reminders follow on a set schedule. Once the client confirms, the task moves forward and the team is told exactly what to renew.
How are urgent expirations escalated?
Anything within seven days of expiring becomes an alert that pages the on-call person through Slack, SMS or email and repeats until someone marks it resolved. A live dashboard shows the whole portfolio with exceptions on top. Simple automations like this are usually live within days, starting from the agency's existing domain list.