File tags and reminders: never miss a deadline again

The bill landed in Downloads as invoice_client_99812.pdf, you closed the tab and moved on. Two weeks later, the late-payment notice arrives. The information was there, on your PC the whole time — just buried in a folder nobody opens, under a name that says nothing. That’s the most expensive problem with files: it isn’t losing them, it’s forgetting they have a deadline. Tags and reminders exist for exactly this — to stick a note onto the document itself, so it comes to you before the date, instead of you having to remember to go looking for it. This guide shows how to apply a tag, create a reminder that comes due in 7 days, and why the tag never peels off the file, even when it changes folder or name.

What a tag is (and why it beats a folder)#

A tag is a label you stick on a file. Unlike a folder, it doesn’t force the file to live in a single place: the same PDF can be both Tax and Household at once, and show up in both searches. The folder answers “where is it?”; the tag answers “what is this?”. For deadlines and bills, the second question is the one that matters — you don’t want to know which folder the bill lives in, you want to know a bill exists that needs paying.

Best of all: you don’t have to register the tag first. When you use a new tag, the app creates it on the spot, with a default color. You just type the name.

What a reminder is (the tag with a date)#

A reminder is a tag with a deadline. Beyond marking the file, it stores a due date and enters the app’s reminder system — so the document comes back to remind you of itself before the date arrives. It’s the difference between “I filed the bill” and “I filed the bill and I’ll be warned before it’s due”.

How to apply a tag to a file, by rule#

You can tag by hand, of course, but the real win is letting a rule tag on its own. In the automation wizard (Automation → “+ New rule”), on the What to do (actions) step, there’s the Apply tag action. In the “Destination or pattern” box you type the tag name — literally, exactly as it will read. A worked example:

1. “+ New rule” → name it Tag the bills.
2. Monitored folders → your Downloads.
3. When to run → start on “Only when I say (manual)”.
4. Which files (conditions) → Content contains (PDF, DOCX, TXT) → amount due. Bills and invoices print that phrase in their own text, so the rule recognizes the bill even when the file is called document-1749.pdf — reading is built into the app, 100% on your PC, scanned PDFs included.
5. What to do (actions) → Apply tag → Bill.

Click “Simulate effect” to see, in the preview, exactly which files would get the Bill tag — “Preview — nothing is actually changed” — and only then save.

How to create a reminder that comes due in 7 days#

The tag’s sibling action is Create reminder (tag). It does everything Apply tag does — marks the file with a label created on the spot — and also attaches a deadline. In the wizard, a rule you build from scratch creates reminders that come due in 7 days, counted from the moment the rule runs. It’s the default interval, tuned for most short everyday deadlines (the bill due this week, the quote that needs a follow-up).

In practice, you just swap the action from the previous example:

5. What to do (actions) → Create reminder (tag) → Bill.

Now every bill the rule recognizes gets the Bill tag and a reminder for a week out. You no longer have to remember to open the folder: the document warns you.

The ready-made recipes in the Gallery already ship with reminders chosen by topic — Insurance follow-up for the new policy, Self Assessment deadline for HMRC season, Household bill for the usual utilities. You pick the recipe, it fills in the rule and the reminder together, and you just confirm in the simulation.

The detail that changes everything: the tag follows the file#

Here’s the benefit that makes tags truly worth it. When a rule moves or renames the file, the tag goes with it. You can tag the bill in Downloads as Bill and, in the same rule, send it to Documents/Bills/{year}/{month-name} — when it lands there, new name and all, the Bill tag is still stuck to it. So is the reminder. Nothing is lost in the move.

This solves the classic nightmare: you organize your files, they go to the right folders, and suddenly your markings and deadlines are gone because they were “tied” to the old location. Not here. The label is a property of the file, not of the folder — it travels with it.

Finding it later: the condition that closes the loop#

Marking only pays off if you can find it later. That’s why the tag is also a condition: on the conditions step there are Has the tag and Does not have the tag. You can build a second rule that acts only on what’s already tagged — for example, “every file that Has the tag Bill and is Older than (days) 60, move to an archive”. The tag becomes the bridge from one rule to the next.

If your case is precisely the paperwork — invoices, receipts, tax documents — it’s worth reading our guide on automatically organizing invoices and receipts, which combines content recognition with filing by year and month.

A safety net, as always#

Everything here follows the same trust cycle as the rest of the automation: you simulate before (“Simulate effect” shows the exact list of what will happen) and, for the actions that touch the file — move, rename — you undo after in one click. One honest caveat: applying a tag and creating a reminder don’t have their own “undo” in the history (marking a file isn’t destructive, so there’s nothing to reverse), but a tag is easy to remove by hand at any time, and no file is deleted in the process. Nothing leaves your PC: no account, no cloud, no telemetry.