Knowing the ropes, means like knowing how the system works, being experienced in an organization, and knowing the fine details of the rules and how things are run. If you have been working in the same company for years, you know the ropes well. Clue you in is just a slang phrase that means to inform you. Clue me in, means please inform me about whatever the topic is. It comes from clue meaning to give some details about a topic. So if someone clues you in, it means they are informing you about something, either the facts or rules etc...

A side note. "Know the ropes" was originally nautical terminology. It goes back to the days of sailing ships. It was originally meant quite literally. No two ships are rigged in exactly the same way. The most basic thing a sailor needed to know, on joining a new ship, was the ropes--their names, locations, and what each of them did. According to one source, a typical ship had about forty ropes, including the awning-rope, back-rope, bell-rope, boat-rope, bolt-rope, breast-rope, breech-rope, bucket-rope, bull-rope, buoy-rope, cat-rope, check-rope, clew-rope, davit-rope, drag-rope, entering rope, foot-rope, grab-rope, guest-rope, hawse-rope, head-rope, heel-rope, jaw-rope, limber-rope, luff-rope, parrel-rope, passing-rope, port-rope, ridge-rope, ring-rope, slip-rope, span-rope, spring-rope, swab-rope, tail-rope, tiller-rope, top-rope, trip-rope, and yard-rope. So an experienced sailor might be ordered to take a new sailor and "show him the ropes," and the new sailor wasn't ready to function as a crew member until he "knew the ropes." In "The Mutiny of the Elsinore," we read this dialog: "A pretty scraggly crew, Mr. Pike," Miss West remarked. "The worst ever," he growled, "and I've seen some pretty bad ones. We're teachin' them the ropes just now--most of 'em." Later, the narrator, describing the crew, says "they are very inadequate, though by this time they know the ropes."

"know the ropes" here means "know the tricks of the trade." Essentially, someone who knows techniques and tips to make freelance work well.