Automated alerts and reminders ensure that the right people get the right information, at the right time.
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Alerts are reactively triggered by changes to your sheet, and notify stakeholders of updates to critical information.
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Reminders are proactively triggered by a specific date or time and keep task owners apprised of key deadlines.
Both alerts and reminders can be set up individually or together as part of a larger workflow with multiple conditions. They can also be sent to multiple recipients on a recurring basis, even if the recipient is not shared to your sheet.
Create a time-based automated workflow
In the trigger block of an automated workflow, you can trigger actions before, after, or on a specific date by specifying a date field.
Keep the following tips in mind when creating a time-based workflow:
- When you manually select a date, the workflow triggers all the rows that meet the conditions you set at the same time. For example, you can use an alert to remind you to take action on all rows that do not have an Assignee by a specific date.
- When you select a date field for the workflow, the sheet will check daily for rows to include. If no rows satisfy the workflow’s conditions, there is no trigger.
- You cannot include rows that do not have a date.
- You can also refine the hour of the day for your workflow to run.
- The trigger’s time zone is always the same as the sheet Owner's time zone.
- Automation does not send messages when the sheet is empty.
Trigger frequent, change-based automations in batches
Before you begin
If your workflow is set to Hourly, Daily, or Weekly, you cannot use any of these action types:
- Clear cell value
- Assign people
- Record a date
- Move rows
- Copy rows
- Lock rows
- Unlock rows
- Request an approval
If you have any of these action types in your workflow, you can still set it to Hourly, Daily, or Weekly, and then save it. The app will prompt you to do either of these tasks:
- Save the workflow with the When triggered setting
- Return to editing the workflow
Keep in mind that you cannot use placeholders for these types of workflows.
Batching workflows for Notifications and Update and approval requests
You can only batch workflows to run Hourly, Daily, or Weekly for Notifications and Update and approval requests action types without If approved or If declined actions.
Workflows run for every row that meets the trigger criteria
When you or other sheet collaborators save changes to multiple sheet rows within the time frame of the workflow frequency, all users subscribed to the workflow receive a single notification with up to 100 rows in grid format.
When do workflows run?
Schedules of workflows and alert messages depend on the workflow frequency you set up:
| Workflow frequency | Daily | Weekly |
|---|---|---|
| When the workflow runs and goes through sheet changes | 12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. | Between 12:00 a.m. on Friday of the current week and 11:59 p.m. on Thursday of the following week |
| When the workflow delivers alert messages | Between 12:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. the day after the workflow runs | Between 12:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. on Friday of the following week |
This is an example of how a weekly workflow works:
You created a weekly workflow on March 16, 2022 (Wednesday). It runs and evaluates sheet changes from March 18, 2022 (Friday) to March 24, 2022 (Thursday). After going through the sheet changes, it delivers the alert message about the sheet changes on March 25, 2022 (Friday).
To set up the frequency of your workflow
- In the Trigger block, make sure that the Trigger field is set to any of these options:
- When rows are added or changed
- When rows are added
- When rows are changed
You won’t see the Hourly, Daily, and Weekly options if your Trigger block is set to When a date is reached.
- Select any of these Run workflow options:
- Hourly
- Daily
- Weekly
Set your trigger to take place an hour before the action should take place. This ensures that technical issues do not prevent the action from taking place on time.
Ensure Continuous Project Execution With Recurring Automation
You can schedule a recurring workflow to ensure that your workflow runs for the rows that meet your conditions on a regular basis. For example, request daily updates on overdue tasks from the assigned team members.
What you can do and where you can apply workflows depends on your permission level. Learn about workflow permissions.
To create a recurring automated workflow in your sheet:
- Click Automation from the menu and create a new workflow or edit an existing workflow. (See Save Time and Work Faster With Automated Workflows for more information about creating and editing workflows.)
- In the Trigger block of your workflow, select When a date is reached.
- Click Run once > Custom.
- In the Custom Recurrence form, select the desired cadence (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) for your workflows to trigger.
TIP: You can also have your workflow end after a certain date or specific amount of executions.
- Click Done.
That’s it! Your workflow will now execute at the recurrence you specify. To control which rows your workflow will include when it runs, take a look at the Condition Blocks: Filter What Your Automated Workflows Send Help Center article.