Multiple Email Schedules

How can I setup multiple schedules from the same Google Sheet?

This article describes how to setup multiple email schedules within Google Docs. Multiple email schedules are useful when you have a sheet containing multiple data sets, each of which requires a separate email template and schedule.

Available From the Google Docs Add-on Only

Step 1

In Google Sheets, add a pair of new columns for each email schedule that you wish to create, and name the first of each column pair Merged and the second Scheduled.

Example: A school secretary wants to create an email schedule to send students their grades for two different subjects as they become available. The school secretary therefore creates two pairs of new columns:

First pair of columns: English-Merged and English-Scheduled.
Second pair columns: Math-Merged and Math-Scheduled.

NOTE: While the example used here focuses on creating two email schedules, the same principles can be applied to create any number of email schedules.

Step 2

Enter the date/time you want the emails to be sent in the Scheduled column for each of the email schedules.

Example: The school secretary enters a date/time under the English-Scheduled and Math-Scheduled columns. In this case, the school secretary wants the emails to be sent when the grade is received and inputted into the spreadsheet. Therefore, a date/time far in the future is selected. This will be replaced when the grade is inputted.

NOTE: It is important that the format of the date/time under the Scheduled column is correct. Guidance on date/time formatting can be found in a note in this article.

Step 3

In Google Docs, create the body of your first scheduled email.

Example: The school secretary writes an email to inform students of their English grades.

Step 4

Open the Options window by clicking the button in the Mail Merge sidebar.

Step 5

For your first scheduled email, set the Scheduled column for the Email Scheduled Field drop-down.

Example: The school secretary sets Eng-Scheduled from the Email Scheduled Field drop-down.

Step 6

Set the Merged column for both the Track Merged Rows and Merge Specific Rows drop-downs.

Example: The school secretary sets Eng-Merged from both the Track Merged Rows and Merge Specific Rows drop-downs.

Step 7

Click Save to apply changes.

Step 8

Click Show Email Settings. Here you can set your:

Email *|merge field|* from the Email To drop-down.
Email Subject.
From Email Account.
From Display Name.

Step 9

Select Emails under Merge To and press the Merge button.

The email schedule process is now setup for the first scheduled email.

Step 10

Repeat Steps 3-9 for every additional email schedule that you wish to create.

Example: The school secretary creates a new Google Docs to inform students of their Math grades. In the Options dialog box, the school secretary sets Mat-Scheduled from the Email Scheduled Field drop-down, and sets Mat-Merged from both the Track Merged Rows and Merge Specific Rows drop-downs.

The email schedule process is now setup for any additional email schedules.

Step 11

To send your emails on receipt of new data, simply enter the new data in your Google Sheet and then change the value in the respective Scheduled column to the current date/time or enter the formula =now(). This will automatically send the email within a maximum of 60minutes.

Repeat this step each time new data is received.

Example: The school secretary receives the English grade for Samuel Reeves and inputs it into the respective cell under the Eng-Grade column. The school secretary then changes the date/time in the respective cell under the Eng-Scheduled column to the current date/time (enter =now() in the formula bar). An email containing Samuel Reeves's English grade will be autoamtically sent.

The school secretary repeats this step when Samuel Reeves's Math grade is received, and when Andrew Woolley's English and Math grades are received.

NOTES:

Guidance on monitoring and stopping the email schedule process can be found in the Advanced Features of this article.
The scheduling process is triggered hourly and not every minute; therefore, your emails will be sent within an hour of the scheduled time, and the time the email was sent will be logged in the Merged Status column.
The email schedule process will only queue emails which contain a valid date/time value in the Scheduled column. If the value for the row is empty, the process will ignore that row. If you add/delete rows in your sheet with a valid scheduled date/time, the schedule process will automatically detect this, so you do not need to press the merge button again to update the queue.
If the format of your date/time is not recognised, you will receive the error message below. In this case, it is likely that Google Sheets has interpreted your dates/times as plain text and not as dates/times. Try entering the date/time in a different format and check the dates/times have been recognised by Google Sheets by opening the More Date and Time Formats dialog box, as described in this article.

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