Schedule Emails
How do I schedule emails?
This article describes how to setup email scheduling in Google Docs, enabling emails to be scheduled for sending on a specific date/time.
Available From the Google Docs Add-on Only
Watch a Video Tutorial
Watch this quick tutorial or follow the step-by-step instructions below to find out how to schedule emails from Google Docs.
Step 1
In Google Sheets, create two new columns and name the first Merged Status and the second Scheduled.
Step 2
Enter the date/time you want the email to be sent in the Scheduled column.
NOTE:
The time zone for the scheduling process is based on the time zone set in Google Sheets through File > Settings > General > Time Zone.Â
Dates can be interpreted differently based on your region. For example, 01/09/2023 means January 9, 2023 in the USA, and 1 September 2023 in the UK. To avoid this ambigiuty, and to also make sure the values are not misinterpreted as text, please implement the following:
Firstly, enter the dates/times in a numerical format, for example 02/03/2023 7:15 pm.
Secondly, highlight the Scheduled column, click on Format > Number > Custom date and time  (see screenshot below), then change the dates/times format so that the name of the month is shown. In this example the date/time changes to February 3, 2023 7:15 pm.
Step 3
In Google Docs, Open the Options window by clicking the button in the Mail Merge sidebar.
Step 4
Set the Scheduled column for the Email Scheduled Field drop-down.
Step 5
Set the Merged Status column for both the Track Merged Rows and Merge Specific Rows drop-downs.
Step 6
Click Save to apply changes.
Step 7
Select Emails under Merge To and press the Merge button.
The email schedule process will start running in the background; there is no need to leave the document template open or to leave your computer running while the email schedule process sends your emails.
NOTE:
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 above.
Advanced Feature: Monitor the Email Schedule Process
Step 1
In Google Docs, open the Options window by clicking the button in the Mail Merge sidebar.
Step 2
Click Schedule Status.
This will open the Email Schedule Process dialog box, where you can see the status of the email schedule process, the last execution time, the number of emails in the queue and any errors that have occurred.
Advanced Feature: Stop the Email Schedule Process
Step 1
In Google Docs, open the Options window by clicking the button in the Mail Merge sidebar.
Step 2
Set (N/A) for the Email Scheduled Field drop-down.
Step 3
Click Save to apply changes.
You will see a message confirming that the email schedule process is being deactivated.
NOTE: To restart the email schedule process, set the Scheduled column again for the Email Scheduled Field drop-down, click Save, and then click the Merge button.
Advanced Feature: Multiple Email Schedules
To setup multiple email schedules, please refer to this article.