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On a schedule

Text people on their birthday from a sheet

Everyone in your sheet gets a friendly text on their birthday or anniversary, and the sheet records when it was sent.

Runs
On a schedule
Apps
Google Sheets, Twilio
AI
Optional
Access
Sheets edit; Twilio send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every day at 9am, check my Customers sheet for birthdays and anniversaries today, text each person a short congratulations, and note the date sent in the sheet.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Salons, dentists, gyms and estate agents know a birthday or anniversary message keeps them front of mind, but remembering to send them is the hard part. Lists go out of date and days slip by.

Sending a short text from your sheet on the right day keeps the gesture personal and consistent, and the sent column stops anyone getting two messages.

What you get out of it

  • Never miss a date

    Messages go out every day the moment the sheet says so.

  • Customers remember you

    A personal text on their day is noticed and appreciated.

  • No double messages

    The date sent is recorded, so nobody is texted twice.

  • Optional personal touch

    AI can vary the wording so messages don't feel copied.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every morning it reads your sheet.

  2. It finds people whose birthday or anniversary is today and who haven't been texted this year.

  3. Each person gets a short, friendly text, optionally worded by AI.

  4. The date sent is written back to their row.

Before it runs live

  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use
  • Connect Twilio

What you get

RunsOn a schedule
Text people on their birthday from a sheettoday, 9:00Succeeded
SMS · CustomerHappy birthday, Avery! Wishing you a lovely day from all of us at Northwind Hair.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Sheets and Twilio steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
birthday_and_anniversary_texts_from_a_sheet.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from twilio.rest import Client
from datetime import date
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai

SHEET_ID = "your-spreadsheet-id"
FROM = "+15005550006"

def sms(to, body):
    return Client(credentials.secret("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID"), credentials.secret("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN")).messages.create(to=to, from_=FROM, body=body)
sheets = lambda: build("sheets", "v4", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).spreadsheets().values()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    rows = sheets().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Customers!A2:E").execute().get("values", [])
    today, sent = date.today(), 0
    for i, r in enumerate(rows, start=2):
        name, phone, when, kind, last = (r + [""] * 5)[:5]
        if when[5:] != today.strftime("%m-%d") or last.startswith(str(today.year)):
            continue
        try:
            text = ai.generate(f"{kind or 'birthday'} for {name}", system="Write a warm one-sentence text from a local salon. No emojis.",
                               max_output_tokens=50).text.strip()
        except ai.AIError:
            text = f"Happy {kind or 'birthday'}, {name}! Wishing you a lovely day from all of us."
        sms(phone, text)
        sheets().update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range=f"Customers!E{i}", valueInputOption="RAW", body={"values": [[today.isoformat()]]}).execute()
        sent += 1
    return {"sent": sent}

FAQ

Common questions

What columns does the sheet need?
Name, phone, date (birthday or anniversary) and a column for the date sent.
Does the year matter?
No. Only the month and day are matched.
Can I include an offer?
Yes. Add it to the message text, such as a discount code for the month.
What permissions does it need?
Sheets edit; Twilio send. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No, but you can ask for an AI step (for example a summary). It then uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (on a schedule). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Text people on their birthday from a sheet” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.