Skip to content

On a schedule

Get a weekday email of overdue to-dos

Every weekday morning you see the open to-dos that are past due, with who they belong to.

Runs
On a schedule
Apps
Basecamp
AI
Not needed
Access
read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every weekday at 8am email me the open to-dos in my 'Launch' Basecamp project that are past their due date, with assignees and due dates.

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

Basecamp to-dos have due dates, and past-due ones show a small red label that is easy to ignore. In a project with sixty open to-dos and five contributors, a few quietly turn overdue each day. The project manager does not find out until a client asks about a deliverable, and the task, which was assigned two weeks ago, has no comment history. By then, people have forgotten the context and the delay has cost trust.

Every morning, ClickRuntime goes through the to-do lists of your Basecamp project, collects the open to-dos, keeps those whose due date is before today and emails the title, assignees, due date and a link for each. You can see what has slipped, and who owns it, before the day begins.

It is especially useful for agencies that report to clients and need to catch slipping deliverables early. It can also be sent to a client lead.

What you get out of it

  • Slipping deliverables are caught early

    A task that is one day late is easy to fix, and one that is two weeks late is a crisis. Daily visibility keeps small slips from growing. Daily visibility keeps small slips from becoming serious ones.

  • Assignees are named plainly

    The email lists who owns each overdue to-do, so a follow-up message is easy to send. Nobody can wonder whether someone else is handling it. Nobody wonders whether someone else is handling it.

  • Clients hear from you first

    Learning about a delay before a client asks lets you explain and offer a new date. Proactive communication preserves trust far better than a late reply. Proactive updates preserve trust much better than late replies.

  • Project managers save a daily search

    Looking through each to-do list takes ten minutes a day. Over a month, that is hours returned to managing the work itself. Those hours return to managing the actual work.

  • Repeated lateness becomes visible

    If the same person's tasks appear overdue every week, you can talk about workload instead of guessing. The emails are a factual starting point for that conversation. Workload becomes a topic backed by facts.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every weekday at 8am, ClickRuntime goes through each to-do list in your Basecamp project.

  2. It keeps the open to-dos whose due date has already passed.

  3. You get one email listing each overdue to-do with who it is assigned to, its due date and a link.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Basecamp

What you get

RunsOn a schedule
Get a weekday email of overdue to-dostoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · 3 overdue to-dos in LaunchFinal QA pass | Sam at Northwind | due 2026-10-16 https://3.basecamp.com/4400000/buckets/2700000/todos/7100000

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
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Basecamp 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.
daily_email_of_overdue_to_dos.pyexample
from datetime import date
from clickruntime import on_trigger, notify, http, credentials

BASE = "https://3.basecampapi.com/4400000"  # your account id
PROJECT, TODOSET = 2700000, 3100000  # 'Launch' project and its to-do set

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + credentials.connection("basecamp", "main"), "User-Agent": "ClickRuntime (team@example.com)"}
    lists = http.get(f"{BASE}/buckets/{PROJECT}/todosets/{TODOSET}/todolists.json", headers=headers).json()
    today = date.today().isoformat()
    overdue = []
    for todolist in lists:
        for todo in http.get(todolist["todos_url"], headers=headers).json():
            if todo.get("due_on") and todo["due_on"] < today:
                who = ", ".join(a["name"] for a in todo["assignees"]) or "unassigned"
                overdue.append(f"{todo['title']} | {who} | due {todo['due_on']}\n{todo['app_url']}")
    if overdue:
        notify.email_me(f"{len(overdue)} overdue to-dos in Launch", "\n\n".join(overdue))
    return {"overdue": len(overdue)}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it include completed to-dos?
No. Only open to-dos are examined, and those with due dates before today are listed. As soon as someone checks a to-do off in Basecamp, it drops out of the email the next morning, so the list always shows current problems.
What about to-dos that have no due date?
They are not considered overdue because there is nothing to compare against, so they do not appear. If undated work is a problem in your project, ask your AI assistant to add a section listing to-dos with no due date.
Can I cover several Basecamp projects?
Yes. The flow can loop through a list of projects and combine all overdue items in one email, grouped by project. Another option is to send each project manager their own email so they only read about the work they run.
What permissions does it need?
read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's 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 “Get a weekday email of overdue to-dos” from your assistant

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