On a schedule

Email timesheet reminders to staff listed in SharePoint

Twice a week everyone on your staff list gets a personal reminder from Outlook to submit their timesheet.

Runs: On a schedule
Apps: Outlook, SharePoint
AI: Not needed
Access: Sites.Read.All, Mail.Send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Monday and Wednesday at 9am, read the staff CSV in SharePoint and email each person a reminder from my Outlook to submit their timesheet.

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

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

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

An office manager chases timesheets every week: a reminder email on Monday, another on Wednesday, then individual messages to the people who still haven't done it. Payroll and client billing both wait on those hours.

Sending a personal reminder to everyone on the staff list, on a fixed schedule, takes the chasing off one person's plate and keeps the reminders consistent even when the office manager is away.

What you get out of it

Timesheets in on time
Regular personal reminders mean fewer late submissions. Payroll and invoicing aren't held up waiting for hours.
One list to keep up to date
The staff file in SharePoint is the only thing to maintain. New starters and leavers are handled by editing it.
Personal, not a group blast
Each person gets an email addressed to them. That's harder to ignore than a message to everyone.
Runs while you're away
Reminders go out on schedule during holidays and busy weeks. Nobody needs to remember to send them.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every Monday and Wednesday at 9am it opens the staff CSV in your SharePoint library.
It reads each person's name and email address, skipping blank rows.
Each person gets a short reminder email from your Outlook address.

Before it runs live

Connect Outlook
Connect SharePoint

What you get

RunsOn a schedule

Email timesheet reminders to staff listed in SharePointtoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Timesheet reminderHi Priya, please submit this week's timesheet by Friday noon. Thanks!

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 Outlook and SharePoint 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.

reminders_from_a_sharepoint_file_via_outlook.pyexample

GRAPH = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0"
SITE = "contoso.sharepoint.com:/sites/operations:"
import csv, io
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http

FILE = "Shared Documents/HR/staff.csv"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    h = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('microsoft', 'work')}"}
    text = http.get(f"{GRAPH}/sites/{SITE}/drive/root:/{FILE}:/content", headers=h).content.decode("utf-8-sig")
    sent = 0
    for row in csv.DictReader(io.StringIO(text)):
        email = (row.get("email") or "").strip()
        if "@" not in email:
            continue
        msg = {"message": {"subject": "Reminder: please submit your timesheet",
                           "body": {"contentType": "Text", "content": f"Hi {row.get('name', '').split(' ')[0]},\n\nPlease submit this week's timesheet by Friday noon. Thanks!"},
                           "toRecipients": [{"emailAddress": {"address": email}}]}}
        http.post(f"{GRAPH}/me/sendMail", headers=h, json=msg).raise_for_status()
        sent += 1
    return {"reminded": sent}

FAQ

Common questions

What should the staff file look like?

A CSV with at least name and email columns, saved in a SharePoint library. You can export it from your HR system or keep it by hand.

Can it only remind people who haven't submitted yet?

Yes, if your timesheet tool can tell it who has submitted. Otherwise everyone on the list is reminded.

Can I change the wording?

Yes. The email text is yours to write and can include the person's first name.

What permissions does it need?

Sites.Read.All, Mail.Send. 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.

Every 15 minutes