Daily

Get a WhatsApp alert when a sheet value crosses a limit

When a number you track in your sheet goes past its limit, you get one WhatsApp message about it.

Runs: Daily
Apps: Google Sheets, WhatsApp Business
AI: Not needed
Access: Sheet read; whatsapp_business_messaging

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every morning, check my Tracking sheet and send me a WhatsApp message for any row where the value has crossed its threshold, but only once per breach.

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

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

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

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Plenty of small operations track something critical in a sheet: stock levels, machine hours until a service, a budget, a search ranking. The numbers are there, but nobody looks until it's already a problem.

Checking the sheet daily and messaging you only when a value crosses its limit turns a passive spreadsheet into an early warning, without a flood of repeat alerts for the same issue.

What you get out of it

Problems caught early
You hear the day a value crosses its limit, not when you next happen to open the sheet.
One alert per problem
Each breach is reported once. You won't get the same message every morning until it's fixed.
Limits in plain view
Each row holds its own threshold. Change it in the sheet whenever you like.
Straight to your phone
WhatsApp is checked far more often than email, so the alert gets seen.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every morning it reads the items, current values and limits from your sheet.
Each value is compared with its limit.
If a value has newly crossed its limit, you get a WhatsApp message naming the item and value.
It remembers which items are already over their limit, so you're only told once until they recover.

Before it runs live

Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use
Connect WhatsApp Business

What you get

RunsDaily

Get a WhatsApp alert when a sheet value crosses a limittoday, 9:00Succeeded

WhatsApp · Alerts⚠️ Over the limit: Packing tape (Acme 48mm): 6 (below limit 20)

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 Google Sheets and WhatsApp Business 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.

threshold_alerts_from_a_sheet_to_whatsapp.pyexample

from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state

SHEET_ID = "your-spreadsheet-id"
MY_PHONE = "447700900123"
WA = "https://graph.facebook.com/v20.0/your-phone-number-id/messages"

def wa(to, text):
    http.post(WA, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('WHATSAPP_TOKEN')}"},
              json={"messaging_product": "whatsapp", "to": to, "type": "text", "text": {"body": text}}).raise_for_status()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    rows = build("sheets", "v4", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False) \
        .spreadsheets().values().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Tracking!A2:D").execute().get("values", [])
    breached = set(state.get("breached") or [])
    alerts, now = [], set()
    for r in rows:
        name, value, limit, direction = (r + ["", "", "", "below"])[:4]
        try:
            v, lim = float(value), float(limit)
        except ValueError:
            continue
        if (v < lim) if direction == "below" else (v > lim):
            now.add(name)
            if name not in breached:
                alerts.append(f"{name}: {v:g} ({direction} limit {lim:g})")
    if alerts:
        wa(MY_PHONE, "⚠️ Over the limit:\n" + "\n".join(alerts))
    state.set("breached", sorted(now))
    return {"alerts": len(alerts)}

FAQ

Common questions

Can each row have a different limit?

Yes. Each row has its own threshold column, and you can say whether going above or below it is the problem.

What happens after the value recovers?

It resets, so if the value crosses the limit again later you get a new alert.

Can it alert more than one person?

Yes. Add a phone number column so each row alerts the right person.

What permissions does it need?

Sheet read; whatsapp_business_messaging. 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 (daily). 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.

On a schedule