Help

Best way to trigger a 1 hour before date & time reminder

Topic Labels: Automations
102 2
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
jennys_systems
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

I'm trying to set up an automation where 1 hour before a call date & time, sends an email to remind the person.

 

I've tried creating a column to have a formula that is the date & time matches now - mark as "SEND NOTIFICATION" but this doesn't seem to work properly. I don't know if this is because the time is in PST and I'm in GMT.

 

But does anyone cleverer at this than me help with a simple solution.

Thank you!

2 Replies 2
Eric_L
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Seems like you're on the right path with your solution! There are many ways to do what you want, and creating a formula column that is "data&time matches now" is close to something you want. I would create 2 columns and an automation:

  • Ready for notification column that has a formula that will return 1 or 0 depending on whether it's time for a notification (in your case, call time - 1h < now)
  • Notification Sent date column that is empty until this automation runs:
  • When "Ready for notification" becomes 1, send notification and update "Notification Sent" to now (which would be when the automation was triggered)

Does that make sense?

I've tried creating a column to have a formula that is the date & time matches now - mark as "SEND NOTIFICATION" but this doesn't seem to work properly. I don't know if this is because the time is in PST and I'm in GMT.

What's the formula you're using for this? 

NOW() updates pretty sporadically when the base is closed: https://support.airtable.com/docs/formula-field-reference

Screenshot 2024-11-29 at 11.51.15 AM.png

As such, getting it to send one hour is a pretty tricky proposition.  Simplest way might be using an automation that triggers once an hour that looks for calls within the next hour?  You'd use a formula field to identify said calls, probably with like IS_SAME or something.  It'd use up 720 automation runs a month though