Sending an E-mail when a Due Date is Reached

Domenic has a worksheet that shows due dates for projects in column E. He knows he can use conditional formatting to show when the due date is reached (when it is the same as today's date), but what he really needs is an e-mail to be sent when the due date is reached. He wonders if there is a way to do this in Excel.

Actually, there is a way to do this, provided you don't mind using a macro. In addition, you'll need to send the e-mail via Outlook, which VBA will communicate with just fine. (Unfortunately, VBA cannot be easily used to connect with other mail clients.)

Here, for example, is a macro that will run whenever your workbook opens. It automatically checks each row in a worksheet, specifically keying on two things: the due date in column E and a "flag value" in column F. (This flag value is set by the macro. If column F contains the letter "S," then the macro assumes an e-mail has previously been sent.)

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    Dim OutApp As Object
    Dim OutMail As Object
    Dim lLastRow As Long
    Dim lRow As Long
    Dim sSendTo As String
    Dim sSendCC As String
    Dim sSendBCC As String
    Dim sSubject As String
    Dim sTemp As String

    Set OutApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
    OutApp.Session.Logon

    ' Change the following as needed
    sSendTo = "allen@xyz.com"
    sSendCC = ""
    sSendBCC = ""
    sSubject = "Due date reached"

    lLastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, 3).End(xlUp).Row
    For lRow = 2 To lLastRow
        If Cells(lRow, 6) <> "S" Then
            If Cells(lRow, 5) <= Date Then
                Set OutMail = OutApp.CreateItem(0)

                On Error Resume Next
                With OutMail
                    .To = sSendTo
                    If sSendCC > "" Then .CC = sSendCC
                    If sSendBCC > "" Then .BCC = sSendBCC
                    .Subject = sSubject

                    sTemp = "Hello!" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                    sTemp = sTemp & "The due date has been reached "
                    sTemp = sTemp & "for this project:" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                    ' Assumes project name is in column B
                    sTemp = sTemp & "    " & Cells(lRow,2)
                    sTemp = sTemp & "Please take the appropriate"
                    sTemp = sTemp & "action." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                    sTemp = sTemp & "Thank you!" & vbCrLf

                    .Body = sTemp
                    ' Change the following to .Send if you want to
                    ' send the message without reviewing first
                    .Display
                End With
                Set OutMail = Nothing

                Cells(lRow, 6) = "S"
                Cells(lRow, 7) = "E-mail sent on: " & Now()
            End If
        End If
    Next lRow
    Set OutApp = Nothing
End Sub

When the macro runs (again, when the workbook is first opened), it checks each row in the worksheet to see if there is an "S" in column F. If not, then it checks to see if the date in column E is equal to today's date. If it is, then the code puts together an e-mail message (which you can modify, as desired) to be sent. The e-mail is displayed, and you can click on the Send button after making any desired changes. At that point, the worksheet is updated by placing the "S" indicator in column F and the date the e-mail was sent into column G.

Note that the macro assumes that the name of the project is in column B. This information is used to put together the message that will be e-mailed.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (474) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016.