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Create a Reminder Rule

Quick start

Help Topics

A rule in Timelier defines:

  • which calendar events get reminders
  • the type(s) of the reminders
  • when the reminders are sent
  • who receives the reminders

 

We recommend starting with our Simple Rule Wizard. It’s the quickest way to get started. If the simple rule doesn’t quite meet your needs, it will pre-fill the advanced form for you. This makes it much easier to edit and customize the rule to your exact requirements.

GETTING STARTED: THE SIMPLE RULE WIZARD

To create a new rule, go to the Rules page and click the Create Simple Rule button. This will launch a wizard that will guide you through the process.

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1. Select Calendar

First, choose the calendar that contains the events you want to be reminded about.

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2. Identify Events

Next, tell us how to identify the events you want reminders for. The Wizard has three of the most common way people can identify the events for which they want reminders:

  • A keyword in the subject: This is useful for events that always have the same word or phrase in the title. For example, recurring events or events booked through an appointment scheduling system that uses a subject line template.
  • Events I organized that have other guests: This is great for reminding attendees of meetings you’ve scheduled.
  • Appointments I have accepted or tentatively accepted: This option is perfect for getting reminders for all the events you’ve agreed to attend or are considering attending.
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Set reminders for events with 'practice' in the subject

3. Set Reminder Channel

Now, decide how you want to send the reminders. You can:

  • Have Timelier send an email: We’ll send an email from our address to any verified email addresses you choose.
  • Email them from my account: We’ll send an email from your connected Google or Microsoft account to the event attendees. You can choose to email attendees based on their response status (Accepted, Tentative, Declined, or No Response).
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The reminder will be emailed from [email protected] to [email protected]
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An email will be sent from [email protected] to all guests that have responded 'yes', 'maybe', or have not responded.

4. Set Timing

Specify how many minutes before the event you want the reminder to be sent.

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5. Finish

That’s it! After you complete the wizard, you’ll be taken to the advanced rule editor. Here you can preview the reminders your new rule will create, give it a name, and save it. You can also make any adjustments you need in the advanced editor.

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FOR MORE CONTROL: THE ADVANCED RULE EDITOR

The advanced rule editor gives you full control over your reminder rules. You can get to it by clicking the Create Advanced Rule button on the Rules page, or you will be automatically taken there after completing the Simple Rule Wizard.

1. Choose Your Calendar Source

  • In the “select a source of events” dropdown, select one of the Google or Microsoft Accounts you have connected as a source.

  • In the calendar dropdown, select one of the calendars. Unlike with the simple rule wizard, the advanced editor lets you select a calendar that is not the primary calendar on the account.

    • For a Microsoft account, the primary calendar on the account is always named “Calendar.”

    • For a Google account, the default name of the primary calendar is your email address, but if you renamed it in Google that name will be shown in the dropdown.

In the screenshot below, the [email protected] Google account has been selected and the primary calendar “[email protected]” has been selected as the calendar.

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2. Define Filters to determine which events will receive reminders.

To determine which events receive reminders, you setup filters based on properties of the events.  An event receives the reminders for this rule when the filter expression is true for that event.  For example, the rule in the screenshot below will trigger reminders for events where: 

  •  the subject contains ‘Practice’ AND you are the organizer of the event 
  • OR
  • the subject contains ‘game,’ AND you are the organizer of the event

 

You can filter/select events/appointments based on the following properties

  • Subject – the name of the event. For an invite, this is what appears in the subject of the invite email.

  • Description – The details of the event when you click into it.  This is what appears in the body of an email invitation.

  • Attendees – the email addresses of the people invited to the meeting

  • Start Time – start time of the event

  • End Time – end time of the event

  • freebusy – corresponds to the “show as” field of the event. options are:

    • free
    • tentative
    • busy
    • oof (Out of office)
    • workingElsewhere
    • unknown

  • Response status – Your response status for the event. Options are: 

    • organizer – you are the organizer of the event
    • tentativelyAccepted – you have tentatively accepted the event
    • accepted – you have accepted the event
    • declined – you have declined the event
    • notResponded – you have not responded to the invite for the event

  • organizer – true if you are the organizer of an event; false if you are not

  • Categories (only shown for Outlook calendars)

  • Colors (only shown for Google calendars) – a dropdown listing the default Google colors – Lavendar, Sage, Grape, Flamingo, Banana, Tangerine, Peacock, Graphite, Blueberry, Basil, Tomato

  • Categories (for Outlook calendars) – a textbox for keyword matching against your outlook categories

 

For each property you can choose from the available comparison types:

  • equals – For text fields, equals evaluates to true if the selected property of the event exactly matches the text you have entered into the Value box. For time fields, equals evaluates to true if the time in UTC (i.e., accounting for the offset of the selected time zone) exactly matches the time determined by the values entered in the Time and Time zone fields.
  • does not equal – true if the selected property of the event exactly matches the text you have entered into the Value box
  • contains – true if the selected property of the event contains the text you have entered into the Value box
  • does not contain – true if the selected property of the event does not contain the text you have entered into the Value box
  • starts with – true if the selected property of the event starts with (exact match) the text you have entered into the Value box
  • ends with – true if the selected property of the event ends with (exact match) the text you have entered into the Value box
  • is before – For time fields, equals evaluates to true if the time in UTC (i.e., accounting for the offset of the selected time zone) is before the time determined by the values entered in the Time and Time zone fields.
  • is after – For time fields, equals evaluates to true if the time in UTC (i.e., accounting for the offset of the selected time zone) is after the time determined by the values entered in the Time and Time zone fields.

 

Complex filter expressions

The filter criteria are organized into Filter Groups.  To add a criterion to a filter group, click the ADD FILTER button.  The criteria within a filter group are joined by AND, meaning that an event must meet all criteria of the group to be a match for that filter group. 

To add a filter group, click the ADD FILTER GROUP button. Filter groups are joined by OR, meaning that an event only needs to match one filter group of a rule to be selected by the rule.

In the example below, reminders will be generated for any event where you are the organizer and the subject contains “Practice” OR you are the organizer and the subject contains “game.”

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3. Click “Preview reminders”

When you click the Preview Reminders button, the rule you have created will be applied to the calendar you have selected. Shown below the button is a list of the reminders that would be generated if this rule was saved. 

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4. Save the Rule

If the list of reminders looks correct for what you are trying to achieve, click “Save Rule.” 

A dialog will popup asking you to give a name to the rule. Use a descriptive name as it will help you determine which reminders are coming from which rules if you setup multiple rules.

5. View your Rules

Once you have created a rule, it will show up on your Rules page. The card for each rule shows:

  • Disable Rule switch – Turning this off will disable the rule. When the rule is disabled any scheduled future reminders will be deleted. Additional reminders for this rule will not be scheduled unless and until the rule is reenabled.
  • Delete Rule button – Click the trash can icon to delete a rule. When a rule is deleted all scheduled future reminders will be deleted and the log of past reminders will be deleted.
  • Rule name (example below: “Sports Reminders”)
  • Event source – The calendar that is associated with this rule (example below: The Google calendar “[email protected]”)
  • Rule filters/criteria – The filters/criteria that determine which events get reminders according to this rule
  • List of reminders – The list of reminders that will be generated for events matching the rule. (In the example below, one email will be sent from the Google account 10 minutes before the event)  
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