Entity and Filing Deadline Reminder: A Weekly Email of What to Start Now

What This Builds

A weekly email to you that lists every entity or corporate filing item you should start work on now, every item already past its date, and every item that has no date at all. Items that are comfortably in the future stay out of the email. You decide, per item, how many days of lead time you want, so an annual report that needs a board signature can start earlier than a simple renewal.

This guide does not tell you what any entity must file or when. You list the items that apply to your company's entities and check each one with the agency, your registered agent or outside counsel. The sheet only counts days against the dates you enter.

Prerequisites

• A Google account with Sheets and Gmail, normally through Google Workspace (Business Standard, $14/user/month) if your company provides it
• A Zapier account on the Professional plan ($29.99/month). The free plan allows only two-step Zaps, and this build has three steps, so it needs a paid plan
• Approval from your company's IT or security team to connect Zapier to your Google account, if required
• A list of your entities and the filings and board actions you track for each, confirmed with the agency, registered agent or outside counsel
• Total ongoing cost: the Zapier plan above, plus the Google Workspace plan if your company does not already pay for it

Data note. Item names, entity names and due dates pass through Zapier and Gmail, and Zapier keeps them in Zap History as part of each run's step data. Entity names are usually public, but a pending transaction can make an item name sensitive. Keep descriptions neutral, such as "Annual shareholder consent", and put nothing privileged or deal-related in the sheet. Check that your company allows Zapier for this data. The digest goes only to you. Nothing is sent to an agency, a business team or outside counsel.

The Concept

Picture a tickler file with a smart front drawer. Each folder carries a due date and a note saying how many days ahead you want to see it. Every Monday the clerk pulls only the folders that have reached their start date, plus the late ones and the ones with no date, and stacks them on your desk on one card.

Zapier delivers that card. It reads a single Summary row that always exists. If it searched the deadlines directly, a week with nothing to start would match zero rows, and a Zapier search that finds nothing halts the Zap with "Safely halted": no email, no sign of life. Reading one row that always exists means the email arrives every week, even when the answer is "Nothing due to start this week".

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Lay out the tabs

Create a Google Sheet with two tabs named exactly Deadlines and Summary. Row 1 holds headers and data starts in row 2.

Deadlines tab

Format D and F as dates and E and G as plain numbers.

Summary tab

Part 2: Add the Deadlines formulas

Put each formula in row 2 and copy it down to row 200.

F2, Start By

=IF(OR(A2="",D2=""),"",D2-IF(E2="",0,E2))

Due Date minus Lead Days. An empty Lead Days counts as zero, so the item starts on its due date. Blank when there is no item or no due date.

G2, Days Left

=IF(OR(A2="",D2=""),"",D2-TODAY())

H2, Stage

=IF(A2="","",IF(D2="","Missing date",IF(G2<0,"PAST DUE",IF(TODAY()>=F2,"Start now","Later"))))

Four IF functions, four closing brackets at the end.

I2, Digest Line

=IF(H2="","",A2&" | "&B2&" | due "&IF(D2="","none",TEXT(D2,"yyyy-mm-dd"))&" | "&H2)

TEXT turns the date into text such as 2026-10-15. Without it the date joins as a serial number. The inner IF covers an empty Due Date.

Part 3: Walk the Stage formula through each case

Assume today is Monday 2026-10-05. The items below are invented examples with invented entities.

Check the arithmetic by hand. From 2026-10-05 to 2026-10-15 is 10 days. From 2026-10-05 back to 2026-10-01 is minus 4. From 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03 is 26 days left in October plus 3, which is 29. To 2026-12-15 is 26 plus 30 for November plus 15, which is 71. Start By for the consent is 2026-12-15 minus 21 days, which is 2026-11-24. Start By for the license is 2026-11-03 minus 14 days, which is 2026-10-20.

The test order matters. Missing date comes first because an empty Due Date reads as zero in arithmetic and would otherwise look like a date long past. PAST DUE comes before Start now so a late item never gets the softer label. An item due today has Days Left of zero, so it shows Start now, and it turns PAST DUE tomorrow.

Part 4: Add the Summary formulas

B2, Action Count

=COUNTIF(Deadlines!H2:H200,"Start now")+COUNTIF(Deadlines!H2:H200,"PAST DUE")+COUNTIF(Deadlines!H2:H200,"Missing date")

These count labels that the Stage formula writes only for filled rows, so the unused rows below your last item are never counted.

C2, Digest Lines

=IFERROR(TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10),TRUE,FILTER(Deadlines!I2:I200,(Deadlines!H2:H200="Start now")+(Deadlines!H2:H200="PAST DUE")+(Deadlines!H2:H200="Missing date"))),"Nothing due to start this week")

FILTER keeps the Digest Line of every row in one of the three action stages. Both ranges run from row 2 to row 200, so they are the same height. TEXTJOIN puts each kept line on its own line. If nothing matches, FILTER errors and IFERROR returns the "Nothing due to start this week" message.

With the sample rows, Action Count is 3 and Digest Lines reads:

[state] annual report | Northwind Holdings | due 2026-10-15 | Start now
Registered agent renewal | Fabrikam Ltd | due 2026-10-01 | PAST DUE
[Item with no date yet] | Contoso Inc. | due none | Missing date

Set File, Settings, Calculation to recalculate "On change and every hour", so TODAY() is fresh on Monday.

Part 5: Filing an item and resetting it

When you file an item, type the NEXT due date in column D. The row returns to "Later" on its own, because Days Left becomes large and Start By moves ahead. A PAST DUE row stays in the digest every week until you enter a new date, which is the point. Update Lead Days if the agency notice or your company calendar gives you a different runway.

Part 6: Build the Zap

1. Trigger: Schedule by Zapier, Every Week. Choose the day and time and set your time zone.
2. Action: Google Sheets, Lookup Spreadsheet Row. Pick your spreadsheet and the Summary worksheet. Set Lookup Column to Key and Lookup Value to summary. If the step offers to create a row when none is found, leave that off. Test it: it should return Action Count and Digest Lines.
3. Action: Gmail, Send Email. In To, type your own address only. Leave Cc and Bcc empty. Use a subject such as Filing reminders: plus the Action Count field from step 2, and put the Digest Lines field in the body.

Zapier counts a task for each successful action step, so a completed run uses two tasks. The schedule trigger is not an action.

Part 7: Test

Run the Zap test and check your inbox. Change one Due Date to a far-off date and confirm the line leaves the digest after the sheet recalculates. Then turn the Zap on.

Real Example: Quarterly Cleanup Week

Setup: Five items across three invented entities, entered as in the table above. Input: The Zap runs on Monday 2026-10-05. Output: The subject reads "Filing reminders: 3". The body lists the annual report to start now, the lapsed registered agent renewal and the item with no date. You call the registered agent about the renewal, ask the agency or your outside counsel for the missing date, and type a new date in column D once each is confirmed. Time saved: The weekly check of the entity calendar. Judge your own figure after a month.

What to Do When It Breaks

• No email arrived → A missing email is the failure you will not see. Open Zap History in Zapier and look for the scheduled run. No run means the Zap is off or the schedule changed. "Safely halted" at the lookup means the Key cell no longer reads summary or the worksheet was renamed. An error means the Google connection expired, so reconnect it. For the first month, keep a Monday calendar reminder so you notice a gap.
• Everything says Later when you expect Start now → Check that Due Date is a real date (right-aligned) and not text, and that Lead Days is a number.
• Start By is blank → Item or Due Date is empty.
• Formulas show #REF! → A tab was renamed. Restore the exact names Deadlines and Summary.
• An item past row 200 never appears → Extend every formula and every range together.
• A date you entered is wrong → The sheet trusts what you type. Confirm each date with the agency, your registered agent or outside counsel, and fix the cell.

Variations

• Simpler version: Skip Zapier and read the Summary cell each Monday, or sort the tab by Due Date.
• Extended version: Add a Google Form to collect new items from the finance or HR team into the Deadlines tab. The Zap still runs on a schedule and still emails only you.

What to Do Next

• This week: Enter every item and confirm each date with its source.
• This month: Tune Lead Days per item until a "Start now" email means the right thing.
• Advanced: Pair this with the weekly contract queue digest so one Monday routine covers both.

Advanced guide for corporate attorney professionals. These techniques use more sophisticated features that may require paid subscriptions. The sheet is a reminder aid only. It does not state or confirm any filing requirement.