Onboarding Task Digest: A Weekly Zapier Email That Lists New-Hire Checklist Items Coming Due

What This Builds

A new hire's first weeks have a dozen small items: meet the crew, shadow a job, learn the app, finish the brand's training modules. They are easy to drop when a call-out eats your Tuesday. This build sends you one email each week that lists the staff and item codes due within your look-ahead window, including items already past due.

The sheet adds up the dates. Zapier carries two cells to your inbox, so the email arrives every week, even when nothing is due. There is no AI step. The email goes to you alone, and the digest never emails staff. What you do about an open item stays with you.

Prerequisites

• A Google account that holds the sheet and a Gmail address you send from. If your franchisor controls the account or limits outside apps, ask your franchise business consultant before you connect Zapier.
• A Professional plan or better ($29.99/month). The Zap has a trigger plus two actions, which makes three steps, and Zapier's free plan allows two-step Zaps only. Check Zapier's plan page before you build.
• Total ongoing cost of the finished build: the Zapier plan above. Google Sheets and Gmail add nothing on a Google account you already have. Each weekly run uses two tasks (the lookup and the email), so about 8 to 10 tasks a month. Zapier counts only successful action steps as tasks.
• Your own onboarding checklist, with items drawn from your operations manual and the brand's training as you read them. This guide states no onboarding requirement. For anything that touches employment rules, ask your franchise business consultant or an employment advisor.
• Comfort writing a spreadsheet formula and copying it down a column.

The Concept

Think of a checklist taped inside a locker door with a sticky note on top that says how many items are due this week and which ones. The sheet rewrites the sticky note as dates pass. Zapier reads it each week and mails you a copy.

The note is always there, and that matters because of how Zapier's search step behaves. A lookup that finds zero rows halts the Zap ("Safely halted" in Zap History). No later step runs and no email goes out. If the Zap searched the Tasks tab for "due", a week with nothing due would send nothing, and you could not tell a calm week from a broken Zap. By searching for one Summary row whose Key is always summary, the lookup always finds its row. The email arrives every week and says "none" when nothing is due.

The Zap has no AI step, no formatting step and no loop. The sheet decides what is due and Zapier only moves text.

What Zapier Sees and Keeps

Zapier handles whatever the Zap reads, and Zap History stores the data of each step. The lookup step stores the whole Summary row, and the Gmail step stores the subject and body. In this build that means staff codes, item codes, due dates, a count and your look-ahead setting.

Keep everything else out of the sheet. A staff member is a code such as "T7" and nothing more. Never enter a name, pay, health detail, background check result, immigration status, home address or performance note. The code maps to a name only in your own records. The Item label should be a short phrase from your checklist, such as "Shadow a job". Ask your franchise business consultant whether your brand's policy allows staff codes in an outside tool at all. If the answer is no, stop after Part 3 and read the Summary tab each week.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Lay Out the Two Tabs

Create a new spreadsheet named Onboarding Tasks. Name one tab exactly Tasks and another exactly Summary. Tab names are case-sensitive in formulas, so match them. This digest has its own spreadsheet because its columns differ from your other digests.

On Tasks, row 1 holds the headers and each checklist item for each new hire gets one row from row 2 down.

Add the dropdown with Data, then Data validation, then Add rule. Pick Dropdown and enter yes and no for E2:E301. Format D as a date.

On Summary, row 1 holds the headers and row 2 holds the one data row.

Below those, type Look ahead (days) in A4 and a number in B4, for example 7. Keep a number in B4 at all times.

Part 2: Paste the Formulas

Flag, cell F2 on Tasks. Paste it and copy it down to row 301. That leaves room for 300 items.

=IF(A2="","",IF(E2="yes","",IF(D2="","MISSING DATE",IF(D2-TODAY()<=Summary!$B$4,"DUE",""))))

The formula reads left to right and stops at the first test that is true.

• Staff code empty: blank. This is why a formula filled down to row 301 stays silent on empty rows.
• Done is yes: blank. A finished item never appears.
• Due date empty: "MISSING DATE".
• Due date minus today is at most the look-ahead in Summary!$B$4: "DUE". A past due date gives a negative number, which is below the look-ahead, so overdue items count as DUE.
• Anything else: blank.

Due Count, Summary!B2

=COUNTIF(Tasks!F2:F301,"DUE")

Due Lines, Summary!C2

=IFERROR(ARRAYFORMULA(TEXTJOIN(", ",TRUE,FILTER(Tasks!A2:A301&" "&Tasks!B2:B301&" (due "&TEXT(Tasks!D2:D301,"yyyy-mm-dd")&")",Tasks!F2:F301="DUE"))),"none")

All the ranges inside FILTER run from row 2 to row 301, so they are the same height. The date is wrapped in TEXT with the format "yyyy-mm-dd", because a date joined into text without it shows as a serial number. ARRAYFORMULA makes the join work down the whole range. Only DUE rows reach the join, and a DUE row always has a date. When nothing is due, FILTER returns an error and IFERROR puts "none" in the cell.

Missing Date Count, Summary!D2

=COUNTIF(Tasks!F2:F301,"MISSING DATE")

The counts read the labels the Flag column writes for filled rows. Empty rows return blank, so they are never counted.

Re-read each formula once after pasting. Count the opening and closing parentheses, confirm every range ends at row 301 and confirm the tab names match.

Part 3: Keep Calculation on Automatic

TODAY() changes every new day. Google's calculation settings page lists only two choices, Automatic and Manual, and no scheduled recalculation. In the sheet, open File, then Settings, then the Calculation tab, and keep the mode on Automatic. If the counts in an email look stale, open the sheet before the run and check the Flag column against today's date.

Part 4: Build the Zap

In Zapier, create a new Zap with three steps.

1. Trigger. Choose the app Schedule by Zapier and the event Every Week. Pick a day you plan crew work, and a morning time for Time of Day.
2. Action. Choose Google Sheets and the event Lookup Spreadsheet Row. Connect your Google account. Choose the Onboarding Tasks spreadsheet and the Summary tab. Set the lookup column to Key and the lookup value to summary. Add no other condition. The sheet already did the work, and you want a lookup that always finds its row.
3. Action. Choose Gmail and the event Send Email. In To, enter your own address and nobody else's. Build Subject in this order: the text Onboarding items due: followed by the Due Count field from step 2. Build Body in this order, using the fields from step 2 where the square brackets are:

Due: [Due Lines]. Items missing a due date: [Missing Date Count]. Open the Tasks tab for details.

Zapier lists the Summary columns as fields named after your row 1 headers. If a header is missing from the field list, run the lookup test again so Zapier reloads the headers.

Test each step. The lookup test should return the summary row with the count and the lines. The email test should reach your inbox. Then turn the Zap on.

Part 5: Keep It Current

When a new hire starts, add one row per checklist item with the due dates you choose. When an item is finished, set Done to yes. The Zap only reads what the sheet shows, so a finished item left on no keeps appearing.

Real Example: A Wednesday Morning at BrightNest Cleaning (invented)

Invented setup: today is Wednesday 2026-10-14 and Look ahead (days) is 7. Every code, label and date below is invented, and the brand is invented.

Working through the Flag formula:

• T7 I-1: due 2026-10-12, which is 2 days ago, so the difference is -2. That is at most 7, so DUE. This is an overdue item.
• T7 I-2: due 2026-10-16, 2 days away. 2 is at most 7, so DUE.
• T8 I-1: due 2026-10-21, exactly 7 days away. 7 is at most 7, so DUE. This is the boundary case.
• T8 I-2: due 2026-10-22, 8 days away. 8 is above 7, so blank.
• T9 I-3: Done is yes, so blank.
• Row 7: no staff code, so blank, and it is never counted.

Summary: B2 is 3, C2 is "T7 I-1 (due 2026-10-12), T7 I-2 (due 2026-10-16), T8 I-1 (due 2026-10-21)" and D2 is 0.

The email arrives with the subject "Onboarding items due: 3" and this body:

Due: T7 I-1 (due 2026-10-12), T7 I-2 (due 2026-10-16), T8 I-1 (due 2026-10-21). Items missing a due date: 0. Open the Tasks tab for details.

If nothing were due, the subject would read "Onboarding items due: 0" and the body would start "Due: none." The email still arrives.

Setup: one spreadsheet, one Zap, three steps. Input: the weekly schedule and the dates and checkmarks you keep current. Output: one email to you with a count in the subject and the staff and item codes in the body. Time saved: a few minutes each week compared with scanning a checklist. The digest is only as current as your last entry.

The digest says an item is due. It does not say whether the new hire is doing well, and it never decides anything about a person. Coaching and any decision about a person stay with you, your brand's HR guidance and your employment advisor.

What to Do When It Breaks

• No email arrived this week. This is the failure you will not see, because a stopped Zap makes no noise. Check that the Zap is switched on. Then open Zap History for the run. A "Safely halted" lookup means no row had Key equal to summary, usually because the Key cell was renamed, its text changed or the Summary tab moved. Restore the text summary in A2 exactly. A run that never appears usually means the Zap was turned off or the Google connection expired. Reconnect the account under your Zapier connected accounts and re-test the lookup.
• Set a standing reminder. Put a calendar reminder for mid-morning on your Zap day. If no digest has arrived by then, treat that as the alarm and check the Zap that day.
• Counts look wrong or stale. Open the sheet and confirm Calculation is on Automatic. Then check the Flag column against today's date.
• An item never shows up. Check that its due date is a real date and not text, that Done is not yes and that the item has a row.
• A finished item keeps showing up. Done was left on no. Set it to yes.
• The Due Lines cell shows "none" when you expect codes. A range was edited to a different height. Every range inside the FILTER must run from row 2 to row 301.
• A formula shows #REF! or #NAME?. A tab was renamed. Rename it back, or fix the tab name inside the formulas.

Variations

• Simpler version: skip Zapier and open the Summary tab each week. The count and lines are the same.
• Extended version: add a Google Form that a crew lead uses to report a finished item. Form answers land on their own responses tab, and you set Done yourself. Never point a Form at the Tasks tab, because it would overwrite your formulas. The Zap still runs on its schedule.
• Shorter window: lower the number in B4 for a hire who needs closer tracking in the first week.

What to Do Next

• This week: build the tabs and test with dummy rows. Then switch the Zap on and compare the first real email with your checklist.
• This month: adjust the due dates after you see how long each item really takes.
• Advanced: pair it with the equipment maintenance digest, each in its own spreadsheet with its own Summary tab.

Advanced guide for franchise owner-operators. The digest flags dates you have typed. It does not decide who is ready, who stays or which rules apply, and it never emails staff. Your operations manual, your brand's HR guidance and your own advisor decide that. Zapier and Google may change their screens, so follow the labels you see.