Peer Review Backlog Digest: A Zapier Automation That Emails You Every Monday

What This Builds

Every Monday morning an email lands in your own inbox listing the deliverables that need a move from you: the ones that came back for changes, the ones that have waited past your nudge window, and the ones with no sent date. The subject line carries the count, so you know before opening it whether anything is waiting.

The sheet does all the thinking. Formulas flag each deliverable, a Summary tab collects the flagged lines into one cell, and Zapier carries that cell to your inbox. There is no AI step, so no deliverable information goes to an AI vendor. The automation never emails a reviewer. The email goes to you, and you decide whether and how to follow up.

Prerequisites

• A Google account that holds the sheet, and a Gmail address you are allowed to send from. If your company runs Google Workspace, ask IT whether outside apps such as Zapier may connect to it.
• A Professional plan or better ($29.99/month). The Zap has a trigger plus two actions, which is three steps, and Zapier's free plan allows two-step Zaps only. Check Zapier's current plan page before you build.
• Total ongoing cost of the finished build: the Zapier plan above. Google Sheets and Gmail cost nothing extra on a Google account you already have. Each weekly run uses two tasks (the lookup and the email), so roughly 8 to 10 tasks a month. Zapier counts only successful action steps as tasks.
• Comfort writing a spreadsheet formula and copying it down a column.
• Your company's AI and data policy read, and an answer on whether Zapier is an approved tool for even this coded data (see "What Zapier Sees and Keeps" below).

The Concept

Think of the Summary tab as a noticeboard with one card pinned to it. The sheet rewrites the card whenever anything changes: the Reviews tab. Zapier is the person who walks to the noticeboard every week, copies the card and drops it in your inbox.

The card 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 Reviews tab for "deliverables waiting too long", a quiet week would return no rows and no email, and you could not tell a quiet week from a broken Zap. By searching for one Summary row whose Key is always "summary", the lookup always finds a row, so the email arrives every week even when the card says nothing needs you.

The Zap contains no AI step and no formula logic of its own. The sheet decides what is flagged. Zapier only moves one cell's text from the sheet to your inbox.

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 deliverable codes, reviewer codes, sent dates and status values.

Keep these out of the sheet entirely: anyone's real name, the names of clients or policyholders, any figure, result, reserve or assumption value, and any description of what a deliverable contains or what a reviewer said. Use codes such as "D-31" and "Reviewer B", and keep the key that explains the codes in your team's own files. Results, figures and assumption values stay in your workbook and your model and never go in this sheet. Even coded data belongs to your company, so check the company's AI and data policy and whether Zapier is an approved tool before you connect it. If it is not approved, stop after Part 2 and use the sheet alone: the Summary tab works as a dashboard you open on Monday.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Build the Reviews Tab

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

On Reviews, row 1 holds the headers and each deliverable sent for review gets one row from row 2 down.

Add the Status dropdown with Data, then Data validation, then Add rule, pick Dropdown, and enter the four values on D2:D201. Format C as a date and E as a plain number.

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

Nudge After Days is your own setting. Choose it from how long your team usually lets a review sit before someone asks about it. This guide states no review turnaround rule.

Part 2: Add the Formulas

Paste each formula into row 2 of its column and copy it down to row 201. That leaves room for 200 deliverables. Every range below ends at row 201, so extend them all together if you ever need more rows.

Days Waiting, cell E2

=IF(OR(A2="",C2=""),"",TODAY()-C2)

Blank when there is no deliverable code or no sent date. Otherwise today minus the sent date, so the number grows by one each day. Type real sent dates: a date in the future would give a negative count.

Flag, cell F2

=IF(A2="","",IF(OR(D2="Signed off",D2="Withdrawn"),"Closed",IF(D2="Returned for changes","BACK TO YOU",IF(C2="","Missing date",IF(E2>=Summary!$B$2,"NUDGE","Waiting")))))

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

• Deliverable empty: blank. This is why a formula filled down to row 201 stays silent on empty rows.
• Status Signed off or Withdrawn: "Closed".
• Status Returned for changes: "BACK TO YOU".
• Sent Date empty: "Missing date".
• Days Waiting at or above Nudge After Days (Summary!$B$2): "NUDGE".
• Anything else: "Waiting".

BACK TO YOU is tested before the day tests because the ball is in your court. A returned deliverable is not waiting on the reviewer, so counting its days against the reviewer would send the wrong message. It needs a move from you whether it came back yesterday or last month, and the status says so. Closed comes first for the same reason as in any tracker: a signed-off deliverable has a sent date far in the past, and it must not nag you. A blank Status next to a deliverable code falls through to the date tests and is treated as waiting.

Digest Line, cell G2

=IF(A2="","",A2&" | "&B2&" | sent "&IF(C2="","no date",TEXT(C2,"yyyy-mm-dd")&", "&E2&IF(E2=1," day"," days")&" ago")&" | "&F2)

The line reads Deliverable | Reviewer | sent date with a day count | Flag. The date is wrapped in TEXT so it prints as 2027-02-10 and not as a serial number. A blank sent date prints "no date", and a blank row returns blank.

Action Count, Summary!C2

=COUNTIF(Reviews!$F$2:$F$201,"NUDGE")+COUNTIF(Reviews!$F$2:$F$201,"BACK TO YOU")+COUNTIF(Reviews!$F$2:$F$201,"Missing date")

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

Digest Lines, Summary!D2

=IFERROR(TEXTJOIN(CHAR(10),TRUE,FILTER(Reviews!$G$2:$G$201,(Reviews!$F$2:$F$201="NUDGE")+(Reviews!$F$2:$F$201="BACK TO YOU")+(Reviews!$F$2:$F$201="Missing date"))),"Nothing waiting past your nudge window")

The three ranges inside FILTER all run from row 2 to row 201, so they are the same height. FILTER keeps the Digest Line of every row whose Flag is one of the three action labels, and TEXTJOIN stacks those lines with a line break between them. When nothing matches, FILTER returns an error and IFERROR substitutes the fallback sentence, so the cell is never empty.

Re-read each formula once after pasting. Count the opening and closing parentheses, confirm every Reviews range ends at row 201, and confirm the tab names match.

Part 3: Keep Calculation on Automatic

TODAY() recalculates as the sheet is used. 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 that the day-count column matches 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 Monday and a morning time, for example before you start work.
2. Action. Choose Google Sheets and the event Lookup Spreadsheet Row. Connect your Google account. Then choose the 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. In Subject, build the line in this order: the text Review digest: , the Action Count field from step 2 and the text need a move. In Body, insert the Digest Lines field from step 2. If the action offers a Body type setting, choose plain text so the line breaks from the sheet survive.

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 counts and the digest text. The email test should reach your inbox. Then turn the Zap on.

Part 5: Test and Refine

Add a dummy deliverable with a sent date well in the past and Status Waiting. Confirm that Flag reads NUDGE, that Action Count rises by one and that the line appears in Digest Lines. Change its Status to Returned for changes and confirm the label becomes BACK TO YOU. Then change it to Signed off and confirm that it disappears. Delete the dummy row when done.

Real Example: A Monday in February

Invented setup: today is Monday 2027-02-22 and Nudge After Days is 5, so a waiting deliverable becomes NUDGE once it has waited 5 days or more. All codes and dates are invented.

Working through the Flag formula:

• D-31: Days Waiting is 2027-02-22 minus 2027-02-10, which is 12 (the 10th to the 22nd of the same month). 12 is at least 5, so NUDGE.
• D-32: 2027-02-22 minus 2027-02-17 is 5. 5 is at least 5, so NUDGE. The boundary day counts.
• D-33: 2027-02-22 minus 2027-02-18 is 4. Below 5, so Waiting.
• D-34: Status is Returned for changes, so BACK TO YOU. Its 10 days waiting (2027-02-12 to 2027-02-22) are never tested.
• D-35: no sent date, so Days Waiting is blank and the Flag is Missing date.
• D-36: Signed off, so Closed, although 17 days have passed.
• D-37: Withdrawn, so Closed, although 21 days have passed.
• D-38: sent today, so Days Waiting is 0 and the Flag is Waiting.
• Row 10: no deliverable code, so every formula returns blank and nothing is counted.

Counts: NUDGE is 2 (D-31 and D-32), BACK TO YOU is 1 (D-34) and Missing date is 1 (D-35). Action Count is 2 + 1 + 1 = 4.

The Digest Lines cell holds four lines in sheet order:

D-31 | Reviewer A | sent 2027-02-10, 12 days ago | NUDGE
D-32 | Reviewer B | sent 2027-02-17, 5 days ago | NUDGE
D-34 | Reviewer A | sent 2027-02-12, 10 days ago | BACK TO YOU
D-35 | Reviewer C | sent no date | Missing date

The email arrives with the subject "Review digest: 4 need a move" and those four lines in the body. If every deliverable were Waiting or Closed, Action Count would be 0 and the body would read "Nothing waiting past your nudge window". The email still arrives. The reviewer codes in the lines are there so you know whom to ask. The automation does not contact anyone.

Setup: one spreadsheet, one Zap, three steps. Input: the Monday schedule and the rows you keep current. Output: one email to you with the count in the subject and the flagged deliverables in the body. Time saved: the weekly look through everything you have out for review, which depends on how much you have out. The digest is only as current as your last edit, so logging each send and each return is the price.

What to Do When It Breaks

• No email arrived on Monday. 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 someone renamed the Key cell, changed its text or moved the Summary tab. Restore the text summary in A2 exactly. A run that never appears at all 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.
• Put a standing reminder in your calendar. If no digest has arrived by mid-morning on Monday, 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 that Days Waiting matches today's date arithmetic.
• The email says nothing needs you, but you know something is close. The digest only reflects the rows. Check that the deliverable is in the tab, that its sent date is a real date and not text, and that the Status is not Signed off or Withdrawn.
• Dates show as long numbers. A date was joined without TEXT. Re-paste the Digest Line formula exactly.
• A formula shows #REF! or #NAME?. A tab was renamed. Rename it back, or fix the tab name inside the formulas.
• Line breaks collapse in the email. Switch the Gmail step to plain text if it offers a body type. Then re-test.

Variations

• Simpler version: skip Zapier and open the Summary tab each Monday. The counts and lines are the same.
• Extended version: add a Google Form for logging a new send. Form answers land on their own responses tab, and you copy each one into Reviews yourself. Never point a Form at the Reviews tab, because it would overwrite your formulas. The Zap still runs on its schedule.
• A second weekday: copy the Zap and set the copy to run on another day.

What to Do Next

• This week: build the tab and test with dummy rows. Then switch the Zap on and read the first real email against the sheet.
• This month: tune Nudge After Days after you see how many lines each Monday produces.
• Advanced: build the sister digests for close and valuation tasks and model change documentation, each in its own spreadsheet with its own Summary tab.

Advanced guide for actuarial analysts. The digest flags dates and statuses you have typed. It does not judge a review, set a turnaround time or contact a reviewer. Your team's review practice and the reviewing actuary decide what happens next, and Zapier and Google may change their screens, so follow the labels you see.