This is a guest post by Vijay, our in-house VBA Expert.
In this article we well learn how to use VBA and Microsoft Outlook to send emails with your reports as attachment.
Scenario
We have an excel based reporting template for the Customer Service Dashboard. We want to update this template using VBA code to create a static version and email it to a list of people. We will define the recipient list in a separate sheet.
Features
1. Code will automatically create necessary folders to save the output file.
2. Email sheet to contain the list of people who are going to receive the report.
3. Sending mail using Microsoft Outlook, primary target is corporate people who are using Outlook as their mail program.
On our VBA project we would need to add references to the below
1. Microsoft Outlook Object Library
2. Microsoft Scripting Runtime Library
Please note the Outlook library will be available depending on the version of Microsoft Outlook installed on your system, in the example workbook the reference is towards version 14 as available with Outlook 2010. If you have a different version of Outlook installed on your system, you need to point to the correct library installed.
We have assumed the data used to create the report is already available in the sheet called “rawData”.
We have then updated the “rawData” sheet with 2 new columns having the Date and Time.
Date has been calculated in the rawData sheets using the Date Function.
=DATE(YEAR(B2),MONTH(B2),DAY(B2))
The time has been calculated by converting the actual time of the call into the relevant 30 minute interval.
=INT((TIME(HOUR(B2),MINUTE(B2),SECOND(B2)))/(1/48))*(1/48)
If you need to setup your report into 15 minutes interval then replace 1/48 with 1/96.
We have then used the COUNTIFS and SUMIFS function to create the data view in the Interval Data sheet.
Understanding the VBA code to send mails
I will be discussing only the key elements of the code here.
Sheets(Array("Cover", "Interval Data", "rawData")).Copy
This list will create a new workbook containing the 3 sheets that we have included within the Array() parameter. If your report has more sheets feel free to add them.
Set objfile = New FileSystemObject
If objfile.FolderExists(xDir & xMonth) Then
If objfile.FileExists(xPath) Then
objfile.DeleteFile (xPath)
newWB.SaveAs Filename:=xPath, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, Password:="", WriteResPassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False _
, CreateBackup:=False
Application.ActiveWorkbook.Close
Else
newWB.SaveAs Filename:=xPath, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, Password:="", WriteResPassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False _
, CreateBackup:=False
Application.ActiveWorkbook.Close
End If
Else
xNewFolder = xDir & xMonth
MkDir xNewFolder
newWB.SaveAs Filename:=xPath, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, Password:="", WriteResPassword:="", ReadOnlyRecommended:=False _
, CreateBackup:=False
Application.ActiveWorkbook.Close
End If
The above code checks if the correct folder exists for the report to be saved or not and creates one if not existing. This also takes cares of overwriting the existing report in case you need to re-run the report again during the same day.
Creating the List of recipients
currentWB.Activate
Sheets("Email").Visible = True
Sheets("Email").Select
strEmailTo = ""
strEmailCC = ""
strEmailBCC = ""
xStp = 1
Do Until xStp = 4
Cells(2, xStp).Select
Do Until ActiveCell = ""
strDistroList = ActiveCell.Value
If xStp = 1 Then strEmailTo = strEmailTo & strDistroList & "; "
If xStp = 2 Then strEmailCC = strEmailCC & strDistroList & "; "
If xStp = 3 Then strEmailBCC = strEmailBCC & strDistroList & "; "
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Loop
xStp = xStp + 1
Loop
The above code will create the list of people for whom the report is intended. We make use of the Do Until Loop here to update the 3 variables to hold the TO, CC and BCC list. The actual email addresses are captured from the Email sheet of the report template.
Please note: there should be no blanks in the list when you are defining the same.
Set olApp = New Outlook.Application
Dim olNs As Outlook.Namespace
Set olNs = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
olNs.Logon
Set olMail = olApp.CreateItem(olMailItem)
olMail.To = strEmailTo
olMail.CC = strEmailCC
olMail.BCC = strEmailBCC
olMail.Subject = Mid(xFile, 1, Len(xFile) - 4)
olMail.Body = vbCrLf & "Hello Everyone," _
& vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Please find attached the " & Mid(xFile, 1, Len(xFile) - 4) & "." _
& vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Regards," _
& vbCrLf & "Chandoo.Org"
The above code creates a new instance of Outlook and then logs in to your default mailbox, using which we will be sending the mail out to the recipients. We also create the body of the mail and specify the To, CC and BCC list.
olMail.Attachments.Add xPath
olMail.Display
Finally we add the attachment to the email we have created and then using the Display method bring it on the screen. You may also use the .Send method to send the mail directly.
That is all the code we needed to create a copy of the report with selected few sheets and then send them out using VBA. There are a lot of other methods using which you may be able to send out mails, however this specifically helps out to create report templates to use within your organization and send out mails.
Do you also use VBA and Other methods to send mails, if yes please share the same for the benefit of everyone.
Download Excel File
Click here to download the file & save it on your system and use it to understand this technique.
Do you use Excel to automate emails?
I often use Excel to automatically email reports & messages. This is quite useful when you have to send a snapshot of a report to a large team, but need to customize the email for each recipient.
What about you? Have you used Excel to automate emails? What is your experience like? Do you use VBA or some other technique? Please share using comments.
More on VBA & Macros
If you want to learn more about using VBA to automate reporting & email tasks, read these:
- Automatically Generate Report Variations using Excel
- Birthday Reminder & Email in Excel
- What is VBA & Macros? Introduction
- Excel VBA Example Macros
- VBA tutorial videos
Join our VBA Classes
If you want to learn how to develop applications like these and more, please consider joining our VBA Classes. It is a step-by-step program designed to teach you all concepts of VBA so that you can automate & simplify your work.
28 Responses to “Team To Do Lists – Project Tracking Tools using Excel [Part 2 of 6]”
[...] & tracking a project plan using Gantt Charts Team To Do Lists - Project Tracking Tools Part 3: Preparing a project time line [upcoming] Part 4: Time sheets and Resource management [...]
the templates are great (I bought the combo).
What I'm missing is a way to have the project gantt chart and reporting with the data per resource, in such a way that I can also show the occupation per resource on an extended gantt chart.
So with hours entered per person per project or sub-activity, to show a gantt chart of how many hours/days a person spent on which project (or plans to spend).
[...] from: Team To Do Lists - Project Tracking Tools using Excel [Part 2 of 6] 25 Jun 09 | [...]
Hi Chandoo,
Funny I have a post on the value of MS project lined up which I will post when the current monster project I'm working on finishes and I get some free time!
I'm not sure this would help with any of the projects I've worked on, closing down a to do list seems like more effort than it's worth, but it might be useful for some things. I guessing it doesn't, but does the time stamp not update when you recalculate the work book?
keep up the good work!
Ross
@Ross.. Thanks for sharing your ideas... I think to do lists are a great way to keep up with project activities and ensure accountability from individual team members, when they are implemented right.
"I guessing it doesn’t, but does the time stamp not update when you recalculate the work book?"
Your guess is right. When you change the calculation mode to "iterative", excel takes care of the nittygritties and retains older values in circular references in formulas.
[...] Project Management in Excel [New Series] - Gantt Charts | To Do Lists [...]
[...] & tracking a project plan using Gantt Charts Team To Do Lists - Project Tracking Tools Project Status Reporting - Create a Timeline to display milestones Part 4: Time sheets and Resource [...]
Hi Chandoo,
The template give me lot of convenience to monitor the thing to do. It simple. Thank You
[...] & tracking a project plan using Gantt Charts Team To Do Lists - Project Tracking Tools Project Status Reporting - Create a Timeline to display milestones Part 4: Time sheets and Resource [...]
[...] make sure you have read the first 4 parts of the series - Making gantt charts [project planning], team todo lists [project tracking], project time lines chart [reporting] and Timesheets and Resource Management using Excel. Also [...]
Chandoo,
I really do not see any befit to this function in Excel unless it was somehow tied into some other chart. That is say a scheduled activities % complete is based on the to-do list.
The only way this chart would be useful is if no one was assigned none dependent task that could be done by anyone. The cases were both of these conditions are true are so few and far between it really makes this chart worthless.
@Brian... Once you have a todo list up and running, it is easy to get metrics out of it. I didnt propose it as it might look a bit too micro-management-ish.
I am able to understand what you meant by "The only way this chart would be useful is if no one was assigned none dependent task that could be done by anyone. The cases were both of these conditions are true are so few and far between it really makes this chart worthless."
Can you explain?
"Chandoo"
What I mean is this. Lets say you have 10 task which are part of one activity/WBS that is in your schedule. One there are very few cases were many people would be assigned to complete this one scheduled activity with no direction being given who should what of the 10 task. It is poor management, and the task 90% of the time would not get done in a timely manner if say 4 people were responsible. Secondly, you are assuming all 10 task are independent of each other. You might need to do task 1 thru 3 before you can do task 4, and to do task 7 you might need to do 4 and 6. Thirdly, the time it would take to compile and then fill out the to-do-list even in limited applications is really not worth it.
I just see almost no applications why a team would need to inform others separate from the schedule that they have completed a task on a to-do list unless anyone of the 4 people could of completed that task.
My point is, there might be a few very limited applications for this type of list but this list would be worthless as a Project Management tool in every other case.
However, change this from a to-do-list to a document change log and it is perfect. Instead of to-do it is the documents name or summary of what changed in the document. The person is who edited the document, and the time stamp is when they checked it in. But I do not know why you would use excel when there is free software you can use commercially that is 10 times better that does document management.
I think using excel to do Project Management over a real Project Management application is a bad idea. Unless you are running a very small, simple project, the time and effort is a lot more to use excel compared to the cost of the Project Management software.
This comes back to my point, I love your site, however, just because you can do something in excel does not mean you should do it. To often the time it takes to use excel is wasted 10 times over from the cost of doing it in an application designed to for the specific application.
@Brian: The todo list mentioned here is meant to keep track of all the tasks for which detailed planning is not necessary but some sort of tracking is needed. These are not be confused with project activities (a la gantt chart).
I like your suggestion about using this as a document tracker. Pretty cool use.
Coming to your point about excel as a real project management tool, well, I have my views, but in a serious project environment, it would surely payoff to have a dedicated project management application.
[...] & tracking a project plan using Gantt Charts Team To Do Lists – Project Tracking Tools Project Status Reporting – Create a Timeline to display milestones Time sheets and Resource [...]
Chandoo,
Wonder how the timestamp column will maintain its previous data. Both Today() and Now() functions will update as and when the next timestamp happens.
[...] Preparing & tracking a project plan using Gantt Charts Part2: Team To Do Lists – Project Tracking Tools Part3: Project Status Reporting – Create a Timeline to display milestones Part4: Time sheets and [...]
I've combined this with the issue tracker since I like the automatic date stamp, but one thing I'm noticing is that I can't replicate the chart that goes along with the issue tracker because the cells that are referenced have the formula that inserts the time stamp instead of a the actual date value. All the dates of the last 30 days display 0 when they should have a value.
Is there a way around this?
I have edited the chart so that my team members can update the percentage completion of the assigned tasks. When the cell is updated, i would like the time stamp to update. How would I manipulate the formula to update whenever the drop-down list is changed?
[...] … ??? To Do List [...]
Excel is great however sometimes you need to get a better idea of what tasks each person on your team is working on at any given time. We've developed a web app that can do just that! Each person has a list of tasks, listed in the order they have to complete them.
HII,
I want to expand the database through excel where i am working on 11 cities as of now and i want to expand it upto 50 cities and hence forth the data related to it will also expand so i want to make it precise where i can get updates also that this work is required to be done at that particular day or date
Thanks for making all of this information available for free. I am currently using excel to track everything for the first time. I later plan to output our information here with a more visual presentation. Wish me luck!
Can some one point me out to some additional direction on the "Who Finished it?" column? Something more 'basic' for a newbie excel guy? lol I got everything else working on this tutorial but that column. I can't seem to recreate it and I know a lot of it is due to lack of knowledge with VB code. I'd like to recreate this column very much 🙁
Dear Chandoo,
Thanks for the team to do list, kindly let me know how to set the column who " finished it " from another work sheet
Hi Chandoo,
Unable to download it - can you please check the link and confirm.
Great inhisgt! That's the answer we've been looking for.
Hi Team,
I know u all are the best programmers in the world!!! that's I am here to rectify my issues. here is my question please ans me as soon as possible before 8-3-2017 its really urgent.
I have a project named the production tracker.
1) I require the user form which shows the names of the Associates which are linked to the different tracks. when the user is selected the particular track related details and dropdowns should appear.
2) I need to track the associate needs how much of the time to complete the particular task. with start stop and pause and resume timer.
3) It should display the daily count of the production and save the data to the another Excel file.
this production tracker should save all the data no matter how many people logs in into it.
Please help me for this it will be very appreciated.
you can directly email me on my mail ID: tusharkch694@gmail.com