Workflows & Automations
How to Automate Spreadsheets with AI
Thousands of people enter their email on our website every day. Most of them want to self-serve and shouldn't get a sales email, but a few want a managed setup, and someone on the team used to read the whole spreadsheet by hand to find them. This walkthrough shows the workflow that replaced that job and how to build your own. Every morning it loads the day's signups and throws out anyone who is already a client, already has an account, or has already been emailed or met with, plus personal and fake-looking addresses and anyone at an organization below a set size. Every address that's left gets enriched with a full name, company name, company size, employee count and location. Carly then drafts a personalized message to each qualified person in the inbox, using an email template, so a person reviews and sends. A 7 AM report closes the loop with the total signups, the number qualified, and the affiliate and partner sign-ups. None of it was built in a flowchart. The whole brief went to Carly in one email, and Carly built the workflow. You can send the same kind of brief by email or from ChatGPT or Claude, or start from a template like enriching a company from its domain. If your sheet has odd rows and custom logic, describe that too. Carly connects to thousands of apps, so the sheet can be Google Sheets, Excel or Airtable, and the drafts can land in Gmail or Outlook.
Step by step
- 01
Write down who should never get an email
Before any automation, list the rows to skip. In the video that's existing clients, anyone who already has an account, anyone already emailed or met with, personal addresses, addresses that look fake, and people at organizations below a certain size.
- 02
Decide what to learn about everyone who's left
Pick the enrichment fields you want on each qualified row. The workflow in the video adds full name, company name, company size, number of employees and location.
- 03
Choose drafts, not sends
Have Carly write a personalized message to each qualified person from your own email template and save it to your inbox as a draft. You read it, change what you want, and send it yourself.
- 04
Ask for a daily report
Name the time and the numbers. The one in the video arrives at 7 AM with total signups, total qualified, and the affiliate and partner sign-ups, so the morning starts with the short list instead of the raw sheet.
- 05
Email Carly the whole brief
Put all of it in one message: your skip rules, the fields to enrich, drafts for review, and the report schedule. Carly builds the workflow from that. You can send the same brief from ChatGPT or Claude through the Carly connector.
- 06
Check the runs on the Workflows tab
Open the workflow to see every run. The one in the video has three steps: load the email template, qualify and enrich the new signups and draft their emails, then send the report.
- 07
Or start from a template
For one piece of the job, pick a template: enrich a company from just a domain, fill in title and LinkedIn from an email column, or find work emails for the names in your sheet. For a multi-step one, copy its prompt and send it to Carly.
- 08
Describe the messy parts too
Sheets with odd rows and custom logic don't need a template. Explain the rules to Carly the way you'd explain them to a new hire. If it still won't come together, book a call with the team at usecarly.com.
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