Evergreen Report Emailer

Email a spreadsheet report to the right people on a schedule, automatically, from a Windows PC.

Point it at an Excel or CSV file, or a folder where your exports land, and it sends a clean email with the data in a table, totals for the columns you choose, and the file attached. Set it to run every Monday at 8, on the 1st of the month, or whenever suits you.

• Nothing to install. It runs on PowerShell, which is built into Windows 10 and 11. Excel doesn't need to be installed either.
• Excel or CSV. Reads .xlsx and .csv files, including the CSV files Excel and most accounting, sales and CRM tools export.
• Always the latest file. Point it at a folder and it picks the newest matching file, for exports named like sales-2026-10-12.csv.
• A tidy email. Your message, a table of the data, totals, and the original file attached. Long reports show the first rows and attach the rest.
• Sends through Outlook or Gmail.
  • Classic Outlook: sends from your own Outlook with no passwords to store. Best for Microsoft 365 offices.
  • SMTP: Gmail, Google Workspace, Zoho and most other email services, using an app password that's stored encrypted for your Windows account only.
• Runs on a schedule. Daily, weekdays, weekly or monthly, through Windows Task Scheduler. If the PC was off at that time, the report goes out as soon as it's back on.
• Doesn't send bad reports. It can skip a report when the file is empty or hasn't been updated recently, and email you instead so you know the export didn't run.
• Preview first. See exactly what the email will look like in your browser before anything is sent.

Quick start (about 15 minutes)

1. Unblock and unzip. Right-click the ZIP you downloaded, choose Properties, tick Unblock if it's shown, click OK, then right-click → Extract All. Put the folder somewhere short and permanent, like C:\ReportEmailer.
2. Open the menu. Double-click Report Emailer.bat. Choose 1 to preview one of the two sample reports. It opens in your browser. Nothing is sent.
3. Describe your report. Open Settings Builder.html in the same folder, fill in the form, and download reports.json into this folder, replacing the old one. (Or choose 6 to edit the file in Notepad; SETTINGS.md explains every option.)
4. Choose how to send. Follow EMAIL-SETUP.md. With classic Outlook there's nothing else to do. For Gmail, create an app password and save it with menu option 5.
5. Send yourself a test. Put your own address in "to", choose 2, and check your inbox.
6. Turn on the schedule. Choose 3. Each report with a "schedule" will now run by itself.

What's in the folder

Good to know

• The PC needs to be on and signed in at the scheduled time. Locked is fine. If it was off or asleep, Windows sends the report as soon as you're back.
• Moving the folder? Choose 3 again afterwards so the schedules point to the new place.
• Changed the settings? If you changed a schedule, choose 3 again. Other changes take effect on the next send.
• Run it from another program (for advanced users): powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File app\Run-Report.ps1 -Report "Weekly sales". Add -Preview to preview only. Exit code 0 = sent, 2 = skipped, 1 = failed.

Troubleshooting

Need help?

Email evergreen.code.info@gmail.com. See LICENSE.txt for your license terms.

Settings

All settings live in reports.json, next to Report Emailer.bat.

The easy way: open Settings Builder.html from the Report Emailer folder (or use it online at evergreencode.store/tools/report-emailer-settings/). Fill in the form, click Download reports.json, and save it into the folder, replacing the old one. It checks your settings as you go.

By hand: open reports.json from the menu (option 6) or in Notepad.

It's a JSON file, so keep the punctuation exactly as it is: text in "double quotes", a comma between items, and no comma after the last item in a list. If you make a mistake, the menu tells you roughly where. To check the result without sending anything, use Preview (option 1).

Folder paths use double backslashes in JSON: "C:\\Exports\\Sales". Forward slashes also work: "C:/Exports/Sales".

A complete example

{
  "email": {
    "method": "outlook",
    "alert_to": "me@mybusiness.com"
  },
  "footer": "Sent automatically by Report Emailer.",
  "accent_color": "#1d5c45",
  "reports": [
    {
      "name": "Weekly sales",
      "source": "C:\\Users\\Pat\\Downloads",
      "pattern": "sales-export*.csv",
      "to": ["owner@mybusiness.com", "sales@mybusiness.com"],
      "subject": "Weekly sales - {date}",
      "intro": "Hi team,{n}{n}Here are last week's sales.",
      "totals": ["Amount"],
      "max_age_hours": 24,
      "schedule": { "every": "week", "days": ["Mon"], "time": "8:00 AM" }
    }
  ]
}

Email settings

These go inside "email": { ... } and apply to every report. EMAIL-SETUP.md walks through each method.

footer and accent_color (the table header color, as #rrggbb) sit outside "email" and apply to every report.

Report settings

Each report is one { ... } block in the "reports" list.

CSV values appear exactly as they are in the file. Excel values appear the way the cell is formatted, such as $1,234.50, 12.5% or a date.

Placeholders

Use these in subject, intro and footer:

Schedules

After adding or changing a schedule, choose 3 in the menu.

Times can be "8:00 AM" or "08:00". To stop a report being scheduled, delete its "schedule" line, then choose 3.

Email setup

Report Emailer can send in two ways. Pick one and set "method" in reports.json.

Classic Outlook

1. In reports.json, set "method": "outlook".
2. That's it. Reports are sent from your default Outlook account and appear in Sent Items. To send from another account set up in Outlook, add "outlook_account": "that@address.com".

Classic or new Outlook? Look at the top-right corner of Outlook. If you see a New Outlook switch turned on, you're using the new app, which no program can send through. Turn the switch off to go back to classic Outlook. If there's no switch and the window has File, Home and Send / Receive tabs, it's classic.

Outlook can be closed. Report Emailer opens it in the background and waits for the email to leave the Outbox, up to a minute. If an email ever sits in your Outbox, opening Outlook sends it.

Gmail or Google Workspace

Gmail needs an app password, a separate 16-letter password just for this program. Your normal Gmail password won't work.

1. Turn on 2-Step Verification for the Google account, if it isn't already: myaccount.google.com → Security.
2. Create the app password: go to myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, type a name like "Report Emailer", and click Create. Copy the 16-letter password. If the page says app passwords aren't available, your Google Workspace administrator has turned them off. Ask them, or use classic Outlook.
3. In reports.json, set: ``json "email": { "method": "smtp", "from": "you@gmail.com", "from_name": "Your Business Reports", "smtp_server": "smtp.gmail.com", "smtp_port": 587 }
4. In the menu, choose 5 and paste the app password. Nothing shows as you paste; that's normal. Press Enter.

The password is encrypted with Windows' built-in protection, so only your Windows account on this PC can use it. If you change PCs or Windows accounts, save it again.

Other email services

Any service that offers SMTP on port 587 with an app password works. Look for "SMTP settings" in your provider's help. For example, Zoho Mail uses smtp.zoho.com, port 587, with an app-specific password.

Port 465 isn't supported. Nearly every provider that offers 465 also offers 587.

Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com accounts

Microsoft is switching off password-based SMTP sending for Microsoft 365 business accounts. It is due to be off by default from the end of December 2026, and Outlook.com personal accounts already require Microsoft's newer sign-in. For these accounts, use classic Outlook.

Alerts

Add "alert_to": "you@yourbusiness.com" in the email settings to get a short email whenever a report is skipped (empty or out-of-date file) or can't be sent. Alerts are sent the same way as reports, so if email itself is broken, check the log (menu option 7).

Changelog

1.0.0 (2026-10-15)

First release.

• Runs on Windows 10 and 11 with nothing to install: PowerShell only, no Excel needed.
• Reads .xlsx (with cell formatting: currency, percentages, dates) and .csv (UTF-8 or Excel's Windows encoding; comma, semicolon or tab separated).
• Finds the file: a fixed file, or the newest matching file in a folder.
• Builds the email: your message, a table with chosen columns, totals, row limit with the full file attached, and a plain-text version.
• Sends through classic Outlook or SMTP (STARTTLS on port 587) with an app password encrypted for the Windows user.
• Schedules daily, weekday, weekly or monthly runs in Windows Task Scheduler, catching up after the PC was off.
• Safety checks: skips empty or out-of-date files, emails an alert, and keeps a log.
• Preview any report in the browser before sending.
• A double-click menu for everything.