How to Get Contract Renewal & Expiration Alerts from Google Sheets (2026)

Auto-renewing contracts usually hide the date that matters: the notice deadline, often 30 to 90 days before the renewal date. Here is how to track it in Google Sheets and get emailed in time.

Step 1: columns that capture the notice window

For a renewal a year after a start date, use =EDATE(StartDate, 12). For terms that renew every year, the next renewal from a start date in B2 is =EDATE(B2, 12*(DATEDIF(B2, TODAY(), "Y")+1)).

Step 2: highlight what's coming up

Select the data, open Format › Conditional formatting, choose Custom formula, and add =$I2<=30 in red and =$I2<=60 in amber. Sort or filter by Days left for a weekly review.

Step 3: email alerts at 60, 30 and 7 days

Name the tab Contracts, leave columns E–G empty as "Sent" markers, paste this into Extensions › Apps Script, and add a daily time-driven trigger:

/**
 * Multi-step renewal alerts (e.g. 60, 30 and 7 days before).
 * Columns: A Contract | B Owner email | C Renewal date | D Notice days | E Sent 60 | F Sent 30 | G Sent 7
 */
const STEPS = [60, 30, 7];

function renewalAlerts() {
  const sh = SpreadsheetApp.getActive().getSheetByName('Contracts');
  const rows = sh.getDataRange().getValues();
  const today = new Date(); today.setHours(0, 0, 0, 0);
  const tz = Session.getScriptTimeZone();

  rows.slice(1).forEach((row, i) => {
    const [name, email, renewal, notice] = row;
    if (!email || !(renewal instanceof Date)) return;
    const deadline = new Date(renewal); deadline.setHours(0, 0, 0, 0);
    deadline.setDate(deadline.getDate() - (Number(notice) || 0));   // last day to give notice
    const daysLeft = Math.round((deadline - today) / 86400000);
    STEPS.forEach((step, s) => {
      const col = 5 + s;                                             // E, F, G
      if (daysLeft <= step && daysLeft >= 0 && !row[col - 1]) {
        MailApp.sendEmail(email, `${name}: notice deadline in ${daysLeft} days`,
          `${name} renews on ${Utilities.formatDate(renewal, tz, 'MMM d, yyyy')}. ` +
          `To cancel or renegotiate, give notice by ${Utilities.formatDate(deadline, tz, 'MMM d, yyyy')}.`);
        sh.getRange(i + 2, col).setValue(new Date());
      }
    });
  });
}

Each step is stamped with the date it was sent, so no alert repeats. When a contract renews, update the renewal date and clear E–G.

Caveats

• Emails come from the account that owns the trigger and count against its daily Gmail quota (see Google's quotas page).
• If a step is missed (the trigger was off), the script catches up only while days left is still at or below that step and not negative.
• A spreadsheet is not a contract management system: no clause tracking, approvals or audit trail. For a small team's subscriptions and vendor contracts, it's often enough.

Simpler one-date reminders: email reminders from a date column.

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