Scheduled Tasks in WorkBuddy

What's Worth Handing to a Scheduled Task

By the end of this article you'll be able to judge which repetitive work suits a scheduled run in WorkBuddy, and build your first scheduled task from a template.

The test is simple: fixed time, fixed input, fixed format, and someone reads the result. Meet all four and it can almost certainly be automated; miss one, and hold off for now.

• Reports compiled on a fixed daily or weekly cadence.
• Public information that needs to be checked and summarized on a schedule.
• Files that get archived or renamed by rule.
• Reminders, morning briefings and weekly reports in a fixed format.

What It Actually Does

Fundamentally it "starts a task for you at the appointed time". Execution is no different from you typing a sentence by hand: it can read authorized folders, produce Word or Excel files, and generate a research summary.

But it doesn't guarantee success every time. A source file that hasn't updated, a revoked permission, a powered-off computer or a dropped account will all cause failure — so critical tasks must keep a human review step.

Four Things to Settle Before You Start

1. Time: what time each day, weekdays or every day, and whether to avoid lunch and meeting peaks.
2. Input: where the data comes from — a folder on this machine, or a fixed set of public pages.
3. Output: what format, which directory, how the file is named. Including the date is recommended.
4. Delivery: who sees the result, and whether to notify every time or only on failure.

Template 1: Daily Data Briefing

The prompt can look like this:

Every day at 8:30, read the most recent Excel file in the "Sales Data" folder, summarize yesterday's sales by channel and the month-over-month change, output a one-page Word briefing named "Sales Briefing - date", and push the summary to a WeCom group when finished.

The key is defining "most recent" precisely — for example, sort by the date in the filename and take the first. Otherwise it may read last week's old sheet and report on it with a straight face.

Template 2: Periodic File Archiving

Every Friday at 18:00, archive PDFs added to the "Downloads" folder this week into month-named subfolders. Output the list for my confirmation first, then move the files.

Plan first, then act — that's the habit most worth keeping in this scenario. One extra confirmation step, one fewer accidental deletion.

Template 3: Tracking Public Information on a Schedule

Check a few public pages at a fixed time every Monday morning and output a summary of "what changed this week", with a source link on each item. Re-check any number that looks obviously wrong yourself; don't forward it directly.

Pushing Results to WeCom

The sidebar bot in WeCom 5.0.12 and later can receive results from scheduled tasks, so group members can read the conclusions right in the group without going back to a computer to dig through files. As of 2026-11, the exact entry point and available options depend on the version you're running.

Four Easy Mistakes

• Credits: deep modes like Craft consume more credits. Estimate the cost before running something at high frequency.
• Permissions: workspace authorization lapses after switching computers or reinstalling, and tasks may then fail silently.
• Scheduling collisions: when tasks cluster, start times get pushed back. Don't schedule two tasks that depend on each other in the same minute.
• Don't send externally on full auto: anything involving customers, contracts or pricing needs a human confirmation step before it goes out.

Scheduled tasks are an amplifier: if the process is clear, it saves you time; if the process is vague, it just produces more rework faster. To get a single task running smoothly first, see the beginner examples in the hands-on tutorials.