Automate your team's workflow by sending instant email notifications whenever a PDF is updated in a specific Google Drive folder. This guide walks you through configuring an automated alert system that extracts details from the file name, adjusts timezones, and emails your team—while ignoring updates made by your own support staff.

How the automation works

When a file is modified, the automation intercepts the event, checks who made the change, formats the file data, and dispatches an email.

flowchart TD
    A["PDF Updated in Drive"] --> B{"Updated by Support?"}
    B -- Yes --> C["Stop (Do nothing)"]
    B -- No --> D["Extract Address from Filename"]
    D --> E["Format Time to US/Eastern"]
    E --> F["Send Email Notification"]

Configuration steps

Follow these steps in your automation platform (such as Zapier) to recreate this workflow.

1. 1

   Set up the Google Drive trigger

   First, configure your automation to watch for modified files in a specific folder.

   1. Select Google Drive as the app and Updated File as the event.

   2. Choose the specific drive or folder you want to monitor (e.g., Completed Sketches).

   3. Ensure you set the trigger to ignore deleted files so you only get alerted on actual updates.

2. 2

   Add a filter to prevent notification loops

   You don't want to receive alerts when your own automated systems or support team updates a file.

   1. Add a Filter step.

   2. Set the condition to check the lastModifyingUserName.

   3. Configure it so the workflow stops if the name exactly matches your internal account (e.g., HPS Client Services).

   Filtering out your own service accounts prevents infinite loops where an automated system updates a file, triggering an email, which triggers another update, and so on.

3. 3

   Extract the address from the filename

   Assuming your PDFs are named using the property address (e.g., 123 Main St.pdf), you can extract just the address to use in your email subject line.

   1. Add a Formatter (Text) step.

   2. Choose the Split Text transform option.

   3. Use the file's title as the input.

   4. Set the separator to .pdf and choose to return the First segment.

4. 4

   Format the timestamp

   Google Drive outputs modification times in UTC. To make the email user-friendly, convert this to your local timezone.

   1. Add a Formatter (Date/Time) step.

   2. Select the modifiedDate from step 1 as the input.

   3. Set the From Timezone to UTC.

   4. Set the To Timezone to your local timezone (e.g., US/Eastern).

   5. Set the output format to hh:mm:ss a (which will output something like 02:30:45 PM).

5. 5

   Configure the email notification

   Finally, map the formatted data into an email sent to your team.

   1. Add a Gmail (or preferred email provider) step and select Send Email.

   2. Configure the routing:

      • To: team@yourcompany.com

      • From: orders@yourcompany.com

      • Reply-To: orders@yourcompany.com

   3. Map your formatted fields into the subject and body:

   Field	Value
   Subject	Sketch Updated- {{Extracted Address}}
   Body	This sketch was just updated in Drive at {{Formatted Time}}

   You can also append your standard HTML email signature in the body configuration to maintain brand consistency. Ensure your signature uses inline CSS for maximum compatibility across email clients.

Expected results

Once activated, any time a client or external user updates a PDF in the designated folder, your team will receive an email that looks like this:

Subject: Sketch Updated- 123 Main St
Body: This sketch was just updated in Drive at 04:15:30 PM

(Followed by your configured email signature)