Paste one Copilot prompt in Outlook to find the promises you never followed up on, draft the top three, and run it every Monday. License, prices, fixes.
Swipe or tap Next · checked on 2026-10-31
This setup happens in Outlook and Copilot, not in code, so the easy way is to have ChatGPT or Claude sit next to you and walk you through it. Paste this prompt into either one. It goes one step at a time, explains every word, and stops before anything costs money, reaches a customer or deletes something. Rather do it yourself? Everything it does is under “The manual way” below.
The setup prompt (copy all of it) · lines 1-1 of 25. Copy all copies the whole prompt; read it in full on the page.
Hi. Please be my patient setup helper. I run a business and I'm not technical, so go one step at a time, tell me exactly what to click or type, and wait for me to say done before the next step.This is the manual way: every step, every prompt, and where each button is.
Every Monday the scheduled prompt runs the search again. You open the result, read the drafts, and send the ones that are right.
Nothing in this setup sends an email on its own. Copilot finds and drafts; you read every draft before it goes out. I don't want Copilot promising a Friday install to fix the one I already broke.
This is the part most of these videos skip. Copilot Chat comes with an eligible Microsoft 365 business plan, but Microsoft's own comparison says that without the paid Copilot license, its reach into your work data is limited to files you upload. With the license it's full: meetings, emails, chats, files and more. Scheduled prompts need the license too.
Select your name, then Licenses and Apps, and expand Licenses. You're looking for a Copilot license next to your Microsoft 365 plan. Not the admin? Ask whoever set up your company email.
For a business with up to 300 users, Microsoft sells the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on on top of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium (also Apps for Business and Teams Essentials), or the Business Standard and Business Premium plans with Copilot built in.
Prices are in “What it costs” below. Microsoft's pricing page has the Buy now and Try for free buttons; the free trial needs a credit card and turns into a paid subscription after a month unless you cancel.
Select your name, then Licenses and Apps, expand Licenses, tick the Copilot license and select Save changes. Or go to Billing > Licenses, pick the Copilot product and select Assign licenses.
Paste the prompt from the video. It works as is. The longer version underneath is the one I'd actually use: it looks at what you sent, skips threads you already followed up on, and gives you a link to each email so you can check it.
The find prompt (from the video)
Find every email from the last 14 days where I promised something and didn't follow up. List the person, the promise and the date.The find prompt (the tighter version)
Look at the emails I sent in the last 14 days. Find every one where I promised something: a quote, a call back, a date, a document, a price, a visit. Leave out the ones where I already followed up later in the same thread.
Give me a table with: the person, what I promised, the date I promised it, and a link to the email.
If you're not sure about one, put it in a separate list called Maybe instead of guessing.In the same chat, right after the list, paste this. The rules are what keep it from making promises for you.
The drafting prompt
Draft follow-ups for the top three.
Rules for the drafts:
- Keep each one under 100 words and sound like me: plain, friendly, straight to the point.
- Say what I promised and where it stands.
- Don't promise any new date, price, install time or discount. Where I need to give one, leave a blank like [DATE] for me to fill in.
- Don't send anything. Just show me the drafts.Open the original email, hit Reply so the follow-up stays in the same thread, and paste the draft. Then read it like a customer would: is that what I promised, is the date right, did it make up anything? Fill in every [DATE] blank yourself.
Rather draft inside the reply? In new Outlook and Outlook on the web, select Help me reply in the message area. In classic Outlook, Microsoft documents it on a new email: Home > New Email, the Copilot icon, then Draft with Copilot.
Run the Monday prompt below once. Then hover over your prompt in the chat and select Schedule this prompt. Pick when it runs (Monday morning), how many times it runs, and whether you want an email when the answer is ready (yes). Select Save.
Microsoft's page doesn't list every repeat option, and its own example is a prompt that runs every Wednesday. If your screen only lets you pick a number of runs, take the most it offers and redo the schedule when it runs out (“When it breaks” has where).
The Monday prompt (find + draft in one) · Part 1 of 2 · Copy copies all 7 lines
Look at the emails I sent in the last 14 days. Find every one where I promised something: a quote, a call back, a date, a document, a price, a visit. Leave out the ones where I already followed up later in the same thread.
Give me a table with: the person, what I promised, the date I promised it, and a link to the email.
If you're not sure about one, put it in a separate list called Maybe instead of guessing.The Monday prompt (find + draft in one) · Part 2 of 2 · Copy copies all 7 lines
Then draft follow-ups for the top three, under 100 words each, in my voice. Don't promise any new date, price, install time or discount: leave a blank like [DATE] where I need one. Don't send anything.In Chats, on the left side of Copilot. Scheduled ones are bold with a little icon. To change, run, pause or delete one: the ... Settings and more menu at the top right of Copilot, then Scheduled prompts. You can have up to 10.
Before you trust it with Mondays, run the find prompt once and check its work. This costs nothing beyond the license. No license yet? The one-month free trial on Microsoft's pricing page is the cheapest way to test it; put a reminder on your calendar to cancel before it turns into a paid subscription if you don't keep it.
Prompt: the test run
Look at the emails I sent in the last 14 days. Find every one where I promised something: a quote, a call back, a date, a document, a price, a visit. Leave out the ones where I already followed up later in the same thread.
Give me a table with: the person, what I promised, the date I promised it, and a link to the email.
If you're not sure about one, put it in a separate list called Maybe instead of guessing.Then check three by hand. Open your Sent folder, find the emails it listed, and see if it got them right. Then think of one promise you know you forgot and see if it's on the list.
Good: real people, real promises, the right dates, links that open the right emails. Bad: it says it can't see your email, or it answers from the web. That's almost always the license (see “When it breaks”). Also normal: it misses one. Copilot reads and judges, it doesn't keep a ledger, and anything you promised on a phone call or a text was never in Outlook.
1. Quotes that never went out
Find emails from the last 30 days where someone asked me for a quote, an estimate or pricing, and I haven't sent one yet. List the person, what they asked for and the date. Don't draft anything yet.2. One customer, the whole story
Summarize every email between me and [CUSTOMER NAME] in the last 60 days: what they asked for, what I promised, what's still open. Link each email.3. Who's waiting on me
Which emails from the last 7 days ask me a direct question I haven't answered? List the person, the question and the date, oldest first.Same rule on all of them: Copilot finds and drafts, you read and send.
Checked 2026-10-31 on Microsoft's Copilot pricing page (US). Prices change: check before you buy.
The fine print, from that page: the add-on is only for existing Microsoft 365 customers on an eligible Business plan. The promo needs an annual commitment, applies to the first year only, and isn't available on trials. Subscriptions renew on their own.
After a paid subscription starts there's a 7-day window to cancel for a prorated refund. Microsoft also says some advanced AI features bill by usage on top of the license. Copilot Business covers up to 300 users; bigger companies buy the enterprise version.
Check the paid Copilot license is assigned to you (Users > Active users > your name > Licenses and Apps) and that you're signed in with your work account. Without the license, Copilot Chat only reaches limited work data. Copilot also needs an Exchange Online mailbox and doesn't work in group mailboxes.
Three usual causes: no Copilot license; connected experiences are turned off (your own account privacy settings, or your admin's “Allow the use of connected experiences in Office” policy); or you're not on the Work side of Copilot, which Microsoft's admin page calls the Work IQ tab, the only place scheduling shows up.
You set how many times it runs, so it may have used them up, or it was turned off. Open the ... Settings and more menu, then Scheduled prompts, and use Edit Schedule. Run now runs it right away.
You can have up to 10. Delete one you don't use from the Scheduled prompts page.
Use the tighter find prompt (it skips threads you already followed up on and links each email), and spot check against Sent. Promises made on the phone or by text aren't in Outlook, so no prompt will find them.
Don't send it. Keep the drafting rules in the prompt (blanks like [DATE] instead of made-up dates) and fill them in yourself.
In new Outlook and on the web it doesn't work on plain text emails: go to Settings > Mail > Compose and pick HTML. On a Mac you need the latest Outlook; legacy Outlook for Mac isn't supported. Still nothing? Ask your admin.
Prompts scheduled during the public preview ran through Power Automate and don't show on the Scheduled prompts page. They keep running there until they expire; manage them at make.powerautomate.com.
What each page backs up is listed at the end of the full guide.
One prompt finds the promises, you read every draft, and Monday does the remembering. The job goes to whoever followed up, so make it you.
Want help setting this up? Receipts Group builds these systems.
Open the full guide as a page (every file in full, plus the table of contents).