What cadences are supported for scheduled queries?

SaturnSQL supports hourly, daily, weekly, and custom cron expressions. Each schedule runs in the timezone you choose so the run lands at the right local time.

Why is my scheduled query not running?

The most common causes are a mismatched timezone, a query that errors on every run, or a revoked Google Sheets permission. Open the schedule's run history to see the last attempt and the error.

Can I parametrize a scheduled query?

Yes. Use a relative date expression in your SQL (for example a WHERE clause on yesterday's date) so the query stays correct on every run without manual edits.

Does scheduling work on the free plan?

Scheduling is available on paid plans. Check the pricing page for current limits on the number of scheduled queries and run frequency per plan.

Scheduling SQL Queries in SaturnSQL

Last updated May 19, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team

Scheduled queries let SaturnSQL run a saved SQL query for you on a cadence (hourly, daily, weekly, or a custom cron schedule) and deliver the results to a destination of your choice. This guide walks through setting one up and shows the common things that trip teams up.

If you are coming from SeekWell or PopSQL, the model is similar: schedule a saved query, pick a destination, monitor runs.

Before you start

You need a saved query. Only saved queries can be scheduled, so write and save the SQL first.
If you plan to deliver to Google Sheets, have the target spreadsheet ready and know which Google account owns it.
Scheduling is a paid-plan feature. The free plan is for ad-hoc work. Check the pricing page for current limits.

Step 1: Save your query

Open the SaturnSQL editor, write or paste the SQL you want to run on a cadence, and save it with a name that will make sense to your future self. A good convention is something like daily-active-users or weekly-revenue-by-region. Run the query once interactively so you know it works before you put it on a schedule.

Step 2: Open the schedule panel

From the saved query, open the schedule panel. You will see options to set the cadence, the destination, and notification preferences. Each saved query can have its own independent schedule.

Step 3: Pick a cadence

SaturnSQL supports the cadences most teams need:

Hourly — runs at the top of every hour. Good for near-real-time dashboards.
Daily — pick the local time. Common pattern: 7am so reports are ready before standup.
Weekly — pick a day and time. Common for Monday morning leadership reports.
Custom cron — for anything else (every weekday at 8am, every 15 minutes during business hours, first of the month). Use standard 5-field cron syntax.

Tip: Always set the timezone explicitly. If half your team is in CET and the other half in EST, the wrong default timezone is the single most common reason a schedule appears to be running "at the wrong time."

Step 4: Choose a destination

Pick where the results should go when the schedule runs:

Google Sheets — the most common destination. Connect a Google account, pick the spreadsheet and tab, and choose whether each run appends rows or replaces the contents. See the Google Sheets export guide for details.
CSV download — SaturnSQL stores the latest run as a downloadable CSV. Good for queries you only need to grab occasionally.
Email — the results land in a recipient's inbox. Good for small summary tables you want a stakeholder to see without logging in.

Direct delivery to Slack is not yet built in. If you want SQL results in a Slack channel, see the Slack workaround guide.

Step 5: Test the schedule

Before walking away, trigger the schedule once manually. Confirm the query ran successfully and the data landed where you expected (the right sheet, the right tab, the right inbox). Then enable the schedule so it runs on the chosen cadence.

Best practices

Use relative dates in SQL — write the WHERE clause as created_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '1 day' instead of a hardcoded date. The schedule then keeps producing correct output without manual edits.
Monitor run history — check the schedule's history every couple of weeks. Silent failures are how stale dashboards get into leadership decks.
Name schedules clearly — a query called "Untitled query 14" running every hour is a future headache. Use names tied to the consumer of the data.
Keep the SQL fast — if your scheduled query takes 20 minutes, anything depending on it downstream is also delayed. Add the right indexes or pre-aggregate in your warehouse.
Document the consumer — in the query description, note which dashboard or stakeholder relies on it. This makes future changes safer.

Troubleshooting common issues

The schedule runs at the wrong time

Check the timezone on the schedule. If you set "daily at 9am" but the timezone is UTC and you are in CET, the schedule fires at 10am or 11am local. Set the timezone explicitly to your team's timezone.

The schedule disappeared or stopped running

A few causes: the user who created the schedule was removed from the team and the schedule was tied to their access; the Google account that owns the destination sheet revoked permissions; or the underlying database connection broke. Open the run history to see the most recent error.

Google Sheets says "permission denied"

Usually means the Google account connected to SaturnSQL no longer has edit access to that sheet, or the sheet was moved to a shared drive with different permissions. Reconnect the Google account and re-pick the destination sheet.

The query times out on schedule but works interactively

Common when the interactive run hits warm caches but the scheduled run hits cold ones. Look at the query plan, add indexes, or pre-aggregate the data into a smaller summary table that the scheduled query reads from.