Allow linked cells to trigger workflows

ro.fei

Just as the title says. It's really frustrating when you want linked cells to trigger a workflow but you can't.

Jerry in SC

Scenario: I have one "master" and 7 "slave" sheets, each sheet equal in design. The sheets are 600+ rows long and about 20 columns wide.

Task: On the master sheet if a user clicks the "System Task" check box, the 7 slave sheets with a linked System Task check box also get checked. This part of the process is working.

Need: Setup automation to change Status drop-down column to "Not Applicable" on the 7 slave sheets. After it did not work, contacted Support and was told due to cross-sheet formula present in System Task checkbox on the slave sheets, the automation does not work.

Attempted Work-A-Round: Created a new column in the slave sheet with this formula: =IF([System Task]@row = 1, 1, 0). When the System Task check box in the slave sheet gets checked, the new column has a 1, otherwise it defaults to 0. Setup automation to use the new column, where when column changes to a 1 it would update the status. This also did not work, and was confirmed by the support team.

Feature Request: Would like the ability to change a drop-down selection in a cell based on the status of a cell on that sheet, regardless of whether or not cross-sheet linking is involved.

Sunein

I am working on a project where I have a summary sheet for a set of deliverables per site.

I have a separate worksheet for each deliverable, where the different records for each site is uploaded and validated.

The trigger for deliverables to be due depends on a cutover date of the site, so the one update for the site goes in the summary sheet, and automatically updated in the deliverables sub files - which works fine with a simple VLOOKUP. The issue is that once the site cutover has been done, the status changes from NOT STARTED to IN PROGRESS in the different deliverables files, all with different stakeholders and different due dates. I tried implementing this using a workflow in each deliverable file which should trigger when the cutover date is changed - but it seems this feature is not available.

I think it would be a pretty useful feature to have, since it would be tedious to have to input the same date manually for 10 different delivables for the same site, just for that workflow to trigger. I find it counter-intuitive, since I expected to use SmartSheet to minimize manual operations.

I do hope we have an update where this becomes possible.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Sunein

Thanks for adding your vote to this idea!

For your specific situation, I would suggest changing the trigger to be date-based instead, then you can use your previous trigger as a Condition to look for each day.

Cheers,

Genevieve

C. Peter Datz

Hi @Genevieve P. ,

I've hit this issue a few times as well... it's very annoying. The date-based trigger isn't sufficient if we need something to be reflected in another sheet ASAP. Even if I setup a date-based automation to run every hour, the updates could still possibly lag an hour behind.

Kmbassett

Scenario: I have a primary sheet listing unresolved payments and a ticket sheet where my colleagues use a form to provide resolution information for those unresolved payments. There are 3 different teams that may have the information to resolve the payment, so they each have their own "Status" column showing if that team has reviewed the row yet.

I have fields on the main sheet that use INDEX MATCH to look up the details of the ticket if one has been opened with the same unique identifier as the current row. These fields show the ticket status, the team that opened it, and when it was opened.

I have a workflow that I would like to trigger based on the Ticket Status changing to "Not Started." Based on which team opened it, the workflow will update the status of that row for each team. The team that opened the ticket will have their status change to "Resolution Ticket Submitted" and the other two teams will see it update to "Resolved by {Team}."

With the current limitations, I am not able to trigger my workflow from the Ticket Status field, since it contains a cross-sheet reference. My use case requires that this workflow be triggered as soon as a ticket has been opened, so I have to rely on the teams to manually update their status to "Resolution Ticket Submitted" to trigger the workflow, which will update the status for the other 2 teams. I am going to duplicate the workflow and also have it run hourly as a way to "clean up" the sheet in case anyone forgets to update their status after they have opened a ticket, but this is obviously less than ideal.

I would like Smartsheet to be smart enough to recognize an infinite loop trigger instead of blocking all cross-sheet reference triggers. There should also be an error message on the workflow letting you know the trigger is invalid.

Patrick D

I agree. The absence of this functionality is very limiting. I vote to allow linked cells to trigger workflows.

Monique Odom-Stearn

I want to bring this idea back around. It is very frustrating to have to create a workaround for automations when we have improved our processes with something like linked cells, Data Mesh, Data Shuttle, etc. A date-based trigger does not solve the issue for many different scenarios.