Assigned Person Changed in Automated Workflow

I created a round robin process that takes the next person on a list of people and automatically assigns a project to them when it is added to a project list. If that person is out of the office, I created an automated workflow where if a project was assigned to them to re-assign it to the next person on the list.

The problem I'm having is that the person listed to re-assign it to, when the workflow is activated, their contact name is being changed to their email address and I receive an Invalid Workflow email. Having their email address listed instead of their name causes problems with the round robin process.

Below are screenshots of the before and after of the automated workflow. In the example below, if I'm the next attorney, the project is to be assigned to Jane Doe instead. When I'm actually the next attorney, Jane's name is changed to her email address in the workflow which then causes her email address to be listed on the project list instead of her name.

Any thoughts or ideas on what is causing the person's name to be switched to their email address?

This is the before:


This is the after:


Answers

  • Deric
    Deric ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited 05/02/23

    @Angie Bragg

    I haven't had that error, so I don't know for sure, but here are some ideas to check.

    1. make sure the workflow error isn't being triggered by another workflow or triggering another workflow - infinite loop error.
    2. check your contact list to see if jane.doe@example.org is listed twice - once as Jane Doe and once as jane.doe@example.org.

    Follow up questions:

    Has the workflow ever worked? or is this the first time you have used it?

    How are the rows being added to your sheet?

  • Julio S.
    Julio S. Moderator
    edited 05/04/23

    Hi @Angie Bragg,

    As Deric points out, Automation uses the contact information that you have saved in your "Smartsheet Contact List" (Manage contacts in the My Smartsheet Contacts list) unless the user has a Smartsheet account, if you remove the contact from your list, the email address will show as the display value for the name as it seems to be in this case.

    If after creating a contact in your Contact List for Jane Doe or when using another contact from your Contact List in the "Attorney" field this continues to occur, if you haven't done yet, I would recommend opening a ticket with our Support team via this form or accessing the Customer Support Portal. I hope that this can be of help.

    Cheers!

    Julio

  • @Deric The attorney re-assignment workflow works in my test workspace but not the actual real-time workspace. The actual real-time workspace does have a 3 or 4 workflows that are not in my test workspace. The rest of the workflows are the same in both workspaces.

    Jane Doe is only listed once.

    The request comes in via a form intake to a sheet that populates the data from the form and using INDEX/MATCH populates the next attorney on the round robin list. Once the attorney is added, the row is then moved to the project list containing all of the active projects currently being worked.

  • @Julio S. Thanks Julio! I'm going to try a couple of things first with the contact list. If they don't work then I'll contact Customer Support. Thanks for the advice!