How can I verify an update request was sent?

Colin B

I have an update request workflow that sends to contacts in a cell and is triggered when a specific dropdown value is selected.

After setting the value and saving the sheet, there is no update request icon on the left side of the row and they are not appearing in the update requests panel. However, the workflow itself is showing it last ran at the time I saved the sheet.

These requests are sending to external emails and I cannot verify whether they were actually sent or not. My automation permissions are set to unrestricted and "include my changes in sheet notifications" is checked in my personal settings.

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated.

AravindGP

Hi Colin,

Check if the workflow's conditions, if any are appearing in the sheet. When the workflow says it ran, it means that the trigger was activated. However, successful completion of the workflow depends on the conditions being met which will follow through with the action, in this case the update request. The way to verify that an update was sent is through the icon on the row menu as well as on the right navigation panel.

Ayelet Weiner

@Colin B The sheet automation is based on a trigger, in your case, the value that you indicated in your workflow. Now that you have the workflow setup, the exisiting rows on your sheet that meet that criteria won't trigger the automation because the automation is looking for a change in the value (your trigger criteria). The way around this is to click on the three dots to the right of your workflow and select Run now...That will force the automation to look for rows that meet the criteria and it will then send out the update request. Hope that helps.

Colin B

Hi @AravindGP and @Ayelet Weiner thank you for your suggestions.

I added an action to change a cell value at the end of the automation so I know it is running, but the requests are still not sending to the external emails.

After giving it some thought, I believe the cause of this is the external domains not being on the approved list. I've reached out to my enterprise admin and will update this post accordingly.

Thanks again!

Ayelet Weiner

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/384814#Comment_384814

Were you able to see that an update request was actually sent when you triggered the workflow? The update request would still be sent regardless whether the external domain was not on the approved list. You should still see the update request indicator on the row.

Good idea on adding a helper column to indicate when the request is sent. I did something similar but also added a "record date" automation so I could use a formula to count the number of days since the request was sent if the update request fields were still blank. It really helped in identifying who I needed to follow up with.

Best of luck!

Colin B

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/384841#Comment_384841

Nope, there was no update request indicator on the rows, and I confirmed with the external emails that they did not receive anything on their end. After my admin added their domains to the approved list they sent successfully.

Thank you, I too added an automaton to record the date the appointment was created, then another formula-driven column which sets a flag if that date is in the last 5 days. Helper columns are great.

Thanks again for your responses! Cheers!