Notifications for Comment Updates

Michelle Vonderau

Hey SS community,

Our company is looking to phase out Basecamp and solely use Smartsheet to manage our ERP implementations. One feature that keeps us holding on to Basecamp is their UI for discussions.

For those who have not used Basecamp, a feature we are partial to in discussions is the ability to choose who receives an email each time a thread is created or a comment is added.

Has anyone found a way to alert specific people or create a notification for yourself each time a comment is added or replied to in Smartsheet? Aside from choosing to email the comment of course...we're looking to automate this. Creating an alert for anytime something on the row changes isn't what we're looking for.

Anyone else using comments for discussions? How do you keep up with the conversation?

 

Joseph H. Browning

Only the owner of the sheet can create a notification, but you can create a notification on a specific sheet based off a number of things. 



You can go to Alerts -> Notifications -> New Notification -> When there are changes in specific columns



However, if you only want a single cell on a row rather than an entire column. You would need to create a condition based of another aspect of that cell. Whether it is assigned to them or any number of other aspects of the form. 

 

J. Craig Williams

Michelle, 

I'm not totally clear on your workflow. I'm also not a Basecamp user. 

I believe some of what you refer to is possible using the existing Alerts. Adding in an automation tool like Zapier (www.zapier.com) may also be part of the solution. (I'm testing one now using Zapier)

Typically, if the rules (and exceptions) can be articulated, they can be solved.

Craig

Richard Rymill SBP

Michelle

Just to add to what my colleague Craig has said... if you can articulate the logic and rules, then there is a good chance we can help you solve this question? 

We offer a Free initial consultation, so if you would like to arrange to discuss this, then email me? richardr@smarterbusinessprocesses.com if we need Craig's input I can ask him to be involved. 

We have clients who have used BaseCamp and there are some nice features as you say, but Smartsheet is the right direction of travel, taking everything in to account.

Hope we can help... you probably gather that solving clients problems is what gets us out of bed every day! Haha 

RichardR 

 

Michelle Vonderau

Joseph had solved my issue, I just needed a little guidance on the core features. Thank you Craig and Richard both for your responses.

Joseph, thank you for your guidance!

 

Richard Rymill SBP

Brilliant! 

Jborges

I have a similar need, but not sure the description that Joseph H. Browning provided solves it for me. (maybe I'm missing something)

I would like to enable email notifications globally for the entire sheet that triggers the system to send an email notification to anyone writing or responding to a Comment (in the Comments portion of the SmartSheet interface) for a particular row.

Example:

My SS (SmartSheet) has an "Assigned To" column. For now assume the "Assigned To" field for row #33 is my co-worker (Jane Doe). If write a Comment (in the Comment) column for row #33, I would like an email notification to be sent to Jane Doe. Conversely, if Jane Doe reply's to my comment (in the Comment field) for row #33, I would like the system to send me an email notification.

How can I enable this workflow for the entire sheet?