Automation workflow assigning people in a Contact List column - list doesn't match

Courtney S.

Hi! Did something change related to contact list columns and assigning contacts in automations? I have used automation workflows before with the "Assign People" action and the "Assign people in [contact list column name] and as far as I can remember, it used to give me a list of the contacts entered into that column (in the column properties, not the answers in the rows). However, today, when I try to select a contact to assign, I seem to be getting a large suggested list of people in our organization, unrelated to the short list of contacts I populated into the column properties.

In the contact list column I entered a Name and Email answer for every contact, but in the workflow, when I try to search for one of my named contacts in that column, I'm only finding an email address, I can't find/select the Name+Email contact that I built in the column. The column also has the toggle turned on for "restrict to list values only" so I don't know why the automation is even offering contacts who are not in the column's list. Does anyone know if I can get the workflow to only offer me the contacts created in the column properties?

Thanks!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Courtney S.

I hope you're well and safe!

Can you share some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Courtney S.

@Andrée Starå Here you can see that in the column I have it set to "restrict to list values only" and yet the automation is giving me a huge list of a bunch of contacts, some of them just emails, clearly not based on the values I entered into the column.

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jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

Hi @Courtney S.

The help document says, "Select a Contact column for the Assign people action to add an existing or new contact (defined as email address) into a specified column when the workflow is executed on the row. You can use either a single-select or multiple-select contact column."😀

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2482227-assign-people-in-an-automated-workflow

I have not used the workflow action before, but after testing it, I find it ignores the lists in the column unless they are part of an existing contact. When I use the contacts in the list, they appear in the assigned-to-action candidate.

I think such specification is what Smartsheet intends to do and makes some sense because first, users except those who create the workflow do not have a chance to choose from the contact list;* second the owner or admin of the sheet who can add the Assign people action can choose whatever concat that meet their needs, and third, can override the contact column's "restrict to list values only" option by the workflow action's "replace existing values with the multi-select column" option.

However, as your case suggests, the most typical use case would be someone manually choosing assigned-to from the contact column's list to decide to automate. Then, the user-friendlier way is to list those "contact list" as the top candidates of the "assigned to" action.

*The owner or admin who makes the workflow action will lock the contact column to prevent unwanted changes.

Courtney S.

Hi @jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp It sounds like you're saying that the automation is behaving as intended and there isn't a way to make the automation list the contacts entered into the column properties, but when you say "the user-friendlier way is to list those "contact list" as the top candidates of the "assigned to" action." do you mean there is a way for me to make the automation action list all column properties contacts first in the suggestions? Or do you mean Smartsheet's developers should change how Smartsheet displays the contacts in the automation action?

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

@Courtney S.

Smartsheet's developers should change how Smartsheet displays the contacts in the automation action.