Automations question

Sherry Fox

I was helping a co-worker convert an Excel file to Smartsheet. One of the things she currently does manually is after entering new rows onto her Master file; she copies (manually) to each of the QMS Entities sheets. Now there are about 20 QMS entities. We looked at the Copy to sheet template automation, but it appears as if we can only do this for one sheet. Is there a way to do this process for multiple sheets? Or will we need to create the automation for the first sheet, then duplicate and change the title/sheet name for each of the others?

Lauren Dominique

Hi again! I don't think you need to be copy & pasting anything. You'd create just 1 automation with different condition paths depending on what classifies a record to be sent to which specific QMS Entities sheet. I drafted an example in one of my existing sheets that may help visualize what I'm recommending:

To add a condition path as above, you'll need to click that blue + sign in between the trigger and the condition.

If I'm misunderstanding and you want ALL entries to be moved to ALL your QMS Entities sheets, regardless of a specific condition, you'd just do away with the condition paths and build in multiple "Copy rows" action steps into one automation:

So, in this example, you're just adding extra action steps for Smartsheet to move into a specific sheet. You'd have to do it this way because, like you found, when you select the "Copy rows" action, you can only select one sheet for the record to be copied into.

Are either of these examples helpful for what you're trying to accomplish?

Lauren Dominique

I believe you need to do the latter, unless the line item needs to move to a different sheet based on some specific criteria in which case you could use one automation and include a condition path.

For example, let’s say you have an “Active Project” sheet with a “Category” column with options A, B, or C. After a project is complete, you want the row to move to either the A, B, or C Archived Project sheet.

You could create one automation that has three condition paths to three separate sheets:

The trigger would be when Status is changed to Complete. The conditions would be: when Category is A, move to Archived Project A; when Category is B, move to Archived Project B; and when Category is C, move to Archived Project C.

Sherry Fox

@Lauren Dominique ,

They would be copied (not moved), to all 20 QMS sheets with NO conditions. So that when any data is added to the Master sheet, those records are copied to all 20 of the QMS Entities sheets. So 1 automation for each sheet then? At least I can duplicate to speed up my setup a bit! LOL

Lauren Dominique

Hi again! I don't think you need to be copy & pasting anything. You'd create just 1 automation with different condition paths depending on what classifies a record to be sent to which specific QMS Entities sheet. I drafted an example in one of my existing sheets that may help visualize what I'm recommending:

To add a condition path as above, you'll need to click that blue + sign in between the trigger and the condition.

If I'm misunderstanding and you want ALL entries to be moved to ALL your QMS Entities sheets, regardless of a specific condition, you'd just do away with the condition paths and build in multiple "Copy rows" action steps into one automation:

So, in this example, you're just adding extra action steps for Smartsheet to move into a specific sheet. You'd have to do it this way because, like you found, when you select the "Copy rows" action, you can only select one sheet for the record to be copied into.

Are either of these examples helpful for what you're trying to accomplish?

Sherry Fox

Thanks @Lauren Dominique ! I appreciate all the help!!!

Lauren Dominique

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/405337#Comment_405337

Glad to hear it! Best of luck to you.

Sherry Fox

@Lauren Dominique ,

We are using this information as we speak to set up the automation, and it is working perfectly! I never thought of adding a condition (copy rows), then removing the conditions. Thanks again!!!