Auto populate a contact cell but still with overwrite capabilities

nick.kopy

Hello, I am trying to "suggest" a contact in a contact list column but can't find a way to automatically populate a cell while still having the ability to overwrite it later if that suggestion is not correct.

So I've got a Program column, a Suggested column, and a Assignee column. Program is a dropdown and Suggested (contact list column) has a column formula INDEX(MATCH()) to pull from another sheet who is probably going to be assigned (a contact). It's not 1:1 though and some rows will be Program A with person 1 while others are Program A with person 2.

I am looking for a way to automatically copy the contact in the Suggested column to the Assignee column. I can't use a column formula because I may need to change it later. Smartsheet Automation's "assign people" task only allows assigning specific people, not a contact from another cell. Automation's "change cell value" doesn't allow changes to contact cells. The Assignee column needs to be the contact list type so that they can be emailed using automation later.

Is there a way to accomplish this?

____________________________________________________

| Program | Suggested (fx) | Assigned |

|-----------------------------------------------------|

| A | Nick | Nick |

| A | Nick | Casey |

| B | Brent | TBD |

|------------------------------------------------------|

Paul Newcome

You would need an extra column for a total of 3 columns. One has the INDEX/MATCH, another is for "Manual Override", and the 3rd is the final column that is used for automations. You would use an IF statement in this last column to pull from the manual column if it isn't blank, otherwise pull from the formula column.

=IF([Manual Override]@row <> "", [Manual Override]@row, [Automated Column]@row)