Approval Workflows with Inconsistent Reviewers

gbglaser

Background:

I want to make a sheet that can track all of my review/approval requests throughout a project. I would want multiple types of project documents to be reviewed/approved (e.g., change requests, project charters/plans, test cases, etc.) each with their own set of reviewers/approvers. For instance:

1. Project Charter - three reviewers and two approvers
2. Test Cases - two reviewers and one approver

Within each document type, the reviewer/approver counts could change.

My thought for this sheet would be to have a column for each reviewer/approver (Reviewer 1, Reviewer 2,...,Approver 1, Approver 2,...) and then trigger a workflow when the status of the row changes from New to In Review/Approval.

Being new to Smartsheet, I am confident that I could build a workflow that would request an approval from the next reviewer/approver in sequential order if I built a workflow that would account for the maximum number of reviewers and approvers. But as the example above illustrates, not all workflows will require the same number of reviewers or approvers.

Questions:

1. Is there a way to run workflows where a blank entry in a column will skip that step and proceed to the next approvers?
2. Suggestions for a better design of this sheet?
3. Suggestions to change ideas completely?
4. Has this question already been answered in another thread (couldn't find after some serious searching)? If so, please provide a link.

gbglaser

Although similar, this thread does not seem to answer my question.

Sequential Approvals with Missing Contacts — Smartsheet Community

Certainly open for other suggestions.

Joe Goetschel

Have you tried using Proofing for the approval process and then using the approval columns to trigger automation to copy the approvals to another sheet?