What is the best way to pull data from a sheet to create an acknowledgement receipt?

Sara Ross

My organization receives public records requests submitted through a Smartsheet form. Besides the automatic response generated by Smartsheet immediately following submission, we would like to provide an additional acknowledgment to the requestor that includes some of the data from the source sheet (but not all) along with some supplementary text not found on the sheet; e.g., the ID number assigned to the request, anticipated fulfillment date, records requested, government code language, etc. I'm looking for guidance on what would be the best/most efficient way to create this acknowledgement to email to the requestor.

I've experimented with using the row function to 'generate documents', but find the formatting options lacking. I could link the data to another sheet and use the 'send as attachment' row function, but don't like the limited ability to customize.

I'd like to know if there are any other available options and hopefully get some insight from more experienced users on which choice fits best for this purpose.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Sara Ross

I hope you're well and safe!

You could add an alert that would be sent after you've received a new submission and that can reference and include specific information such as the ID and similar.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Sara Ross

Thank you for your response, Andree. If I understand correctly, Smartsheet does not maintain a copy/record of alerts sent out. This type of documentation is necessary for us to demonstrate adherence to legal requirements.

Other thoughts?

Sara Ross

Could you please confirm if Smartsheet maintains a copy of alerts sent out...similar to an email platform saving sent emails in the "sent" folder. Thanks!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Sara Ross

I hope you're well and safe!

It doesn't.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up, Awesome, or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Sara Ross

Thanks for the confirmation. That would definitely be a helpful feature to establishing a record trail of compliance.

Andrée Starå

@Sara Ross

Happy to help!

A workaround could be to have a copy of the information copied to a log sheet for each alert.

Would that work/help?

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