Permissions and Approval Automations

Tiffany Fox

Hello! I have a sheet that I built quite a while back that I have multiple people submitting approvals for. When I created it, the information I had was that if you have someone as "view only" for the sheet, the approval or rejection they submit can't be recorded, since technically it is them making a change to the sheet. Has this changed? I need to lock down the content of the actual sheet itself, but still allow these individuals to submit their approval responses. This is a high level process, so I can't "try it and see". Anyone else had recent experience with permissions and approval relationships?

Humashankar

Hi @Tiffany Fox

When I created it, the information I had was that if you have someone as "view only" for the sheet, the approval or rejection they submit can't be recorded, since technically it is them making a change to the sheet. Has this changed? 

Users with "View Only" permissions cannot directly participate in approval workflows by submitting their approval or rejection responses

Humashankar

Hi @Tiffany Fox

I need to lock down the content of the actual sheet itself, but still allow these individuals to submit their approval responses. 

locking down the content of the sheet while still allowing individuals with "View Only" permissions to submit their approval responses, 

Kindly try this workaround.

-> Set up who needs to review and approve or reject items on your sheet. Make sure even people who can only view the sheet are included in this process.

-> For those who shouldn't edit the sheet directly, set their permissions to "View Only". This means they can't change the data but can still be part of the approval process.

-> Users with "View Only" access can see pending approval requests and give their responses in the Approval Panel. They won't be able to change the actual data on the sheet.

-> Even though "View Only" users give responses, Smartsheet keeps track of these separately from the main sheet. So, their responses won't alter the sheet's data. 

Hope this helps - Happy to help further!!

Thank you very much and have a great one!

Warm regards