How to delay email notification from workflows

CNOmd

We are using a form for users to request a unique identifier number based on different field selections. On the landing sheet of the form we have a formula set up to string together the unique identifier for each submission. Once that number is generated via the formula, we set a workflow to email the result to the submitter. My issue is that the email notification keeps going out before the formula is fully completed.. I need the workflow to run "when triggered" as it would hinder users' work if I scheduled it differently, but since the formula is pulling in multiple fields, it takes a minute or two to build the final result. Emails keep going out with partial results, and I'm not sure how to put further stops in place to delay the email until the formula has a chance to finalize?

Zachary Ziegler

Unfortunately, I don't believe smartsheet workflow automators natively support the ability to introduce a delay on purpose. However I did get to thinking maybe we could fetch the time when the Formula Field is modified, add a few minutes and then set your example automator to trigger when that time arrives and hide the new time column.

Here's a page from the SmartSheet support docs on how the TIME function works, one row in particular pops out at me. The one that goes:

=TIME(RIGHT(Modified@row, 8)) + 4

Which is used to add 4 minutes to last modified time for the row Modified. You can use this formula, based on the time your Formula Field changes, and use that helper column containing time as a new trigger for your automation. That would introduce the artificial delay of your choice, be it 4 minutes or more of course.