Trigger 60 days before due date

Hi everyone!

I have been reading some recently asked questions and haven't been able to find the solution to my question yet.

I would like to set up an automation that triggers reminder emails every week (once a week) starting 60 days before employee 'Passport expiry date'.

Can this be done? If i set the Trigger Run to custom, it removes the 60 days before condition for the date field 'Passport expiry date'

Thanks in advance

Best Answer

  • Kerry St. Thomas
    Kerry St. Thomas ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓

    Think about each automation as consisting of three distinct parts: the trigger, the condition, and the action. All the trigger needs to be is "How often will this automation START" and the separate condition is "What has to be true for this automation to CONTINUE." It's "filtering" what allows the workflow to continue. Instead of stacking everything in the trigger, make full use of the separate parts to accomplish what you're after - this will give you much more flexibility to customize your automation workflows. You can set up the Trigger (blue box) to run when a date is reached - repeat every 1 week. The condition (purple box) can be set to two conditions - Where Date is in the next (days) = 60, and Where Date is in the future. (The second one will stop the reminders when the expiry date is reached - allowing you to tailor one reminder for "Your passport is going to expire soon" and a second condition path / reminder for "Your passport is expired, so act now.")

    Check out the video on this page - the 30 second mark refers to the 3 components I'm referring to: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/level-2-intermediate-users/automation

    Good luck!

    If this answer resolves your question, please help the Community by marking it as an accepted answer. I'd also be grateful for your response - "Insightful"or "Awesome" reactions are much appreciated. Thanks!

Answers

  • Kerry St. Thomas
    Kerry St. Thomas ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓

    Think about each automation as consisting of three distinct parts: the trigger, the condition, and the action. All the trigger needs to be is "How often will this automation START" and the separate condition is "What has to be true for this automation to CONTINUE." It's "filtering" what allows the workflow to continue. Instead of stacking everything in the trigger, make full use of the separate parts to accomplish what you're after - this will give you much more flexibility to customize your automation workflows. You can set up the Trigger (blue box) to run when a date is reached - repeat every 1 week. The condition (purple box) can be set to two conditions - Where Date is in the next (days) = 60, and Where Date is in the future. (The second one will stop the reminders when the expiry date is reached - allowing you to tailor one reminder for "Your passport is going to expire soon" and a second condition path / reminder for "Your passport is expired, so act now.")

    Check out the video on this page - the 30 second mark refers to the 3 components I'm referring to: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/level-2-intermediate-users/automation

    Good luck!

    If this answer resolves your question, please help the Community by marking it as an accepted answer. I'd also be grateful for your response - "Insightful"or "Awesome" reactions are much appreciated. Thanks!

  • That's excellent. Thanks a lot.

  • you will need to create a new column- I do it right at the end of my sheet and I can hide the column when I’ve finished with it. Call the column ‘60 day reminder’ and use the passport expiry column - 60 as your formula. This will populate the passport expiry date 60 day prior.

    Then in your automation request an update when a date is reached on your new ‘60 day reminder’ column


    hope this makes sense- please reach out if you need more info


    thanks