Automation Workflow to send an Email after 2 Cells have been changed

Hi Everyone,

I am using automation workflow to help send an email with various data after 2 cells have been changed. For context, these cells are in consecutive rows. Is there a way to use a workflow to send an email ONLY after both cells have been revised? Does Smartsheet have indexing capabilities to achieve this? Additionally, in the body of the message that gets sent, I am aware you use {{ }} to have data from the sheet included. Is there a way to use indexing to have the data from the consecutive row included?

Thanks for your help! Much appreciated.

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Matias Korsgaard

Hi,
To my knowledge it is not possible to include data from a specific row, as that feature is managed by the column.

But to get smartsheet to only send out email when specific cells in different rows are changed, there is a small workaround.
I use it to get an update request send out, only for the current month and not the last month (which is there for reference)

The way I have set it up is to ad a column called 'Period', in the automation I then specify that it should only run if Period = 'Current Report'
I could imagine you could make a similar set-up

egold31

Would you mind clarifying your process for adding a column called 'Period'? In Smartsheet Automation as an Action, you are only able to move or copy rows. My initial thought was to create a separate automation that copies the rows that are changed to another sheet. This way the 2 changed consecutive rows would be visible. However, does Smartsheet not have a way to use row indexing? This is the perpetual issue as a change in 2 cells would have to be the trigger. I appreciate your response and assistance.

Paul Newcome

Are you able to provide screenshots for context? You are able to reference other rows, but you would do so with formulas instead of automations.

And yes. You can include data from the triggering row in an automation using {{Placeholders}}.

egold31

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply! I attached a screenshot for context. The gist of the problem I'm having is that I want an automated email to be sent once BOTH ID values are changed (since they come in pairs). However, you are only able to set the trigger as "When ID changes to: Any Value" This will cause an email to be sent every time a singular ID is changed, I need it for both.

In the body of the message, I want to include each new ID value for position 1 and 2. I used {{ID}} but that once again only captures 1 change. Is there anyway to row reference the row+1 to get the ID in position 2?

Hopefully this clarifies things, thank you!

egold31

@Paul Newcome ^

Paul Newcome

You would need to use helper columns with formulas to get everything on a single row.

egold31

Customize your alerts and requests | Smartsheet Learning Center

I found the link above and it states, "With the Message only alert type, any simultaneously triggered rows are combined into a single notification." However, my Automation is still sending separate messages for each instance despite one row being changed after the other and then saving the sheet. Why is this the case and how can I fix it?

Additionally, how would you go about getting everything on a single row without messing up the formatting of the existing sheet?

Paul Newcome

You would use helper columns with formulas. You can hide the helper columns after setting them up if you are concerned with the user interface getting cluttered.

egold31

@SSFeatures

Could you please address my question below? Thanks!

Customize your alerts and requests | Smartsheet Learning Center

SSFeatures

Hi egold31,

I just created a sheet, setup automation and then tested the workflow out myself. I made changes to multiple rows then saved the sheet. All of my modifications were combined into a single notification, and this is what the email looks like:

multi-row-change.png

I used the automation template named "Alert someone when anything changes".

Can you send a screenshot of your automation settings?

SSFeatures

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