What happens to sheet workflows when the creator is deactivated?

jessicamatos

We have multiple sheets with automation/alert workflows, and the person who created those workflows has left the company. We need to deactivate her account and reassign her license. Will the workflows she built still run? I believe an admin or sheet owner can edit others' workflows, but if we do nothing, will her workflows still work?

Brian_Richardson

I'm pretty sure the automations run under the context of the sheet owner. If she was an admin on the sheet and created automations, she doesn't "own" the automation. You should be fine.

In Bridge, you probably didn't need to rebuild everything. DOH! Just need to reauthenticate the Smartsheet module to a new person. Bridge doesn't have the concept of ownership of individual workflows. Just admins who can view and edit any workflow.

Brian_Richardson

There isn't separate ownership of automations, it's the sheet ownership that matters. So when you change ownership to someone else, you should be fine, automations and forms will "come along for the ride" to the new owner with the sheet.

If her account is already deactivated then the workflows on the sheet might be failing until you get an active user's "context" on the sheet through changing ownership.

jessicamatos

Thank you @Brian_Richardson ! I believe she wasn't the sheet owner but she created automations on a sheet that she was an Admin on. I'm hoping the automations will transfer to the sheet owner but want to be sure. I have a ticket open with smartsheet as well to hopefully find out!

We use Bridge and when the workflow owner got removed from Bridge, all of those workflows needed to be rebuilt :(

Brian_Richardson

I'm pretty sure the automations run under the context of the sheet owner. If she was an admin on the sheet and created automations, she doesn't "own" the automation. You should be fine.

In Bridge, you probably didn't need to rebuild everything. DOH! Just need to reauthenticate the Smartsheet module to a new person. Bridge doesn't have the concept of ownership of individual workflows. Just admins who can view and edit any workflow.

jessicamatos

I fortunately wasn't on the call to resolve the Bridge issue so I missed out on all that fun! But the sheet automations make sense. Thanks so much for your help!