Request approval if name(s) are selected from a drop down?

What is the easiest way to request approval if a name or names are selected from a drop-down column?

Ex. Column NAMES would be a drop down with staff listed:

Mike
Larry
Joe
John

Would I set up a separate automation per user's name for this drop-down saying if column NAMES says Mike request approval from Mike's email? Create a separate automation for Larry? Is there a way to have one automation that would cover everything meaning send to Mike if his name is selected but if multiple people are selected send to their different email addresses separately?

Essentially, I only want the people who were selected from the drop-down to receive the approval request. The people who were not selected would not be notified. Thank you

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Approval Request

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Adam Murphy

I would make the NAMES column a CONTACT column and have a single automation for when NAMES changes to any value, condition where NAMES is not blank, then send an approval request to "contacts in a cell" and select the NAMES column once again. Would that work?

SSParks

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/470453#Comment_470453

I'd like the idea the only issue I'm running into is for example I'm trying to see if people are available on a certain date so your portion did work to get the message out to them easier but I need them to approve or deny whether or not they are available and that response is only going back to one column. So I'm not really sure who approved and who denied. Ideally, it would be great to see Mike hit approved, Justin hit, denied, etc., based on who was selected from the drop-down.

I think based on this, I would have to have a column for each person's response as well as an automation set up for each individual person to be contacted for approval. Thoughts

Adam Murphy

Yes you would want an approval column for each approver, but you could still use one automation with conditional paths (if NAMES is one of Mike, then send approval to Mike, then next path is for Larry, etc). That would give you approve/reject by person, but does rely on that person being selected for in the NAMES field to trigger their corresponding approval request. Hope that helps.

SSParks

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/470667#Comment_470667

I wasn't sure or able to find a way to say with one single automation. If Mike's name is listed please send it to his email. If Larry's name is listed, please send it to his email. I was not able to find a if then statement option for automation or what to do if multiple people were selected. Am I missing something?

Adam Murphy

What I suggested works for a single person being selected, not for multiple being selected, so it was me who was missing that part of the requirements. I see you started another thread and have a nice answer there, best of luck!

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