Best Way to Facilitate Task Hand-Off to Different Assignees

MKMaven

I've been trying to build out a solid "template" of sorts to help manage numerous tasks/subtasks for similar but different projects. Each row contains a parent task or a child task (subtask). Many of these tasks change hands throughout the process of the project as it evolves toward completion.

As one example, Assignee A develops an idea, then that idea is handed off to Assignee B who researches the idea, then Assignee C reviews and approves the idea. That same "task" is basically handed from one person to the next, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to structure a project/plan in Smartsheet that effectively facilitates this series of hand-offs for essentially the same task as it progresses. Save for creating a separate task for each of these on its own row, which is essentially repetitious and I'd like to avoid this, if possible.

Does anyone have any ideas for how this could be set up, and how the next person in the hand-off gets automatically notified that the task is now on their plate?

Thank you for your ideas and insights.

Paul.Woodward

Here are my thoughts. Hope it helps?

1. Add Key Columns to Your Sheet:

• Task Name – The main task
• Task Stage (Dropdown) – Track where the task is in the process (e.g., Idea Development, Research, Approval)
• Assigned To (Contact List) – Automatically update this as the task moves to the next stage
• Status (Dropdown) – Not Started, In Progress, Completed, etc.
• Due Date – Keep track of deadlines

2. Use Automation to Assign & Notify the Next Person:

• Set up an Automated Workflow that:
  1. Triggers when Task Stage changes (e.g., from "Idea Development" to "Research").
  2. Automatically updates the "Assigned To" column based on the stage.
  3. Sends an email or alert to notify the new assignee.

Example:

• When Assignee A marks "Task Stage" as "Research", Smartsheet:
  • Updates "Assigned To" → Assignee B
  • Sends Assignee B an alert: "You are now responsible for this task."

3. Optional: Use Reports for Individual Task Views

Each assignee can have a filtered report that only shows tasks assigned to them, making it easy to track their workload.

4. Optional: Use Conditional Formatting

To visually indicate responsibility changes, apply conditional formatting:

• If "Assigned To" changes, highlight the row to signal a hand-off.

This setup ensures a single-row workflow, prevents unnecessary duplication, and automates the hand-off process effectively. Let me know if you need help configuring the automation!

MKMaven

Thank you so much for these detailed structural ideas! I will work on getting this set up and trying it out. The only aspect I am wondering about is the Due Date… some of these tasks are pretty fluid and don't necessarily have hard deadlines (which isn't ideal, I know, but it's kind of where we are at with it currently), so I don't know how much of a hindrance that might be when facilitating hand-offs, triggering alerts, etc.

Question for item #3: I created a Row Report yesterday with the source data tied to a Workspace folder that contains multiple project sheets/plans, so that all assigned tasks across all of these sheets would be visible in one place, but I wasn't loving how it showed all tasks assigned to every assignee.

I did group this report by Assignee and then by Sheet Name to help, but do you have a link that describes how to set up a task view report that is more individualized per user? Or what I need to change in this existing Row Report to make it more individualized? Does that also require that I set up a separate report for EACH assignee in order for them to each view their own individual task view? Or how does that work?

I appreciate your help so much!