Issue With Smart Sheets Forms Automation, and Data not Being Recorded in the Right Row!

Good day!

i'm facing a weird issue with smart sheets automations, I have created a form on smart sheets and the questions were linked to the sheet columns normally

i created a column of email contacts list to run the automations over, and the idea was that whoever gets this form link to fill from this email list, will fill it out, then those responses will be recorded in the correct row that has this contact email.

but, that was not the case, and the responses were recorded always one row after the contact list, and when i tried to do with a full list of emails, it kept recording the responses as well after all of them, it was more of like since there's something written on this row it won't record any on it

I don't know how to fix this, it's quite weird, as this somehow makes the automations quite useless when it comes to sending a form to specific email list

If someone knows how to fix that or have tried something similar and can share some advice, i would really appreciate it!

thank you!

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Forms

Contacts

Automations

Update Requests

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Kerry St. Thomas

When a form entry is submitted, a new row is CREATED. When someone responds to an Update Request notification, an existing row is MODIFIED. If you're trying to use a FORM to make UPDATES - you're mixing two incompatible things. (Like toothpaste and orange juice. Don't do that.)

Can you clarify how you're gathering data - whether by form or update request? Also, if by update request, can you share some screenshots of your underlying sheet, as well as the update request - this can help troubleshoot what you're experiencing. Thanks!

David011

What’s Going On:

Smartsheet forms always add new submissions as new rows at the bottom of the sheet. They do not overwrite or populate existing rows, even if those rows contain matching email addresses or other identifiers. That’s why your responses are appearing one row after your contact list or at the bottom of the sheet—it’s working as designed, but not in the way you expected.

Possible Solutions:

Use Update Requests Instead of Forms:
- If you want specific people (from your email list) to fill out information in their corresponding rows, consider using Update Requests instead of a form.
- This allows you to send a request tied to a specific row, and when the recipient fills it out, it updates that exact row.
Automate Row Matching Post-Submission:
- Let the form submissions go to new rows, then use formulas or automation to match the submitted email to your contact list and move or copy the data to the correct row.
- You can use a helper column with a formula like MATCH([Email]@row, [Contact List]:[Contact List], 0) to find the correct row index.
Use a Helper Sheet:
- Have the form feed into a separate sheet, and then use cell linking or cross-sheet formulas to pull the data into the correct rows in your main sheet.
Automation with Conditions:
- If you're using automations to send alerts or reminders, make sure they’re triggered based on the new rows added by the form, not the pre-filled contact list rows.

I hope this points you in the right direction!

Mohamed M.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/484052#Comment_484052

Thank you so much for your comment!

The main idea that i'm trying to implement here is to create a survey that will be sent to a different client list that i will provide to smart sheet on a dedicated column,

The way i installed the automation, is that i created an update request and added the link of the form that has all my questions and the link is added in the message of the email, I tried this approach with an alert request as well, but it provides the same result.

I'm not able to send automations using specific rows, unfortunately cause i'm not able to fit all the text i want to include in the questions within the columns title! as it only allows to write a limited number of letters, and here came the form idea

So all what i was looking for, only that every single email on the list, to have the assigned responses for it. I'm pretty sure there should be a solution to this issue, but i need to dig for more.

Mohamed M.

Hi David! thanks a lot for your comment!

It looks like there's no direct way to have automations specified to the forms created in Smart Sheet!

and somehow i need to get around to make this concept work.

I will give your suggestion a try! It's quite a slick one!

I hope it works though for my case smoothly, thanks again!

Mohamed M.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/484053#Comment_484053

Hi David! thanks a lot for your comment!

It looks like there's no direct way to have automations specified to the forms created in Smart Sheet!

and somehow i need to get around to make this concept work.

I will give your suggestion a try! It's quite a slick one!

I hope it works though for my case smoothly, thanks again!

Mohamed M.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/484053#Comment_484053

Hello,

So i have tried these solutions, and the one of using a helper sheet or a helper column was the best one matching what i want. I still faced another issue though!

The whole idea of me doing this, is to not to ask clients to insert their emails and they would only need to answer the questions of the survey.

But following with this solution you mentioned, Smart Sheet is still not able to match this row to that row, cause to it still there's no connection between them, as the the response is always recorded on a new different row from the email one, there's non a unique identifier to match those 2 according to Smart Sheet.

I'm wondering if you have another idea to apply to this situation? All what i need is to send that form of the survey to clients, and they only have to answer them without including their names or details, and those answers to be recorded in the correct cell of the email that was sent to.

If Smart Sheet offered an automation to the form directly in their automation settings like they do with their rows and cells, this wouldn't have been an issue.

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/139333/issue-with-smart-sheets-forms-automation-and-data-not-being-recorded-in-the-right-row

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

You could use a so-called helper sheet and have the submissions added to that sheet, and combine it with the URL-Query feature so you can match the helper sheet to the main one and, using cross-sheet formulas, match the data to the correct record.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Smartsheet Expert Consultant & Partner / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅ Did I help answer your question/solve the problem? Please support with💡 ⬆️ ❤️, and/or ✅ Answer. This will make it easier for others to find a solution or help answer! I appreciate it, thank you! 🙏

Mohamed M.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/485399#Comment_485399

Hi Andree!

thank you for your response, i have tried this already, the issue is that i didn't want to add a question part of the survey to ask for personal details such as email or sth, other than that the helper sheet idea would work well, cause i would have a mutual column between both of the sheets with the same value in order to pull the data from one to another.

But, unfortunately, in case this data is not there, the helper sheet idea will not work.

I'm open minded to any other solutions/ideas you have in mind!

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