Approval Request

I have a Form that our service technicians send out and it triggers an Approval Request process.

The conundrum I'm running into is some of the questions on the form are quite lengthy, so they have been added as 'Labels' as opposed to putting the question in the Column Header.

When the Approval Request is funneled to Approver, the Approver really needs to see the full question, however, I don't see anywhere where I can make that happen.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a workaround that I haven't yet stumbled on?

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AmandaWebb

I can't find any evidence that there is a systematically easy way to ensure Approval recipients see the label rather than the column header, and people were questioning this at least as far back as 2020 so it's pretty surprising that hasn't been changed yet.

An old forum post suggested using helper columns, but no real suggestions on exactly what that entail or how to make it work effectively.

Perhaps consider adjusting the question length to a more reasonable "header sized" length? I don't see any full questions in your screenshots so I can't really provide a good example of what I mean. Keep in mind, you can have a succint initial question and provide additional detail in the Help Text. This additional detail would only be for the person submitting the form.

Like this:

Column Header AND Label: All equipment is available
Help Text: Available sprinklers, hose streams, and extinguishers are in service…

This would keep the column headers neat, provide a much more usable approval form, while still providing all the erroneous detail a form submitter may need that a form approver would not.

Hope this helps!

PeggyLang

@AmandaWebb

Thank you for your reply. That is precisely what I ended up doing.

Not really a 'full service' survey option in Smartsheet. Perhaps that is on their radar for improvement?

AmandaWebb

@PeggyLang

I searched "Approval workflow" in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas section and I didn't see one that seemed to match what you're describing, maybe you should submit the idea!

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