Include Attachments in Automated Emails?

Is there a way to include attachments in automated emails?

I want to automate communication to simplify a work process. Currently, emails are sent manually and occasionally contain attachments. All of the information my staff would include in the email is in the sheet, so being able to drag an attachment to a line and then including that in the email would be awesome!

But I haven't found a way to do so. Is there a workaround out there?

Thanks.

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Accepted answers

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/144789/include-attachments-in-automated-emails

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

You could send an Update Request, and all attachments would be included.

Does that 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! 🙏

All comments

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/144789/include-attachments-in-automated-emails

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

You could send an Update Request, and all attachments would be included.

Does that 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

Paul Perger

I will try that. I always forget about Update Requests…

Andrée Starå

Excellent!

Also, if you want to include what you add at the time you add it, you could use an Alert, but Update Requests ensure that everything on the row is included.

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

marc4

A tedious method is to open the attachments sidebar and for each attachment click on the 3 dots and pick "Send File". this will open a Send Attachment window and you can copy the url to the attachment and paste it into a cell.

/marc

brhea110891

Can you please explain further what you mean by sending an Update Request and how this will include attachments?

One way we include attachments is by creating a report, using the filter that allows the ability to limit views to current user, adding the report to the auto notification (custom message), and making the notification, "send message only."

Edit Kalb

it would be great to have the ability to add attachments but not have to share a sheet link! That is the drawback to this solution.

Don Wilcox

I have found the only way, currently, to include an attachment is as Andree has said. To send an update request. The request sends a link. You also have to include at least 1 field from the sheet. The recipient clicks the update link in the received email and is able to see a link to the file. They are then able to open that file. There is no way to send an encrypted email, like if your document has Personal Health Information (PHI)/Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in it. Your users would have to download the document from Smartsheet and manually attach to an email that is encrypted. I'm looking forward to the day when Smartsheet is able to do this.

Take Care and Stay Warm!

Don Wilcox

Sandra Guzman

Hello @Paul Perger,

Another possible solution that has worked well for me is creating a report to pull in the data from the source sheet. I then use send the attachment functionality in the report view. You can set it up based on whatever frequency you want. I have different reports that pull and send monthly or weekly.

It could get complicated depending on your specific needs, but if you set up the reports and use the filters to get whatever reporting data you want to send. I think this may be the easiest way to set that up.

If there is no items on the report, just no that the data will be blank. I have included a message to indicate that to the people on the receiving end so I don't get bombarded with questions as to why they are getting a blank report.

Hope this helps!

Sandra Guzman

Hi @Paul Perger,

I have use a different process to manage this.

Create a report pulling data from the source sheet. You can then use the send as attachment feature. It works great for automating the notifications. It just depends on what you are trying to send and communicate out. You may need to set up several reports. But once you do that - you don't have to worry about touching this to send out the notification.

Hope this helps!

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