Unique Alerts

Shawn R

I have a sheet where when a user fills out a form they check the first person the task is assigned to when that person completes the task they uncheck their name and check the next person who has a task to complete. So I have alerts set up to send emails when their name is checked.

 

The alert is set up like: "Send Joe and email right away when 'Joe' changes." For example, lets say that users Dave and Joe will have tasks to complete on this line. So a user inputs the sheet and selects Dave. Dave receives an email stating his name column has changes and can go in and complete the tasks he needs to.

 

Now when he is done he unchecks his name and selects Joe. Joe will receive an email which is great, but since Dave unchecked his name, it's considered a change and him receives another useless alert.

 

Is there any way I can configure Smartsheet to only send out alerts when a name is checked and ignore the alert when it is unchecked?

Russ Anderson

SS Used to have their Roadmap available, but that page is now redirecting. On the roadmap there was an item called conditional notifications. Ultimately, I think this is what you, and many other users are looking for, including myself.

 

I can't wait for that update!

 

We are using a workaround using comments. We at mention the person that the task is assigned to, for example, @RussA, please handle this task. We combine that with a rule in outlook, and a notification in SS. The notification goes to all shared users, and only notifies when the "Comment" changes. The rule in outlook applies conditional formatting to notifications that have "@RussA" in the message body. It's been working pretty well for us, but not as good as conditional notifications would...

Shawn R

 Hey Russ,

 

Yes, conditional notifications would be a godsend right about now. The workaround you mentioned would suffice, however, I found it easier to just instruct people to not uncheck their name when they have finished their task. This solves the duplicate unnecessary notifications they were receiving. We will just work this way until conditional notifications update gets released.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

Tim Meeks

@Admin Admin

 

CONDITIONAL FORMATTING = Princess Leia's plea to Obi Wan Kenobi. (don't make me explain)  

 

But a work around is to setup another column (Email Alert) with an IF formula that looks for Joe in the Task Assisnged and then sets the value to 1 for Joe or 2 for Russ or 3 for Dave.   

 

Then have the alert run on the Email Alert column based on the value it sets. 

 

Tedious....

 

Russ Anderson

Thanks Tim, but we're talking about Conditional Notifications, not formatting. To my knowledge, you can't setup a notification based on a given value in a column. That is conditional notification.

 

What @AdminAdmin describes is probably the closest thing if you have a small team.

 

I would be so happy if I'm wrong though.

Tim Meeks

@Russ,

 

You are correct. I use email notificaitons all the time... and I SO want Conditional Notificaitons.

 Sorry that I got confused with that and Alerts.

 

tim

 

 

JamesR

There is an alternative design using reports.

Have a report created for each user and set it so that the records that they areassigned to appear in thier report.

 

User 1 does thier bit and then assigns the task to the next person (User 2).  When that happend the task disapears from User ones Report and appears in the report for User 2.

 

Each report can be configured with only the Columns that they need to Identify the task and the those that need to be completed.

 

When User 2 completes thier bits then select the next person in the chain or returns it to the originator by selecting thier name.

Shawn R

@JamesR

 

This is an interesting concept. But from what I can tell, there is no way to set up email alerts with reports. So then the user would have to continually check their reports to see whether or not they have a task assigned to them. Knowing the people that I am working with, they aren't going to be OK with that.

 

 

 

JamesR

@Admin

 

Yes you are right, the idea here is to not use Emails or Alerts but to encourage the uses to use this as thier workspace as part of thier Process flow and work management. Not always an easy process.

 

One way is to have a Dashboard feeding from the tasks to show thier status and the person responcible and display on a hugh Plasma screen so that people can see what needs to be done and by whom.  Often used in Call centres and support Desks.

Shawn R

@JamesR

 

I totally agree that using reports will ultimately get the desired results. But the changing of processes and relying on people to just check their reports to ensure they have no tasks to complete is just not going to fly with the group that is working with this sheet.

 

I could just as easily inform them that the process is to keep the sheet itself open and apply a filter on the column with their name to equal "is checked" and whenever one appears, do their task and uncheck their name. That gets the same results as a report, however they want a way to notify people and email is something that is already established as "needing to be monitored" so thats how they want to go about it.

 

As stated in my second post, we are just going to keep people's names checked until some conditonal alerts update is released. I really do appreciate the options you presented, much thanks!

 

@Tim Meeks

 

I forgot to mention, at no point in my life will anyone need to explain a Star Wars reference to me! haha!