Regarding Automation: Approval Workflows

Stephanie Burdette

I have a SmartSheet form with multiple approval workflows based on different groups within our department.

Each group has different approvals and alerts to go to specific people at different times in the workflow. I just activated all workflows and had one approval done for one specific group and email notification/alerts were sent to multiple people from the other workflows - not included in this particular group's workflow.

I have the groups separated by the trigger : When rows are added (form is submitted), when a particular cell has specific content. Then the approvals and alerts begin. Some approval levels have 'specific people' and others are done from 'contact in a cell'.

I don't understand why emails went out to people who were not part of the group specified in the trigger. Does everything in the workflow refer back to the trigger or do we need to create new specific conditions that are the same as the initial trigger after each step?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Aravind GP

Hi Stephanie,

Trigger is the mechanism to initiate a workflow. If you have conditions set to send based on groups, the approval flow will begin when the trigger criteria is met and people who receive it will be based on the conditions you have set. It will be easier to help you if you can share some screenshots of how you have configured the workflow.

If you find it difficult to do it here, you can reach out to me at aravind@copernicusworld.com.

Thanks,

Aravind

Andrée Starå

Hi @Stephanie Burdette

To add to Aravind's excellent advice/answer,

Here's some more information.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479251-condition-blocks-filter-what-your-automated-workflows-send

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Stephanie Burdette

Thank you both. I've been working with the Smartsheet Support team and they have tested my workflows and said they should be working fine.

They have suggested that I recreate the workflow from scratch as something may have happened when I duplicated the workflow from one team to another.

I did think about creating another condition at the point where the emails seem to go wrong but Smartsheet support team said that everything should be running from my original trigger and condition I have set there which should differentiate each group.

I'm going to go back and recreate the workflows as suggested and hopefully that will take care of the issue.

Again, thank you for your input.

Andrée Starå

@Stephanie Burdette

Happy to help!

You're more than welcome!

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!