Record a date automation not working?

Kate Winter

I have a task list, and I want to use automation to supply the date the checkbox gets checked. Here is my workflow:

Am I misunderstanding this workflow? Do I need another condition in there somewhere? Absolutely nothing happens in this sheet when I check the boxes.

Thanks!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Kate Winter

First, make sure that you have allowed yourself to receive notifications properly in your Personal Settings (circle/profile in the upper right corner) and secondly check the Permission setting for the Automations. (cog in the top right corner in the Automation overview)

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅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!

Kate Winter

@Andrée Starå I actually don't want a notification, I just want the date populated when the box is checked. Does that make sense?

I do have automation permissions turned on for the sheet.

Thanks!

RossL

@Kate Allison

I have noticed it will populate after a save and refresh but it might be delayed at the moment. looking at the Smartsheet status page

Andrée Starå

@Kate Winter

Happy to help!

Yes, that makes sense.

Strange!

I'd be happy to take a quick look.

Can you maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s)? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@workbold.com)

Also, it might be because there currently is an issue, so everything is delayed.

Andrée Starå

@Kate Winter

I read through your post again, and I think you misunderstood me. The first part described below is for changes as well, so make sure that it's set to, Include my changes...

More info.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479931-trigger-automated-workflows-on-the-changes-you-make

First, make sure that you have allowed yourself to receive notifications properly in your Personal Settings (circle/profile in the upper right corner), and secondly, check the Permission setting for the Automations. (cog in the top right corner in the Automation overview)

Did that work?

✅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!

Prince Ghosh

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/75548/record-a-date-automation-not-working

Hi Kate,

Did it get resolved? I have similar situation. Set the conditions right but it hasn't been recording dates.

Kate Winter

@Prince Ghosh No, I tried all of Andree's suggestions and it still isn't working. Interestingly, it works for him when I granted access to his sheet. My next step is to reach out to Smartsheet support, although I'm not 100% sure how to do that yet. If you get an answer before me please let me know here!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Kate Winter and @Prince Ghosh

Another thing to check is how the workflow is triggered; actions that will automatically modify the sheet (such as Record a Date) cannot be triggered by inbound cell-links or cross-sheet formulas.

This is perhaps how @Andrée Starå was able to trigger the workflow, if he manually checked the box (versus using a formula).

To work around this, you may want to consider using time-based automation or recurrence workflows. (See this article on workflow triggers).

Otherwise, if you were manually making the change but the workflow isn't running as expected, you can contact Support by filling out the form on this page, here: https://help.smartsheet.com/contact/smartsheetapp

Cheers!

Genevieve

Linda Linton

@Kate Winter I had this same issue and finally figured it out. My 'Record a Date' automation was set to record "Date Added" when a new row is added. However, my sheet was already populated with preset row IDs. In other words, when a user added a new record, it was not actually a new row since the row ID was already there, so the automation didn't recognize it as being "Added." I had to change the automation to trigger when rows are "added OR CHANGED" and specify a field in the "When" that will only be updated once (not changed with future edits). Whew! I hope this makes sense. 😊 If not, let me know and I'll try to add some screenshots. Hope it helps!

Linda

skarkhoff

@Kate Winter & @Genevieve P - I'm having a similar issue. I have one column (number of cases) setup with cross-sheet formulas that gives the total number of cases per client, then I have a helper checkbox column with a formula that checks the box if the number of cases column is greater than 1.

I have my workflow setup so that when the helper column changes to checked, a date is recorded in a 3rd column. I set it up this way because I knew that I couldn't base a trigger off a column with a cell link or cross reference formula, and it had been working up until about a month ago.

In reviewing this post: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479236-trigger-blocks-define-when-your-workflow-is-executed it states that a trigger can't be based on my helper column either, since that's referenceing the column with the cross-sheet formula. Is that accurate?

Most of my data on this sheet is coming from other sheets and the need for triggers to work immediately is extremely important in this workflow. If a "helper" column is no longer a solution for immediate workflow triggers, what are some other workarounds? Do I need to add a helper column for my other helper column? This sheet is quite advanced already, and runs extremely slow. I'd hate to add even more columns that will slow it down.

Help!

Genevieve P.

Hi @skarkhoff

Can you clarify why it's important for the date to be recorded immediately? Since dates don't have time associated with them, what about running this workflow as a Date-Based workflow instead? You could have the workflow check the sheet once-a-day to see if any rows meet your criteria, then record that day's date if they do.

For example, you could set up your workflow to run once a day at the end of the day:

Then you can set two conditions: if your other column is greater than 1, and if the Date Field is empty (so this workflow hasn't run on a previous date, otherwise the date would be overwritten for each day that the first criteria is met. Unless you want this?)

Since your workflow is doing the work of checking your column for "greater than 1", this means you can delete out the helper checkbox column which could help simplify your sheet as well.

Cheers,

Genevieve

skarkhoff

@Genevieve P - The sheet I'm working on has a number of formulas to guide the user in what to do next in the sales process. i.e. if A is complete, the user will get a message stating, "move on to step B and complete the following form", etc. The formulas also check to ensure that Steps A, B & C are complete before the user can move on to Step D. That's where the cross sheet formulas come into play, I'm basically checking a number of other sheets to ensure that all steps are completed.

Most of the formulas were set up with the ISDATE() function as a filter for some of the automation, which I can replace, just didn't want to have to do the work if I didn't need to, especially since I swear it had worked up until about a month ago (by using a helper column)!

In looking forward - I have a couple other questions:

1. Is it just the Record Date, Edit Cell Data and Assign people functions that are not available when selecting a cell link/cross-sheet cell as a trigger? Or does that apply to trigger based notifications and approval requests as well?
2. Is there anything planned in the future to include these types of cells as triggers? Or will they only be able to be a scheduled option?
3. In regards to the scheduled/custom date option - will there ever be an option for hourly instead of daily/weekly/etc?

Thank you!

Genevieve P.

Hi @skarkhoff

1 . It's any automation that makes changes to the sheet as an automatic action as part of the workflow, so: Approval Requests (they change the status to "Submitted" automatically), Move rows, Copy rows, Lock rows, Unlock rows, Record a date, and Assign people. I haven't tested this yet, but I would assume the new Cell Change automation falls into this category as well.

Notifications & Update Requests don't automatically make a change - instead, they send out information, and in an Update Request a user might make a manual change. This means they can be triggered by cell-links, no problem!

2 . As far as I'm aware, there is no plan to allow these types of workflows to be triggered by cell-links or cross-sheet formulas, as it's designed this way to prevent infinite loops or circular references.

3 . This is a great question, I'm not sure if this is on the roadmap or not. For this, and for your point 2 above, please fill out the Product feedback form (here) to contact the Product team directly and let them know about your use-case and request.

Thanks!

Genevieve

Illes M

Hello,

I've got a similar question and still don't understand why it doesn't work:

If a cell's value of a single drop-down list type column is changed to a specific value, the date should be recorded.

I don't want to run a daily trigger as there are lot of lines, where the data was retrospectively uploaded and is partial.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Illes M

How are you triggering the workflow? What causes the ASP (PM) cell to update?

Actions that will automatically modify the sheet (such as Record a Date) cannot be triggered by inbound cell-links or cross-sheet formulas, or cells that reference a cell-link or cross-sheet formula.

See the Note at the bottom of this Help Article: Trigger Blocks: Define When Your Workflow is Executed