Sending a form for authorization/signature

Hello, I am very new to Smartsheet so please bear with me.

Every year we have a group of applications for a program. In the past they filled out a pdf form, but I'd like to start having them fill it out online.

The problem is that while the applicant fills out the information and attaches supplemental files, a final step has to be a authorization from a supervisor, they have to "sign off" on the information in the form. Then it will get routed back to me.

So form is online. Step 1. Applicant fills out. Step 2. Form gets routed to Supervisor. Supervisor signs off. Step 3. Form gets routed to me (or I receive notification it was approved.) Step 4. Profit! (just kidding)

Is this something that can be done via Smartsheet?

I see there is something called Approval Workflow... is there a simple article that would teach me how to set that up?

Something that might complicate things... the approver would de determined by a field the applicant would fill out via a drop down list. So if the user selects choice A, it would go to Supervisor A, choice B, Supervisor B, and so on.

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Accepted answers

Paul Newcome

This can be set up within Smartsheet.

You would create the form within the sheet and then send out the URL to whoever needs it. You would set up a Contact Type column for the supervisor and then set up an Approval Workflow to go to the person in the contact column to approve or decline once the Supervisor column changes to any value.

To get it set up to automatically pull the appropriate supervisor based on the dropdown selection within the form, I would suggest creating a table in a separate sheet that consists of two columns.

One column would have each option listed out, and then the other column would have the corresponding supervisor's email address.

Once you get the table set up, you would apply a column formula using cross sheet references that would look similar to...

=INDEX({Table Sheet Email Address Column}, MATCH([Dropdown Column Name]@row, {Table Sheet Option Column}, 0))

Paul Newcome

Your second sheet only needs two columns.

The first column will have each of the options listed once. The second column will be a contact type column containing the appropriate email for each selection available.

Then on the form sheet you would have a contact type column with the INDEX/MATCH formula set as a column formula.

This is to take care of this part of your post:

Paul Newcome

Make sure your personal setting have it included to send notifications for your own changes.

The form is going to populate in the first UNUSED row. Not the first empty row. If there was data in row 1 and you only deleted the data from the cells, then the row was still used and the form will populate on row 2. You would need to delete the actual rows themselves. Then the form will start populating at the top

All comments

Paul Newcome

This can be set up within Smartsheet.

To get it set up to automatically pull the appropriate supervisor based on the dropdown selection within the form, I would suggest creating a table in a separate sheet that consists of two columns.

One column would have each option listed out, and then the other column would have the corresponding supervisor's email address.

Once you get the table set up, you would apply a column formula using cross sheet references that would look similar to...

=INDEX({Table Sheet Email Address Column}, MATCH([Dropdown Column Name]@row, {Table Sheet Option Column}, 0))

AKunce

I'm doing something wrong. I keep coming up with errors, #UNPARSEABLE seems to be a favorite.

So now I have two sheets, one is the application form (Application) the other is the sheet with three columns (Supervisors). The 3 columns in Supervisors sheet are Department, Name, and Email. (This is what I'm using as the table? Is that correct?)

I went to Supervisor Name column in Application, and set it as a Contact list. But then I also want to put a column formula in there as well?

The column formula in Application should look at Supervisors/Department Column rows 1-16 and compare it to Application/Department column and if it finds a match fill in the correct name from Supervisors/Name column. But I can't get it to do that, even with editing your formula to match sheet and column names.

I also tried to do it as a VLOOKUP and am having no luck.

What am I getting wrong?

Paul Newcome

Your second sheet only needs two columns.

The first column will have each of the options listed once. The second column will be a contact type column containing the appropriate email for each selection available.

Then on the form sheet you would have a contact type column with the INDEX/MATCH formula set as a column formula.

This is to take care of this part of your post:

AKunce

I got the column formula to work... thank you!

Now I'm having problems with the workflow.

I set up a trigger so that when a certain checkbox is clicked, it should run the workflow.

Trigger: When Submit to Supervisor changes to Checked

Request an approval:

Send to contacts in a cell [Supervisor email] (with a message)

If Approved: Alert Someone, Send to specific people, Me

I set up a test form where I put myself as the Supervisor. I filled out the form, clicked the big old Submit button, but I never got an approval email. Plus, while the grid view filled out ok, it put the information way down on the 45 row or so.

So I have to figure out where the log jam is.

Paul Newcome

Make sure your personal setting have it included to send notifications for your own changes.

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