Auto Approve a Request for Approval

Brett Robinson

Two-part question:

1) Does anyone know of a way to automatically approve a request for approval if a condition is met?

2) Can I record "Approved" in the approval column if it's automatically approved?

We have a process for approving purchases, and project managers are automatically approved to spend up to $100 on their project. I have a way in smartsheet to recognize if the request is coming from a project manager submitting a request for their project, but I can't figure out a way to automatically approve it and/or record "Approved" in the approval column.

The closest I've gotten is to have a condition for the requests less than or equal to $100 which triggers an alert to the project manager that they are approved since it's within their approved spending. This works fin but I'd like to also record the "Approved" in the approval column similar to how you can "Record a Date" or how a request for approval with record approved/disapproved in a designated column.

Ideally, the project manager would not submit the request that is under the threshold, but not everyone reads/follows instruction :)

Krissia B.

Hello @Brett_Robinson ,

 

You can try setting up a formula for the "Approval" portion of your process. I came up with the following below. See screenshot.

Instead of having an "Approval Column", I am using a "Status Column" using a Text/Number Column. The formula basically states "IF the Project Budget Spent is less than or equal to $100, put "Approved", otherwise leave it blank."

 

From there, you can setup an automation to alert your users that they are approved in the example screenshot below.

Hope this works! If you have any questions, provide us additional details such as screenshots & what you have setup so far. Please block out any sensitive data when you are adding screenshots.

 

Check out the links below more on this.

IF Function

Create & Edit Formulas in a Sheet

 

Cheers,

Krissia