Duplicate Notifications and to Everyone in the Workflow

Amy Arnold

Issue: The notifications for the CD level and RVP level are duplicating and sending to everyone in the workflow. 😬 Something is wrong with the workflows I created.

Sheet Design

Each row has someone assigned {Response Assigned to} to add the response to the {Center Responses} column. The person in the {Response Approved By} column reviews the response and eventually approves them. The status of that review is captured in the {WF Status} column. All of this happens in the orange columns.

Next, the CD reviews the approved {Center Responses}. If needed, they can request revisions from the people in the {Response Assigned to} and {Response Approved By} columns. The status of that review is captured in the {CD Status} column. This happens in the orange columns.

Last, the RVP performs the same review as the CD but is the final approver. If needed, they can request revisions from the people in the {Response Assigned to} and {Response Approved By} columns. This happens in the purple columns.

Three workflows:

(1) Director level: First in the approval process.

(2) CD level: Second in the approval process.

(3) RVP level: Third and last in the approval process.

Link to test sheet: https://app.smartsheet.com/sheets/fxw7mv4gxQ4jRhH8Frv76FJGVmMcP9RWHmh3rq81

Andrée Starå

Hi @Amy Arnold

I hope you're well and safe!

I've requested access. I'll take a look.

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Andrée Starå

@Amy Arnold

Which of the Workflow is being duplicated more specifically?

Amy Arnold

Hi @Andrée Starå. two notifications are triggering simultaneously in the CD and RVP workflows.

Both workflows are set up similarly so included the CD workflow below. I believe two notifications are triggering simultaneously at the "Request an Update" and the "Request an Approval" checkpoints.

There's probably a better way to set this up too 😁

I appreciate your help, thank you.

Emily Eberle-Levine

I've requested access to the sheet as well. By any chance are you re-using the same approval column/values across separate workflows? When you build the approval automation, Smartsheet automatically creates a unique column to store the approval decision. If you change that column to something else, and the approval columns and values are re-used across workflows, duplicate alerts may go out. To prevent this, use different approval values or add conditions after each approved or declined request to better clarify. Here's more information about approval workflows: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/approval-requests

Cheers,

Emily

Sr. Product Manager, Automated Workflows

Harbani

I'm facing a similar issue can someone assist? @Andrée Starå.

RebSchr

20230103 PTO Schedule Approval Flow.pdf

@Harbani - Here is the solution that I had to utilize in order to prevent multiple notifications. It required me to put a condition 'after' the approval / decline. I did submit this as a potential enhancement to workflows. In my opinion, the first condition should satisfy the rest of the workflow.

Hope this helps!

Rebekah