Update Request Automation - Single v Consolidated messages

Sing C

Hi,

Hoping someone can shine a light on how update request notifications work. I have a list of projects in a sheet which I would like the owners to provide weekly updates for; some have multiple owners, other tasks have only one owner. I've set-up a few automations to test the different messages owners would receive but I can't figure out the pattern based on how I setup the automations.

I've noticed that the email an owner receives can either be a single email, with the fields I've selected to be displayed in the email, for all that owner's tasks or it can be one email for each task, but I can't work out what the required setup is to get each of these outcomes.

The benefit of having a single email is people don't get spammed with multiple update requests, but the big drawback is that the owner has to submit all updates at the same time, since the update form that opens from the update request email doesn't have a submit button for each task, just one at the end of the final task (as you page left and right between the tasks to provide an update). The challenge here of course is that the owner may have updates to submit at different times in the week and not all at once.

While the individual email per task is preferred because of this I want to give the owners the option, but, as I say, can't figure out how to configure two automations, one that sends a single email with all a person's projects and one that sends one email per project.

I've set one up like this:

and I assumed the {{project}} would lead to one email per project but it doesn't seem to.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Sing Chen

I hope you're well and safe!

The main thing that affects how it's sent is the placeholder feature and workflow timing.

Placeholders will generate separate notifications when using placeholders with Alert or Update Request actions in change-based workflows if six or fewer rows are triggered simultaneously. If seven or more rows are triggered at once, the custom subject and body will be removed.

Make sense?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Andrée Starå

Hi @Sing Chen

I hope you're well and safe!

The main thing that affects how it's sent is the placeholder feature and workflow timing.

Placeholders will generate separate notifications when using placeholders with Alert or Update Request actions in change-based workflows if six or fewer rows are triggered simultaneously. If seven or more rows are triggered at once, the custom subject and body will be removed.

Make sense?

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 support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Sing C

Thanks @Andrée Starå!

This explains it! It's unfortunate that crossing a limit changes the behaviour, since that changes the user experience depending on which side of that limit they are on. For a user who has 6 tasks one week then 7 the next and 6 the next, it would seem very inconsistent and the result is they engage with the process of providing updates differently (i.e. for 6 or fewer they can provide updates per task/per project, for 7 or fewer they have to curate all updates and submit together).