One group of writers always assigned to same editor by automation?

I'm new to SmartSheet, however, I have basic knowledge of its working.

I am trying to assign a number of writers to the same editor for approval of content (articles) by automation? Is this possible with SmartSheet?

For example, I have 20 writers and 2 editors. I want to have a Group A where there are 10 writers and 1 editor and similarly Group B with another 10 writers and 1 editor.

Can this be done automatically by automation or any workaround? Or this can only be done manually?

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Dale Murphy

@deep_blue Do you want the "Approved by" column to change automatically when the "Written by" column has a certain name in it? Or do you want Editor A to be alerted whenever an approval request is received from any one of the ten writers in his or her group? Either is certainly doable.

If you want a note from a certain editor to alert a certain group of writers, that is also possible.

I can't quite discern what your workflow is, so I don't know if you need groups other than to help conceptually.

Dale

deep_blue

Hi @Dale Murphy

I will describe the workflow so that you can understand it well.

We are an article writing team. The same article goes through multiple teams before it is finally delivered to the client or published on their website. It is a multi-step workflow.

Keyword Finder Team
Content PlannerTeam
Writer Team
Editor Team

Step 1: Keyword finder team will go through the client's website and find keywords on which we would draft articles. For this, we have created two SmartSheets for the keyword finder team.

i). Keyword Finder Workflow (Keywords and other details)

ii). Keyword Finder Details (Name, Email, etc.)

We have created similarly two sheets for other teams as well.

Once, keyword finder team finds keywords for article writing, they will mark each row as complete, manually.

The issues here:

Can then keywords (work) be auto-assigned by the system to the content planner team? (where somehow, we have pre-defined that for a particular keyword finder person, a particular content-planner team is assigned)
If the above is not possible, then can the keyword finder team only see the contact list of "content planner team" which they are assigned to and no others, so that the keyword finder team can select content planner team/person manually.
Can keyword finder team (OR the system), only able to assign a limited number of keywords to one content planner. (Because we don't want the system or keyword finder team by mistake to assign too much work to a content planner at one given point of time.)

Step 2: Similarly, once the content planner team marks that they have completed their work (i.e. finding relevant topic and summary of what to include in writing) and update their status as completed. We want to automatically assign that topic to a writer "by the system".

Step 3: Similarly, once the writer marks that topic has been written (status complete), it is auto-assigned by the system to an editor. (The workflow is in an exactly similar fashion as we move ahead.)

In the workflow, we want to auto-assign workflow by the system, so that once a person has completed the task it immediately gets assigned to another person (of another team) without needing manual intervention, to keep the process ongoing and fast.

The issues here:

We want to pre-select a team of writers, whose articles will always be reviewed by one/two particular editors only. As such "10 Writers of Team A" are always assigned to "1 Editor of Team A" always. Similarly for Team B.
In case if there is any shortfall in team members (if someone leaves the company) project manager is notified by email of the same and is able to add the new team member (whether in writer or editor).
In all these workflows, can the person/team be notified by email including (app notification & slack notification)?

Can all of these scenarios be possible in SmartSheet?

Also, we want to restrict data to be seen by each team i.e. keyword finder sheet will have different columns which has nothing to do with the content planner team as such we don't want to show them. Similarly for writers & editors.

The issues here:

Do we need a dynamic view for this?
Can a collaborator plan be enough without dynamic views?

I will really appreciate it if SmartSheet experts can go through my workflow and guide me on what would be the best & inexpensive way to get this done through SmartSheet.

Andrée Starå

Hi @deep_blue

I hope you're well and safe!

Please see my comments/answers/questions below.

I will describe the workflow so that you can understand it well.

We are an article writing team. The same article goes through multiple teams before it is finally delivered to the client or published on their website. It is a multi-step workflow.

Keyword Finder Team
Content PlannerTeam
Writer Team
Editor Team

Step 1: Keyword finder team will go through the client's website and find keywords on which we would draft articles. For this, we have created two SmartSheets for the keyword finder team.

i). Keyword Finder Workflow (Keywords and other details)

ii). Keyword Finder Details (Name, Email, etc.)

We have created similarly two sheets for other teams as well.

Once, keyword finder team finds keywords for article writing, they will mark each row as complete, manually.

The issues here:

Can then keywords (work) be auto-assigned by the system to the content planner team? (where somehow, we have pre-defined that for particular keyword finder person, a particular content-planner team is assigned)

[Andrée Starå] Yes, and there are multiple ways to structure it.

Workflow(s) combined with the Assign People action
A so-called helper sheet where the team is defined and combined with cross-sheet formulas we could look up who should be assigned.
Same as above, but in the same sheet.

If the above is not possible, then can the keyword finder team only see the contact list of "content planner team" and no others which they are assigned to, so that they can select manually.

[Andrée Starå] Yes, but it would need to be in a separate column.

Can keyword finder team (OR the system), only able to assign a limited number of keywords to one content planner.

[Andrée Starå] Not sure I follow! Can you elaborate?

[Andrée Starå] Same options as for the Keyword Finder team.

Step 3: Similarly, once the writer marks that topic has been written (status complete), it is auto-assigned by the system to the editor.

[Andrée Starå] Same options as for the Keyword Finder team.

The issues here:

We want to pre-select a team of writers, whose articles will always be reviewed by one/two particular editors only. As such "10 Writers of Team A" are always assigned to "1 Editor of Team A" always. Similarly for Team B.

[Andrée Starå] Same options as for the Keyword Finder team.

In case if there is any shortfall in team members (if someone leaves the company) project manager is notified by email of the same and is able to add the new team member (whether in writer or editor).

[Andrée Starå] You'd need to have a directory sheet or/and a process for this. Instead of defining the specific people in the Workflow, we could add a so-called helper column for the contacts or separate them into columns and then update from the directory instead.

In all these workflows, can the person/team be notified by email?

[Andrée Starå] Yes.

Can all of these scenarios be possible in SmartSheet?

[Andrée Starå] Yes, it seems like it can.

The issues here:

Do we need a dynamic view for this?

[Andrée Starå] It depends. There are multiple ways to solve it. Dynamic View, WorkApps, different connected sheets.

Can a collaborator plan be enough without dynamic views?

[Andrée Starå] Again, it depends on the specifics, but it seems like it could work.

I will really appreciate it if SmartSheet experts can go through my workflow and guide me on what would be the best & inexpensive way to get this done through SmartSheet.

----

Which Smartsheet Plan do you have?

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@workbold.com)

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

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!

deep_blue

@Andrée Starå

Thank you so much for going through my lengthy message.

What I mean by

"Can keyword finder team (OR the system), only be able to assign a limited number of keywords to one content planner."

The keyword finder was able to find 100s of unique keywords for the website. And since we would be drafting an article for each keyword, we don't want a single person (of the content planner team) to get assigned like 50 keywords at once (by the auto-system) OR even manually.

So, there will be limit like at one time, there should be no more than 10 keywords in the content planner sheet. Once, they have done with 8 keywords (i.e. rows), the system will auto-assign 8 more keywords to the content planner (if keywords are available in the keyword planner sheet).

Similarly, the same limit is applicable to the writer & editor sheets too.

Currently, I am in the trial version, checking things out. But I would be interested in 3-user collaborative plan which costs $96/month.

I came to know that dynamic views pricing is too much to bear with. So, do you think this workflow can be achieved with dynamic views, maybe reports, or any other inexpensive way?

Thanks again!

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