Automation does not appear to be working on all scenarios

macandcheeze88

I have a few automation rules which are setup to update the % complete once a status changes. The status is coming from another Sheet based on the value in a separate field.

I have had to manually update the % to be 100% complete because my report was due, however this is not sustainable as I will have to do this for every update that is made to the sheet.

Line Items:

Automation that isn't working:

I have another automation which looks at the JIRA status column and send an update to me when something is updated. That automation is working as expected.

Any suggestions on why this isn't working?

Brett Wyrick

Any chance the cells you're expecting to change don't have the word "Development" in them?

macandcheeze88

Brett, the example I am showing is an actual example. After the status of the ticket moved to In QA, the Entered % Complete stayed at 0%. I had to manually go in and update it to 100%.

Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot to have an example that wasn't manually updated prior to my Upper Management Meeting this morning, but the next time a ticket is updated I will take a screenshot to show that it stays at 100% on the line for "Development".

Brett Wyrick

@macandcheeze88 Gotcha. Well just to be doubly sure, you could create another automation that runs at particular times and looks to see if cell values are something particular. So you could set up an automation that'll run every hour and check to see if a row has a JIRA Status value of "In QA" and a Primary value of "Development". See if that'll do it! Strange it's not running on an as-triggered basis consistently.

macandcheeze88

@Brett Wyrick - so interesting. I created a rule that had different verbiage for each of the scenarios. It actually went down the path of both conditions.

I tried to change my original workflow to hourly, but it says that it's not supported for this type of workflow. 🤨

macandcheeze88

I did just go through and change all my automation that was not working to be when rows are changed or added, but I don't think that should make a difference since these rows are not being added. Just in case, I tried where I changed my new automation from both to just when rows are updated. Updated a testing note, and sure enough I got the alert. So I'm not sure where to go from here.

Brett Wyrick

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/310324#Comment_310324

Interesting.

Sounds like you may have figured it out with your filtering rules on the Automation portion. Smartsheet may have been getting confused when the automation had several filters that were correct all at once. As long as you stick with the "AND" filter you have there and delete the others, I imagine this would continue to work.

macandcheeze88

I just created a new automation that will always run when something is updated, but it incorporates all the other automations I had setup. We just started our sprint today, so it might be a few days before anything gets updated, but hopefully this one works!! Thanks for your suggestion @Brett Wyrick

Brett Wyrick

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/310342#Comment_310342

Ah yes, the old "One Automation To Rule Them All" trick. That's the best way to do it!

Let me know how it goes!

macandcheeze88

Well I was able to test it out today, and nope. Still doesn't work (at least not correctly)!

But I did get the notification, so it made it to this line but the Change Cell Value piece is not working. I know this is new functionality so maybe it's got a few issues that need to still be worked out.

At least now I am able to get a single notification instead of several every time one ticket is updated, but I will still have to manually check and update the % completes until this is resolved.

Brett Wyrick

Well, Mac and Cheeze, I'm stumped. Bringing in the 5-star Smartsheet Community Legends here to see if they can assist.

@Paul Newcome, @Andrée Starå - assemble!

I call upon thee for a question I am unable to answer regarding Automation. Could one of you read through what's going on here and see if this is simply due to Smartsheet Automation not doing its job or if we're missing something here?

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In the mean time, @macandcheeze88, maybe try the "Update cell value" automation as a separate automation? Like outside this one-automation-to-rule-them-all?

Just throwing that out there. This ought to work the way you have it set up, but since it isn't, I'm thinking perhaps if you get the automation rule separated it may work that way? Just throwing things out there to see if they stick, essentially. Hopefully we can figure out a way to resolve this.

Paul Newcome

Do you have the dependency settings turned on?

macandcheeze88

@Paul Newcome - Ah, I do. Does this mean I can't automatically update it then?

Andrée Starå

Hi @macandcheeze88

@Brett Wyrick Haha! 🤣

I hope you're well and safe!

Paul is correct, it's the dependency that is the reason, so you'd have to deactivate it to make it work.

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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macandcheeze88

Thank you @Brett Wyrick for working through it with me, @Paul Newcome for finding the reason and @Andrée Starå for confirming! I'm going to see what implications to the rest of my sheet turning that off has before I do it, but I appreciate all of your help!

Be well!

Andrée Starå

@macandcheeze88

You're more than welcome!