Approval workflow - How to delegate approvals and capture who approved?

Anne-Solene Monrouzeau

Hi,

I am building an approval workflow in Smartsheet to track PTO requests. The workflow is built to send approvals to the employee's manager.

What I am trying to do is build a process to delegate approval when managers are on PTO for example and track who approved.

I was initially thinking of updating the "Reports to" column in the EE roster (separate sheet). But if I do that, I will update for past requests too.

I tried to use the "change cell value" automation to update a column "Approved by" (not represented in the screenshot), but you cannot only default the value with a dropdown menu. That won't work.

I also tried to use the system generated field "modified by" to capture who approved, but with a workflow, the value stored is not a user (assuming this is because the approver does not log into smartsheet).

Any thoughts to workaround the system and capture who approved a request in an approval workflow?

Parker Oxford

@Anne-Solene Monrouzeau

You can right click the approved status' cell and view cell history to see who approved the PTO. You can add the approvers to the sheet to ensure their data is tracked when they approve time.

You can also set up automation in the top left of the sheet to automatically notify specific people when someone requests PTO.

How to create Automated workflows can be found here.

Anne-Solene Monrouzeau

Hi Parker,

I built an approval workflow to automate the approvals using the built in functionality in Smartsheet. The workflow is based on the 'Reports to' column. However, the 'reports to' contact can change temporarily. My question is how do I track and record in a dedicated column the person who is approving, knowing the data can changed? Is there a formula to capture who clicks "Approve" in the approval workflow?

In other words, how do I record Kailyn;s name as the approver?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Anne-Solene Monrouzeau

I hope you're well and safe!

You could use the Workflow and action, Change cell, or please have a look at my post below with a method I developed.

More info: 

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/68589/lock-or-store-date-value-solution-without-using-zapier

Would any of those options work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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