Automation - Send a message-only alert when specified criteria are met

Lara Lehnerz

Hello,

I have a form for customers to submit projects and a couple of the fields is for them to enter their email address (text/number field) and name (text/number field). I would like for when a team member is assigned to the project that an email notification goes out to the customer. However, in the template apparently the fields has t o be a 'contact list' type. How can I accomplish an automation with a text field?

Thanks,

Lara Lehnerz

Paul Newcome

You would need to change the column type to a contact type column.

Paul Newcome

You would need to change the column type to a contact type column.

Lara Lehnerz

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/329798#Comment_329798

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/329798#Comment_329798

Thank you Paul, much appreciated.

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

Lara Lehnerz

I set up the column to be contact list, which works perfectly and the email notification goes out to the customer when someone is assigned to the project the customer submitted. Which is fantastic.

Now... I am looking to stop the email notification when the project is reassigned to another person. This doesn't happen a lot but in the instance of someone leaving the team and the project(s) need to be reassigned, I don't want that email to go out to the customer in case the customer is unaware of the situation.

How can I have the email notification only go out once, at initial assignment rather than anytime the field changes?

As always, assistance, ideas is much appreciated.

Lara Lehnerz

Paul Newcome

@Lara Lehnerz You would need to include some kind of indicator column (checkbox/flag/etc.) that you can mark when it is reassigned. Then you would include the criteria in the automation that this column is not marked.

Lara Lehnerz

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your quick response as always.

That is what I was thinking. I am trying to make this more automated and this solution would mean that someone would need to manually check that box or flag it once the field changes.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Lara Lehnerz

Paul Newcome

What if we had two identical sheets? One for Unassigned and one for Assigned. The initial entry would be in the Unassigned sheet. Set up a Move Row automation to move the row over to the Assigned sheet once the Assigned To changes to any value.

Then on the Assigned sheet you can set up your alert automation to trigger when rows are added (not added or changed).

To view all entries together (assigned and unassigned) you can use a report since the columns will be identical.

Lara Lehnerz

Hi Paul,

I understand where you are going and first thought is the sheet has a lot of columns and is the main source of our data especially the form we use to receive projects from outside our department. So it might be more trouble than it is worth. I will have think more on this though.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Paul Newcome

Really all you would need to do is "Save as new" the existing sheet and then delete the rows from the new sheet that are unassigned.

From there a couple of adjustments to the automations and a quick report, and you should be set.