Approval Flow Log

insomnio23

Is there anyway I can get an approval record for my approval flow?

I have an approval flow with 5 steps, each triggered to start after the previous one changes from "submitted" to "approved", each time a time is recorded. At the end I would like to have something like the DocuSign summary, or Certificate of Completion... a summary of all the approvals and their timestamp.

Can that be done? The only workaround I have is generating a document, and all the fields are the approver and recorded date, but it is something I created, not something I can extract from Smartsheet.

Kelly Moore

Hey @insomnio23

One approach is to create an approval column, for each stage of the approval, if you don't have this already. This will capture the approval decision at each stage (if you need this). You do need, however, a date column for each stage so you can use Record Date to record the date the decision was made. Using different approval columns and capturing the date the decision was made is within smartsheet built in functionality. If the approver names are stored in individual columns in the sheet, you could pull all of this data into a cumulative report. If you have access to Document Generator, you could issue a pdf per row designed as you wish the layout to be designed.

If the approver's name is built into the workflow and not entered into a cell there isn't (yet) an automation that records the contact-name at the time of a triggered event. One workaround is setting up a separate sheet and copying the row to that sheet then using a lookup formula to get the Modified By-person off that copied row back onto the real sheet. If you have access to the premier app Bridge, you can do it from there as well. Hopefully though, the approver's name is in a cell so that these workarounds aren't needed.

Does any of the above sound like it could get you what you are looking for? If yes and you need specific instruction, don't hesitate to ask.

Kelly

insomnio23

Hi.

Yes, this is what I have done, I was just wondering if Smartsheet had an automated process to record everything within an approval process.

That would be a nice addition to add if we want an "official" approval flow. I will look into adding the DocuSign integration.

Thx for the reply,

N