Workflow Runs but appears not to recognise condition

Andrew McCrae

Hi

I created a Sheet that continuously counts the time to a monthly meeting (4th Wed of the Month). The sheet has been checked and gets the correct date and interval. I use this date to calculate the interval / days to next meeting with a formula =[4th Wednesday of the Month]6 - TODAY() in a Column titled "Meeting Intervals"

The Workflow Runs and tells me it has run at the time set but the action is not taking place.

The Condition is what I think is not seen

Smartsheet Support told me I must put to "One of" which I doubted at the time and was borne out when the new day started and the Workflow ran. It previously failed on Equals and Contains.

The Activity is a simple Alert

What might help is: what really confuses me is that it appears to work when I change the condition and test it by changing the hour for it to run but that is all on the current day. It appears that its after a new day dawns that it breaks down. (I discovered this because I have 2 workflows to do similar but one sends a copy of the sheet row) This second workflow was received but the values had not been updated and showed yesterdays interval.

Thanks in hope that Help in the Community surpasses Smartsheet Support

Andrew McCrae

Hi Brandon,

Thanks Again, Based upon what I know, have learnt, been told, I added a third workflow. 1. is original detection of a specific result in the Formula column. 2. A Date add to trigger the Today() changes as Andree advised and 3. A change detect as you advised. I am having trouble understanding how my manual changing a field will show me anything extra as the workflow does not work when the new day starts. (@Andrée Starå s fix 2. was to resolve this and does seem to trigger an update) 3. Sent me an email highlighting all the changed fields yet I did not get an email telling me the "Meeting Interval" field had changed and now contained a 1.

Its almost as if the Workflow checks the formula, not the result of the formula

This inoperability is frustrating as I've been trying to get this working for 9 days now! How do I send the actual sheet to you? I doubt my network will allow a share.

Brandon R.

Hello Andrew,

Looking at the condition there and if I understand this correctly you have a workflow that runs every morning that alerts you on the number of days before a meeting correct?

Something that you could look at since you're using a specific row [column name]n is to change the condition to

When "meeting intervals" is not blank, or if the option is available "is in the next (days)". Another option would be where "meeting intervals" is equal to.

The is not blank will run every morning against the rows where that value isn't blank.

The other will only run against rows where the value counted occurs on that one day.

Last one runs against any row where the value in the cell is equal to the value in the condition.

Hope this helps answer your question better.

Andrew McCrae

Thanks Brandon, Sorry, but I'm new to Smartsheets and don't understand.

The workflow runs correctly but it does not find the condition I set which only occurs on one day.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Andrew McCrae

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Brandon's excellent advice/answer.

It might be because you're using TODAY in your formula, and for it to update each day, the sheets need to be "triggered".

Please have a look at my post below with a method I developed to update the sheet(s) daily.

More info: 

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/74527/daily-update-solution-without-the-need-to-open-the-sheet-use-zapier-or-similar

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, Awesome, or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Andrew McCrae

Hi Andree, I saw your excellent advice yesterday and added a second workflow which ran at midnight (GMT). I was convinced you had resolved my problem.

This populated a column thus updating at midnight. Sheet this morning is showing this update.

Also every day I test I update the original workflow to look for the new interval. I added column 10 to only have one entry. it just directly refers to the cell on its left. =[Meeting Intervals]@row

Workflows are

Specific Workflow is now I just updated again to test again as I cant wait a full day between tests.

Brandon R.

Andrew,

The workflow should run then without an issue because the condition is looking for that specific value. Since my guess is this number will change every day, any rows where the change becomes 5 it would send out that alert at 8:00am per the workflow.

Another suggestion I also give to customers if you need to test something right away is update the workflow to "when rows are added/changed" and then have condition the same. Save, and then make a change to the sheet that would set up a row to produce that value. Save the sheet, and usually within 1-2 minutes you will see that dropdown for "changes have been made to the sheet. Please refresh to see changes." That is generally followed up with the email/action you have set. As long as you get that email, you can then change the trigger back to when a date is reached.

If you need additional help building them out, I can also send over some screenshots I've taken of my own workflows I have in a test environment.

Andrew McCrae

Hi Brandon,

Thanks Again, Based upon what I know, have learnt, been told, I added a third workflow. 1. is original detection of a specific result in the Formula column. 2. A Date add to trigger the Today() changes as Andree advised and 3. A change detect as you advised. I am having trouble understanding how my manual changing a field will show me anything extra as the workflow does not work when the new day starts. (@Andrée Starå s fix 2. was to resolve this and does seem to trigger an update) 3. Sent me an email highlighting all the changed fields yet I did not get an email telling me the "Meeting Interval" field had changed and now contained a 1.

Its almost as if the Workflow checks the formula, not the result of the formula

This inoperability is frustrating as I've been trying to get this working for 9 days now! How do I send the actual sheet to you? I doubt my network will allow a share.