Automation Custom Recurrence - how is the "Repeat On" day defined?

Russ Onkeles-Klein (RI/GLOBAL)

Greetings,

Does anyone know what is the reference point for the "Repeat On" day circled below in the Custom Recurrence section for Automation Triggers - is it referencing the day of the month or the number of days after the trigger initiates?

The reason I ask is, I set this recurrence to start on 20 Sept. Originally, I set it to "Repeat On" day 1 thinking that would mean "day 1 after initiating the workflow", but it did not trigger on 20 nor 21 Sept. So then, Yesterday (21 Sept), I set the "Repeat On" day to day 22 and it triggered the workflow correlating to today's date, 22 Sept.

I had a call with Smartsheet this morning and the tech didn't know so is researching it but figured I'd come to the community and see if anyone can help.

I appreciate your responses.

Thanks,

Russ

Brandon R.

@Russ Onkeles-Klein (RI/GLOBAL) I know that each of us has our own way of building out workflows. This is actually something I am well versed in on the support side so I love setting these up for our customers.

To quote your ask here, I'm going to try to break it down a little more for you.

I'd like to confirm one thing related to your caveat comment, "If there are no rows that will trigger prior to 10/14 for example, on 10/15 nothing will happen. For example, if there were no rows in my sheet that were checked between 9/22 and 10/14, then on 10/15 nothing would run for this workflow." Since your condition is for "21 days or more" to be checked, that means if for whatever reason it is not checked, whether through an automation or physical interaction, then the automation will not trigger?

If there are no rows that will trigger prior to 10/14 for example, on 10/15 nothing will happen.

This is correct. The reason being is that the workflow is looking for any changes that were made and saved between the first date of the range and the last date of the range. So in your case the first one would have been 9/20 because it takes that date as day 1 when you first build it. Same thing happens when you make any adjustments. So it basically says to the sheet "If you see any changes that were made between 9/20 and 12/22, I need you to send me those rows so I can process this request").

For example, if there were no rows in my sheet that were checked between 9/22 and 10/14, then on 10/15 nothing would run for this workflow."

This is also correct. Because the automation looks at what rows still match the condition at 11:59PM in this case would be 10/14 into 10/15. So let's say you check 10 lines between that time, save the changes but on 10/14 you uncheck 5 of them. At 11:59PM it looks at all the rows on the sheet, and sees only 5 rows meet the condition required to process the request. So come 10/15 when you get your email at 8am, it shows only 5 rows because again at midnight essentially anything marked when it runs gets sent out.

Since your condition is for "21 days or more" to be checked, that means if for whatever reason it is not checked, whether through an automation or physical interaction, then the automation will not trigger?

So mine is a little weird now looking at it again. Reason being is that in order for those rows to be sent to me, they have to have been marked prior to midnight.

The first month essentially would have been 9/20 - 10/14 any rows that were marked then and stayed marked as of midnight would have been sent to me. On 10/15 the workflow begins again for the next month. But because I don't have another condition in there to limit just the new rows (another checkbox that would say something like completed) this will send me all the rows that were over 21 days.

If I wanted to automate the process even further though, I could have something that says if date is more than n days uncheck that box. This would ensure that only rows that match each month get sent over because we have an automation that says "date is n days past today, uncheck and don't count in the workflow"

One final question regarding the "Repeat on Day" setting. I note there are only 28 days from which to choose. What happens if we want to trigger a workflow on the 29,30,31?

The reason for this is because there are always 28 days in a month. You can set a start date for the automation to 29, 30 or 31, and then do something like what I have here where it's set to send out every 31 days. This would be calendar days so your receiving date will be different due to some months 28, some 30, some 31. BUT, this would be the closest I could get you to having it set to be received on a date past the 28th of the month.

I know it's a lot of information to take in. We do have a bunch of articles on the Help and Learning page (https://help.smartsheet.com/help) if you want to take a look over those as well. They might also help fill in some blanks too if you have anything you're unsure on.

Brandon R.

I'm a Smartsheet support rep and can answer this for you.

The time based automations are setup to run based on the timeframe you set, with the "starts" being the day that the workflow itself will be active. The way your workflow reads is like this:

Run on the 22nd day of the month, repeat this process every 3 months starting on 9/20/22. So the next time this would run is 12/22/22, 3/22/23, 6/22/23, 9/22,23, 12/22/23.

For example, if I built a workflow today that I set to run on the 1st of the month, but to run every 2 months it would first run on 10/1 (the 1st day of the next month AFTER the workflow was created) and then the next time it would run is on 12/1 (the 1st day of the 2nd month AFTER the workflow was created).

The below screenshot might be a better visual for you (i'm very visual when it comes to learning.)

This workflow has been created today (starts), meaning that on 10/15 this workflow will run and process whatever actions I have setup for it.

However, there is a caveat to using a time based automation: If there are no rows that will trigger prior to 10/14 for example, on 10/15 nothing will happen. For example, if there were no rows in my sheet that were checked between 9/22 and 10/14, then on 10/15 nothing would run for this workflow.

However, if I did make changes to those rows between that time, then this workflow would run against those rows where there was a change made between 9/22 (the date I first created the workflow) and 10/14 (the last day changes are registered for this workflow).

Moving forward, 10/15 would be the first day of the next batch of changes, and 11/14 would be the last day. So only those rows would be processed.

Hopefully this help explain it better. Feel free to leave a upvote if this worked for you.

Russ Onkeles-Klein (RI/GLOBAL)

(I had composed an posted this previously but it disappeared. Not sure if it's caught in a spam filter, pending approval, or my error so please pardon if this is a repeat response)

Thank you @Brandon R. for your response and detailed explanation. What you describe makes sense and aligns with what I was able to setup and trigger for today. Unfortunately, I had received different guidance via a Smartsheet Tech Support call so this is particularly helpful.

I'd like to confirm one thing related to your caveat comment, "If there are no rows that will trigger prior to 10/14 for example, on 10/15 nothing will happen. For example, if there were no rows in my sheet that were checked between 9/22 and 10/14, then on 10/15 nothing would run for this workflow." Since your condition is for "21 days or more" to be checked, that means if for whatever reason it is not checked, whether through an automation or physical interaction, then the automation will not trigger? I

I think so but want to confirm because I've built an automated reminder system for the year that should require no physical interaction with the sheet. The reminder is set to run every three months on the 23rd of the month if the Portfolio Review Date is in the next 15 days. I was able to trigger it today, 23 Sept, with Portfolio Review Date of 31 Sept and the next run will be on 12/23 with Portfolio Review Date set at 12/31 whether or not I go into the sheet correct?

One final question regarding the "Repeat on Day" setting. I note there are only 28 days from which to choose. What happens if we want to trigger a workflow on the 29,30,31?

I appreciate your continued time and support.

Thanks,

Russ

Brandon R.

@Russ Onkeles-Klein (RI/GLOBAL) I know that each of us has our own way of building out workflows. This is actually something I am well versed in on the support side so I love setting these up for our customers.

To quote your ask here, I'm going to try to break it down a little more for you.

I'd like to confirm one thing related to your caveat comment, "If there are no rows that will trigger prior to 10/14 for example, on 10/15 nothing will happen. For example, if there were no rows in my sheet that were checked between 9/22 and 10/14, then on 10/15 nothing would run for this workflow." Since your condition is for "21 days or more" to be checked, that means if for whatever reason it is not checked, whether through an automation or physical interaction, then the automation will not trigger?

If there are no rows that will trigger prior to 10/14 for example, on 10/15 nothing will happen.

This is correct. The reason being is that the workflow is looking for any changes that were made and saved between the first date of the range and the last date of the range. So in your case the first one would have been 9/20 because it takes that date as day 1 when you first build it. Same thing happens when you make any adjustments. So it basically says to the sheet "If you see any changes that were made between 9/20 and 12/22, I need you to send me those rows so I can process this request").

For example, if there were no rows in my sheet that were checked between 9/22 and 10/14, then on 10/15 nothing would run for this workflow."

This is also correct. Because the automation looks at what rows still match the condition at 11:59PM in this case would be 10/14 into 10/15. So let's say you check 10 lines between that time, save the changes but on 10/14 you uncheck 5 of them. At 11:59PM it looks at all the rows on the sheet, and sees only 5 rows meet the condition required to process the request. So come 10/15 when you get your email at 8am, it shows only 5 rows because again at midnight essentially anything marked when it runs gets sent out.

Since your condition is for "21 days or more" to be checked, that means if for whatever reason it is not checked, whether through an automation or physical interaction, then the automation will not trigger?

So mine is a little weird now looking at it again. Reason being is that in order for those rows to be sent to me, they have to have been marked prior to midnight.

The first month essentially would have been 9/20 - 10/14 any rows that were marked then and stayed marked as of midnight would have been sent to me. On 10/15 the workflow begins again for the next month. But because I don't have another condition in there to limit just the new rows (another checkbox that would say something like completed) this will send me all the rows that were over 21 days.

If I wanted to automate the process even further though, I could have something that says if date is more than n days uncheck that box. This would ensure that only rows that match each month get sent over because we have an automation that says "date is n days past today, uncheck and don't count in the workflow"

One final question regarding the "Repeat on Day" setting. I note there are only 28 days from which to choose. What happens if we want to trigger a workflow on the 29,30,31?

The reason for this is because there are always 28 days in a month. You can set a start date for the automation to 29, 30 or 31, and then do something like what I have here where it's set to send out every 31 days. This would be calendar days so your receiving date will be different due to some months 28, some 30, some 31. BUT, this would be the closest I could get you to having it set to be received on a date past the 28th of the month.

I know it's a lot of information to take in. We do have a bunch of articles on the Help and Learning page (https://help.smartsheet.com/help) if you want to take a look over those as well. They might also help fill in some blanks too if you have anything you're unsure on.

Brandon R.

I'm glad this works for you. Any other questions or concerns, go ahead and post them here and I will do my best to get back to you on them.