Training Registration - Specific date for each department

Asha Krishnan

I need to create a training registration form wherein I would like registrants from each department to select the same date. Each department gets a date. I have already thought about having a liaison choose a preferable date for the department, but I would like to know if there are any other ideas out there on how this can be done. I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts or ideas. Thanks!

Wilen FL

@Asha Krishnan

Please provide additional details to help determine your objective. How many departments? How many dates are available? Is the goal to have X departments and X dates and once a date is selected it is no longer available? And then once selected that date is automatically assigned to everyone else in that department? How versed are you with automation and formulas?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Asha Krishnan

I hope you're well and safe!

Have you explored using Update Requests instead?

Would that 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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Asha Krishnan

@Wilen FL Thank you for your response! I do not really have all the specifics (number of departments and the list of training dates) that you are looking for at this time. The goal is to have all the employees from a department attend the training on the same date. If we follow the "once a date is selected it is no longer available" approach, I understand that I can use the automation to notify me that the date has been selected and manually remove it from the drop-down list and use a formula in the sheet to apply the date to all the registrants who select the same department. But how would the registrants other than the first know when the training has been scheduled for their department? How would you suggest that I make the registrants aware of the training date using your approach?

Asha Krishnan

@Andrée Starå Thank you for your response! How can we make use of the Update Requests in this case? Can Smartsheet populate drop-down options in the next question (Training Date) based on what was selected in the previous question (Department)?

Wilen FL

@Asha Krishnan

To your point, this sounds like it would need to be a multiple-step process. The first, to your example, would be to define and assign the dates to the registrants of each department. Second, create a workflow that triggers when the 'Date' field is 'Any Value' (see screenshot below).

Customize the message to include the column header field(s) in double brackets {{}}.

Example:

{{Registrant}}, your scheduled training date is {{Date}}.