Every Apps Script job we build for a small team ends with the same argument: should this run straight through, or should it stop and wait for a person?
Our current line is roughly this:
- Runs straight through: reads, summaries, formatting, and anything that only writes inside the same spreadsheet and can be redone by running it again.
- Writes a plan first, then waits: anything that deletes, sends something outside the company, or changes money. The job writes what it is about to do into a sheet, a person reviews the rows, and only then does a second function execute exactly those rows.
In the Workspace offboarding dry run we went one step further: the reviewer types the leaver's email address before the apply step will run, because a checkbox is easy to tick without reading the plan.
The cost is real. Every approval step is a place where the job sits waiting when the one person who approves is away. And a plan that nobody reads is only a slower way to run the same mistake.
So, for those of you running automations for a small team:
- Where do you draw the line between "just run" and "ask first"?
- Who approves when the usual person is away?
- Have you ever removed an approval step because nobody was really reading it?
Top comments (4)
Typing the leaver's email before the apply step runs is the detail that makes the approval real. A checkbox is too easy to tick without reading the plan.
Glad that detail stood out to you. A checkbox only records a click, while typing the email shows the person at least looked at who the plan touches.
For the away approver: a named backup plus an expiry on the plan (it lapses, never auto-applies) keeps it safe. An expired plan can just be regenerated when someone is back.
Thank you for the expiry idea, letting the plan lapse instead of applying itself keeps an absence from turning into a silent yes. Regenerating it later also means the approver sees current data rather than a plan built on an old sheet.