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?
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