Help with Smartsheet please

We are a small company that uses Smartsheet to organise work. There are 7 of us working remotely. I'm used to Smartsheet and can do quite a lot with it but:
1. there are some things which work in some sheets but not in others and I want to know why and how I can change this
2. I want to know how to set up automation. So, if we are awarded a project I want Smartsheet to send out automatic alerts to various people to undertake the next actions. I'm sure it can do this but despite looking at the tutorials and even some online videos I can't make it work.