Can I use control center to add a start date to a project with dependencies?

Tim Starkey

We use control center to provision new projects. Our work plan template has a predefined project schedule using dependencies. Row 22 (after the navigation and summary rows) is "Manager set schedule", and is automatically assigned to the manager from the project intake sheet. The intent is for the manager to adjust the predefined schedule to meet the actual project conditions. Goal is to have the schedule set up within 1 week of the project being opened. (The rest of the schedule is set out in the future with a 1/1/2050 date... the manager is supposed to set the actual start date, and adjust durations as needed.)

When the project is initially provisioned, I would like for the "Manager set schedule" start date to be populated with the date of creation for the project. My understanding is that you cannot change a date (start or due date) in a project using dependencies by either formula or automation.

Is there a way in the control center blueprint to have it insert 'todays date' at row 22 in the start date column?

Andrée Starå

@Tim Starkey

Happy to help!

No, I mean the Profile Data (sometimes called Summary Data) that you can have populated automatically at the top section of a sheet when a project is provisioned.

Something like this.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

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Paul Newcome

@Tim Starkey If you are housing your profile data on a separate sheet, then @Andrée Starå's method will not work. His method will only work if you have that profile data on the Schedule.

Most of my Control Center projects also end up with a separate sheet for the Profile Data as well.

You could potentially set up a single row in the Schedule at the top with the only piece of profile data coming into that section being the start date, but that still means having the section at the top of the Schedule.

Paul Newcome

There is no way to get it done automatically, but you could set up an Update Request automation in the template that would request the manager to fill it in.

You could also set up an alert automation on the intake sheet that will automatically alert the manager as soon as the project is provisioned and use that to instruct them to fill in the date and durations.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Tim Starkey

I hope you're well and safe!

If I understand you correctly, I always do this in my client solutions.

I add the dates to the profile data and then reference it with predecessors.

Make sense?

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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Tim Starkey

Hi @Andrée Starå

When you say profile data, I assume you mean the separate profile data sheet (we call it metadata)? If so, how does that get referenced in using predecesors? I am only aware of a predecessor link to another row in the same sheet.

Thanks!

Tim

Tim Starkey

Thanks @Paul Newcome

If there isn't another way, then that is the likely approach I will take.

Thanks!

Andrée Starå

@Tim Starkey

Happy to help!

No, I mean the Profile Data (sometimes called Summary Data) that you can have populated automatically at the top section of a sheet when a project is provisioned.

Something like this.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up/Awesome or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Paul Newcome

@Tim Starkey If you are housing your profile data on a separate sheet, then @Andrée Starå's method will not work. His method will only work if you have that profile data on the Schedule.

Most of my Control Center projects also end up with a separate sheet for the Profile Data as well.

You could potentially set up a single row in the Schedule at the top with the only piece of profile data coming into that section being the start date, but that still means having the section at the top of the Schedule.

Tim Starkey

Thanks both of you. We do have a summary section directly in the worksheet, but it links to data from a separate profile data sheet.

However, it does appear that although I cannot use formulas in the start date with dependencies, it will let me cell link to the profile data sheet. Will this work? Other parts of this sheet already link to the profile data sheet, and control centers maintains those links when it provisions projects. Will it maintain this link?

Paul Newcome

@Tim Starkey I hadn't tried a direct cell link before. Have you tested to see if the link stays and if the date changes when you change it on the source sheet?

Tim Starkey

I can confirm that the cell link in the template updates when I change the template metadata sheet. However, I am waiting for a new project to provision with the template updates to see if control center hands off the correct cell link. I will post back.

Tim Starkey

SUCCESS! Right after I sent that, I saw a new project had already provisioned. Worked like a charm.

Thanks you guys... it sort of ended up being a combo solution.

In the project schedule template, I cell linked to the profile data sheet. It was kind of a hack, and I will come up with a more elegant solution, but I linked it to the 'created' date in the first row of the profile template sheet. I only needed it to set this initial date of when the project provisioned to start the clock.

When it provisioned the new project, it pulled that data.

Kayla Q

@Andrée Starå and @Paul Newcome I'm chiming in here. I've tried to enable dependencies multiple times in Control Center - both times, Control Center has malfunctioned. I tested, and when I removed the dependency column, Control Center functioned as anticipated. Control center gets very upset when I turn on dependencies. I'll try again, but I haven't had any luck with this.

P.S. My start date is always in my profile data, which pulls directly onto my project sheet.

Tim Starkey

Tim Starkey

Feb 25, 2023

SUCCESS! Right after I sent that, I saw a new project had already provisioned. Worked like a charm.

Thanks you guys... it sort of ended up being a combo solution.

In the project schedule template, I cell linked to the profile data sheet. It was kind of a hack, and I will come up with a more elegant solution, but I linked it to the 'created' date in the first row of the profile template sheet. I only needed it to set this initial date of when the project provisioned to start the clock.

When it provisioned the new project, it pulled that data.

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Well, something changed after May 16th. Since my post in Feb 2023, I had updated our template so that the "project setup" date was linked to a created date in the separate metadata sheet. So when project was provisioned, the date was updated to the created date, and started the 1 week clock to get the project schedule setup. It worked flawlessly until May this year.

Now, the link is still there. It shows the cell link is still connected to the correct metadata sheet (meaning control center updated the link from the template metadata to the provisioned project metadata sheet)… but the date itself does not update. It still shows a date from 2021 when the template metadata sheet was created. Even if I open both sheets to 'wake them up' and resave, it still doesn't update the cell link. If I relink it to another row in the metadata sheet, it updates then… but that defeats the purpose of an automatic date that starts on sheet creation.

Was it never supposed to work this way, and I was just taking advantage of a glitch the past year? Or did something change and break?

FYI - the target sheet is a project set up with dependencies

Here is the cell in the project sheet with the cell link

And here is the target cell in the metadata sheet

Brian_Richardson

We had something very similar happen with our control center cell links- they just stopped updating. It ended up being a bug that Smartsheet had to chase down on the backend. I’d suggest open a ticket, it should not behave like that.

Paul Newcome

@Tim Starkey I agree with @Brian_Richardson. I have had cell links stop updating on me before, and it was a back-end issue that support was able to correct. It MAY also help if you cell linked to a basic date value instead of a date/time stamp. It will cut down on the back end data that has to be brought across and manipulated.

Tim Starkey

Thanks @Brian_Richardson and @Paul Newcome

I put in a ticket and will see where it goes.

I also cross-posted for help in the API group (sorry!) as I thought it might be an API issue, and @Brian_Richardson also suggested prepopulating the contact column with the contacts in properties.

Brian_Richardson

Jun 21, 2024

You can try presetting the Contact column with the contact names listed in properties. Then, when an email is posted it might convert.

You can do that programmatically over API with the Update column and define ContactOptions array, where each contact object has both the email and name that you want to see.

I don’t know if that will work or not but it’s worth a try. I’ve always been in the dark in terms of why Smartsheet sometimes converts emails to names and sometimes does not.

You can also update the displayvalue of the cell in addition to the value when you post. Value for a contact is always the email but displayvalue can be the name. Of course, that depends on you knowing the names.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks!