Weekly Report to Customer

LaurieSD

I'm a brand new Smartsheet user.

I have an underlying sheet and I've created a report called Weekly Update. I want to send this update to a customer on a weekly basis. It's essentially a status report of the work that has been completed with next steps & space for customer comments.

I would like to understand the best way to give the customer access to the comment cell.

Secondly, I would like to keep a copy of these updates overtime.

I do not want them to have access to the underlying sheet.

Julie Fortney

Hi @LaurieSD, welcome to Smartsheet!

There are two ways you can allow someone to make edits on a sheet or report without sharing the source sheet with them:

1. Dynamic View: this is my favorite option, but it is a premium app. If you have an Advance package, it is included, or you may purchase it a la carte. I highly recommend it if you plan to collaborate with others on Smartsheet assets that you don't want them to have full view access to. Here's more info on Dynamic View: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/integrations-and-add-ons/dynamic-view
2. Update Requests: this is a core feature. Here's how I would suggest setting it up:

• If you only want the customer to see certain rows, add a column so you can indicate which rows should be sent to the customer each week. (skip if they should see all rows)
• Add a new "Latest Comment" column. (If the column type is grayed out when you first go to set the type, submit a test comment on a row first, then you should be able to create the column.)
• Set up an update request automation to go to your customer weekly. This could be a bit clunky because they will need to click through the update request task by task, but if you include the comments field in the automation, they will be able to view and add comments. Here's a help doc on update requests: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/update-requests

Notes: Since you want to save comments from week-to-week, using the comments feature will be great for storing historical info, rather than having people add comments directly on the sheet.

Let me know if you have other questions!

www.linkedin.com/in/julie-fortney-pmp-lssblackbelt

LaurieSD

Thanks Julie. I will play with both options and decide what I think works best. I appreciate the response.

Julie Fortney

You bet! Permissions are one of the most challenging parts of tailoring your Smartsheet solution, mainly because there are so many options to help you achieve that balance between collaboration and data protection.

If you hit any roadblocks, feel free to let me know. If you haven't already, I suggest setting up a free test account to test out these automations.

www.linkedin.com/in/julie-fortney-pmp-lssblackbelt