Alternative to Dynamic View?

We are currently using smartsheet to manage our various projects. We would like to be able to have a project plan (sheet) that has certain columns visible to the customer. We do not like dynamic view - it doesn't look like a project plan and isn't really usable for a customer to regularly update/work in.

We are trying to explore having 1 sheet viewable for the customer, but a master project sheet that isn't. So this master sheet would house internal information (columns), comments, tasks - things we don't want the customer to see. The master sheet would then copy checked rows into the customer facing sheet (which is essentially a pared down version of the master sheet). We are having trouble figuring out the best way to copy as it's static. If we update the master sheet, it doesn't update the customer sheet. Is there a way to have both sheets update each other?

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Mike TV

@LaurieSD

Use a report to only show them the columns you want them to see. Use a filter on the report to filter out rows which you don't want them to see based on criteria which either shows them the row or excludes it.

Andrée Starå

Hi @LaurieSD

I hope you're well and safe!

Here's a possible workaround or workarounds

Premium App, WorkApps
Dashboard
Published Report
I recently developed a (what I call), Dynamic View Light. It's pretty advanced, but in short, it uses cross-sheet formulas and INDEX/MATCH and a specific structure and method, so it's only possible to show data that should be available.

Would any of those options 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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LaurieSD

Hi Andree,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to take a look at a published report. I want the customer to be able to add comments in a specific field.

Andrée Starå

@LaurieSD

Excellent!

Happy to 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!

StevenBlackburnMBA

We actually use a mix of dynamic view (when we want to show specific information at specific points) or reports (when we want to show a set of info that is accessible in the same way every time).

Dynamic view is really great when you want to force set workflows, and we create our own hubs in Sharepoint to connect the Dynamic Views and reports that are needed for certain teams. That way, teams don't need to go into Dynamic View or even Smartsheet to look for the reports or views, they simply go to the corresponding hub that mimics the look of a webpage and connects the subsystems we build.

Would be glad to show sometime if wanted or needed, feel free to reach out!

LaurieSD

So the challenge with a report is that the customer can't make a comment without having access to the underlying sheet. They could then navigate to that sheet through the left-side menu. We want to be able to separate parts of our sheets to be customer-facing with comments with some rows/column that are not visible to the customer. A published report is fine if we didn't want them to be able to add a comment.

It would be ideal if we could freeze a filter & share that with the customer, but that's not the current functionality.

A report and a dashboard doesn't seem to have the functionality we're looking for.

Archie

"It would be ideal if we could freeze a filter & share that with the customer, but that's not the current functionality."

this would be a massive benefit to our company too

Neil Watson

@StevenBlackburnMBA I would love to see how your SharePoint hubs work!

LaurieSD

We ended up generating a unique ID on the main project plan page and then pulling that unique ID to a customer facing project plan. We were able to just show the columns we wanted.

StevenBlackburnMBA

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/383670#Comment_383670

Sure thing, I'm happy to hop on a call and show it - feel free to send me an email, should be available on my profile! We have set these up so that the Sharepoint site actually mimics a system.

-On the main page we show which smartsheet systems we use that are operational or under construction (they all should be operational unless we decide to undergo a large change to a subsystem we have built out)

-All the different dynamic views are accessible via hyperlink with a Chrome bookmark so that the navigation makes sense for the users who use it

-For certain areas that require specific access, we leave the sharepoint completely open and allow Smartsheet dynamic view filters to dictate which Smartsheet users will actually see the dashboard

-All our systems end up linking to different items that we plan to expand to other systems through Smartsheet but use Sharepoint in a way that completely separates them out and makes the navigation easier to use while allowing some custom graphics and add news to the main page when we want to make announcements

-From there, we plan to further expand to PowerBI integrations so our teams can make some custom reports and then have those accessible directly from the Sharepoint as well, really linking everything together as strategically as possible but allowing some extra flexibility with some of the other integrations and features

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