Sharing reports with data without even view access to the source sheet

Today in order to share data in Reports we would need to provide view/edit access to the underneath sheet / source sheet. That's not exactly what many of users expect from Reports.

This is a pretty typical task to have a data frame (source sheet) and using Reports provide access to certain portions of data to different (groups of) users.

So, it would be great to have that enhancement implemented some time soon!

Thank you in advance!

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Arul

My team uses a single sheet to store data for multiple suppliers. Due to data confidentiality we cannot share the source sheet to all the suppliers as one supplier should not see the other suppliers data. We create different reports out of this sheet and filter them by the respective suppliers. But when we share these reports, they turn up blank on the supplier end as they do not have access to the source sheet. We currently use report widget in the Dashboard to share these reports but it prevents us from getting inputs from the user. It would be really useful if we could share reports without actually sharing the source data.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Arul

I hope you're well and safe!

You can use the Premium App WorkApps (available for licensed users on the Enterprise Plan, Smartsheet Advance, or/and with the Collaborator Pack) or the Premium App, Dynamic View.

Would any of those options work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅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!

Arul

Hi @Andrée Starå

Good Day!! Thanks for your suggestion.

I initially planned to do it that way with Workapps as I had the collaborator pack. Workapps have a limitation of 50 pages. Each one supplier of ours has to work on 3-4 such reports. So it kind of beats the purpose of keeping everything in one place for easy access. I know that we can have individual sheets for every supplier and then use workflow to push the data to a common sheet for creating dashboards for the leadership.

But it would be less of a hassle if we can have multiple reports feeding into the same sheet without having to share the source sheet that has confidential information of other suppliers.

Thanks!

Arul | Project Manager / Data Analyst @ TRIMBLE

Krystal Garcia

I have this same exact situation going on. Thanks for bringing it up!

Dana Gugliotti

We just got dynamic view because it is really important for security to isolate views and not allow access to all aspects. I am looking forward to implementing it soon!!

Courtney S.

I agree that Reports are much less useful due to the need for source sheet access. Unfortunately I think Smartsheet says the solution is to purchase the Dynamic View add-on which does let you give people restricted views of the sheet's information without granting access to the source sheet.

HElliot

So much this! Might as well download the sheet as an Excel sheet and use a Pivot table, but then why do I have Smartsheet? I need to be able to share reports to people where they can't change the filters, but they can upload comments and attachments.

nualamcd

Reports NEED to be shareable without sharing the filter edits. !!!

Trish Dillon

i agree, this defeats alot of our workstreams to use master sheets and share filtered view reports. Dynamic view is a different look and feel than reports and not as easy to learn/manage for everyone.

Stu Benoff

Maybe a simple solution would be to allow us to share a sheet in "hidden" mode so that the report could get the data but the user can't see the sheet? Add a security role to Admin, Editor - no share, Editor - can share, Viewer, Commenter and something like Hidden so the data is available to the report but the sheet can't be found/opened.

taphena

I want to share a Report with a customer without sharing my Sheet that includes everyone's data. Right now I have to share the Sheet and compromise the integrity of anonymity for my customers or copy/paste the data into a Form which is extra unnecessary work. If I could share a Report, which automates the data from my Sheet, without sharing-hours upon hours would be saved! Please make this adjustment for all of us!

Jane Hill

Smartsheet Team...at least add a message that the report will not be viewable because the sheet isn't shared.

ben.tcy

Agreed with this!

The ability to keep the source sheet confidential while still allowing users on the Report to edit columns (which then feed-back into the main sheet) would be incredibly helpful. I believe this will increase data security in a variety of ways.

For instance, there is currently no feature to restrict the exporting of sheets for editors. This means that an editor to a Report, who requires access to the source sheet, can download the source sheet as an Excel file and unhide any hidden columns to view the data inside. This is an incredibly dangerous possibility given that we only want editors to view and provide information for specific rows in their Report and not the entirety of the source sheet.

Would love to see this added as a feature as it will increase the capabilities of Smartsheet and build confidence in the security of data on the platform.

Lisa Shields

Agree with all the comments above!

MaggieM

Yes, we absolutely need this too. Too many people have access to all of our data because of this limitation

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