Retrieving previous status to show on Dashboard

CLieberg

I have a Status Update worksheet. And what I'm trying to do is show the current update on a project dashboard and want to show the previous update to the dashboard as well.

How can I automate this so it automatically will update my dashboard whenever I make updates to the Status Update worksheet?

Paul Newcome

How are you wanting to display it on the dashboard?

Andrée Starå

Hi @CLieberg

I hope you're well and safe!

The simplest way would probably be to use the Sheet Summary section with formulas to collect the latest entry and either a report or metric widget(s) to show it in the dashboard.

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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CLieberg

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/383065#Comment_383065

Yes - I have 2 metric widgets setup, 1) Latest Status Update and 2) Previous Status Update

I just can't figure out how to automate the previous status update to automatically update each time a new status is created.

Paul Newcome

If there is only one update in a day, you can leverage your Update Date column.

Put this in a sheet summary field which can then be grabbed by the metrics widget.

=INDEX([Project Update]:[Project Update], MATCH(LARGE([Update Date]:[Update Date], 1), [Update Date]:[Update Date], 0))

The above will pull the most recent. changing the 1 to a 2 inside of the LARGE function will give you the previous update.

Andrée Starå

@CLieberg

Excellent!

I'd recommend (if possible) having the rows added at the top instead if you're using a form to populate it.

We'd then use something like.

=INDEX([Project Update]:[Project Update],1) For the latest

=INDEX([Project Update]:[Project Update],2) For the previous

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!

CLieberg

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/383119#Comment_383119

I'm not sure where you are talking about putting this logic. I've created a status update history sheet but I think I've gotten myself all confused now.

Paul Newcome

@CLieberg If you are having new entries placed at the top of the sheet, you would use the formulas in your Sheet Summary fields.

Most Recent Update:

=INDEX([Project Update]:[Project Update], 1)

Previous Update:

=INDEX([Project Update]:[Project Update], 2)