Workflow Automation: Copy changes to a new sheet

nadimsobhani

I manage a smartsheet that has a 2yr rolling forecast for 1,000+ expenses. At the end of the month, I would like to review and share all the changes that have been made to the "Cost" column. With workflow automation, I know that when a change is made to the Cost column, I can:

1. Have the changes emailed to me at a frequency of my choice
2. Copy the entire row to a new sheet

But neither solution is optimal because:

1. With Option 1, I don't want emails, I want documentation in Smartsheet
2. With Option 2, I don't see the previous cost (before the change), I only see the new cost (after my change).

Ideally, I want a report that shows these columns whenever a change is made to my source data:

1. Vendor (from source data)
2. Service Description (from source data)
3. Previous Cost (from source data, before my change)
4. Current cost (from source data, after my change)
5. Difference (formula column)
6. Date of change

In taking the time to write out my problem, a possible solution dawned on me: Add the "previous cost" column to my source data, and add then trigger the workflow whenever "previous cost" is updated. In this way, the new report could have all the columns desired above.

I would still like to hear if there are more seamless ways to do this (that would eliminate the need for me to enter a "previous cost" in a new column, and instead just update the "current cost" once). Thank you!

Lucas Rayala

@nadimsobhani you could create an archive using a copy of the sheet with all the current entries. Add a new column to the main sheet called "Old Value" and look up the previous value on the archive sheet if things change. Copy over the line whenever an update is made.