Can you make a field required on a sheet?

Meny Hoffman

Hello,

We use a sheet for our HR departments. We want to have a field required to be filled out based on a drop-down menu selected.

So if the status of the drop-down is HIRED, they should need to fill out who the direct Report is, so the data is complete. This is not on the form. This is directly on the sheet.

Thanks in advance.

MH

Ray Lindstrom

You cannot make a field required on a grid, but if you're using a Form to capture your data then you can make a field required in order to submit the Form.

Meny Hoffman

Thank you! Any other way to accomplish this?

Erin Corona

I have this same issue, and I have not found a way to combine conditional logic in the form. You can make fields in the form required, but they are required regardless of the choices users make, so it doesn't really work. I suppose you could set an initial value for those fields though, bypassing the error. Then the fields would say "NA" for all except users who filled the field out when they made the selection that presented the field in the form.

Ray Lindstrom

Happy to help.

I can't think of any interactive functionality like that. Pretty sure it's going to come down to just having a defined process in place which I know doesn't help because people don't follow "rules" (process).

You could create an automation to request an update on the field if it's left blank while meeting your conditions. I would add a "Created by" column in order to accomplish this. Then the automation can email the "Created by" user an Update Request if the "Direct Report" field is blank, but the Status is "Hired".

Meny Hoffman

This will help; we can send a remind if Hired was selected and the other field was left blank. TY

Ray Lindstrom

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/387325#Comment_387325

Awesome, hope it works out! You can hide the "Created by" column if there's no need to keep it visible. You can work your magic off of it without keeping it in view.

All the best,

-Ray

SHAFTA

This feature has been available on SharePoint Lists for years - require the column to contain information. There is also a setting to enforce unique values. If you're using Smartsheet for purely Data Collection, the data provider is entering the data in grid/excel view (not a form), and don't need project plan functionality, that is an option.