Is an automated export of a Smartsheet to an Excel file possible?

Candace G

Hi all,

I have been having the most frustrating conversation with Smartsheet support on this topic and not getting answers to the question that I asked.

I would like to set up an automation that will email me an Excel copy of my project plans on a weekly basis (or when triggered with a change - I don't really care) as I find it difficult to track all the changes being made to the project plan using the Activity Log or Cell History functions. I basically want an output file in Excel emailed to me regularly for version control purposes rather than having to save a new version of a project plan every time I need to make a change to the dates or durations of activities. Is this possible?

The responses I've been getting from Support are all around setting up automations, but NONE of them talked about how to get that automation notification to send me an Excel attachment of the project plan. I know I can export the project plan manually, but I'm managing multiple projects and don't always have time to think about doing this so an automation would be better.

I am on the standard Business plan, no additional add-ons like Data Shuttle or Data Connector, and unlikely to be approved to get these. I'm interested in whether this can be done with the standard Business licence.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Gia Thinh

Hi Candace,

The answer is YES. You can use "Send as Attachment" feature in the File menu of your sheet to setup the schedule for your need. You should be a licensed user to use this feature as well (I remembered that).

Hope this works for you.

Gia Thinh

Hi Candace,

The answer is YES. You can use "Send as Attachment" feature in the File menu of your sheet to setup the schedule for your need. You should be a licensed user to use this feature as well (I remembered that).

Hope this works for you.

Candace G

Thank you Thinh! That was so easy I feel a little embarrassed. (Not as embarrassed as Smartsheet Support should feel though!) I had no idea you could set a schedule to the "Send Attachment" function. I have set this up for all of my projects now and scheduled it so it lands in my inbox on a weekly basis.

While waiting for a response I figured out that I could set up an automation that would copy all the rows of my project plan into another Smartsheet whenever there was a change. For anyone else that might be interested I did the following:

1) set up a blank project plan Smartsheet called "Project History"

2) used the "Copy a row to another sheet when specified criteria are met" automation

3) set the automation up to run when rows are added or changed and when any change is made

It copies all of the rows of the project plan to the "Project History" Smartsheet whenever a change is made and saved, which means I end up with multiple copies of the project plan in the one sheet. I can then check to see when they are created using Cell History and copy the ones I need for version control into another sheet to export to Excel. It's a bit messy, but it helps me keep track of the changes.

Thanks again Thinh!

Gia Thinh

You're welcome