Alternative to reports to enable user filtering

Deborah Kramer

Hi,

I work for a health insurance company and we created a Smartsheet to facilitate onboarding new providers to our network. We have several teams in our department (contracting, provider service representatives, credentialing, data entry, etc) and I created a main sheet for status updates from each team - each row is a provider, the columns represent status updates from each team.

However, some teams such as contracting need several additional columns just for what they do and so rather than make one huge sheet, I added their specific columns to the last columns of the main sheet and then hid them. Then I made them a report and filtered it by just the providers who are being newly contracted (others are simply joining physician groups that are already under contract).

However, they are complaining that the report can't be sorted and filtered by them like one could do on the main sheet. What are my options?

1. I believe I could get them all licenses (if IT has bought enough), then make them all admins. However, wouldn't that just mean that they could filter the report the same way I do - in other words, it would be filtered or sorted for everyone on the team, rather than having their own filters that don't affect the others the way you can do on the main sheet?
2. Force them to go back to using the main sheet and just unhide all the extra columns? I have another report for another team, so going that route makes for a very wide sheet.
3. I read something about Dynamic View but I don't fully understand it yet. I know the purpose of it is so that a user can't see the main sheet, but I don't want to restrict them from seeing the main sheet. Is this something I should pursue?
4. If I make them their own sheet, it would just mean updating in two places, right? I know you can link cells, but with 150 rows, having to link cells one-by-one doesn't seem particularly practical.

Is there a better way than reports to achieve my goals of:

1. Narrowing down the rows for them (yes, I know they could filter the main sheet to do this)
2. Keeping the main sheet fairly high level and uncluttered but that anyone could view it, filter it and update it as needed?

Matt Johnson

Hi @Deborah Kramer

I would create new reports for all of, or most of, the options that they want and put shortcuts to all of them on a Dashboard. This Dashboard would function more like a Home Page than a normal Dashboard. I've done this before and sometimes it ends up where the order of the shortcuts become the steps in order to complete something.

I would avoid making everyone Admins. That usually ends up where everyone is changing column header names or unlocking rows or columns and not locking them back. Or, adding a column named one thing and hiding it on the sheet but visible on their report. Then someone else comes along and adds another column named something very similar but tracks a different thing. Then when someone else goes to make a report they aren't sure which column is the right one and from there the data is at risk.

Another method of gaining user adoption to this method is to set up meetings and have the users direct you as you add the columns so they get a sense of ownership to the report.

I hope that helps.

Matt

Paul Newcome

1. They would not need a license to be shared to a report with Admin permissions, but the Admin level permissions will make it so that any filter or sorting applied is done for anyone that uses the report.
2. Possibly but can discuss more on #4.
3. Dynamic View is a perfect use case for this. You can set up the Dynamic View with the same columns as the report, but they can apply their own filters and sorting to a Dynamic View without having to worry about messing it up for others.
4. If you have a unique identifier on every row that matches on both sheets, a column formula can be applied to pull the data over to the "Master Sheet" to avoid having to manually link each cell or do duplicate entry.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Deborah Kramer

I hope you're well and safe!

The Premium App, Dynamic View, or WorkApps would solve most issues except for the sorting. Still, if you want to avoid providing licenses, you could create multiple reports with their preferences instead.

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

✅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!

Deborah Kramer

Thanks for your responses. I am still a new user, self-taught. I haven't set up anything on a dashboard yet but the multiple reports sounds like a potential solution, if I can get them to nail down the filters they want.

As far as dynamic view, is that an extra expense? I'm not familiar with the Premium App or WorkApps. But these are some ideas I can research more. I also have some more 1/2-hour sessions I can book with a Smartsheet rep so hopefully they can get me started.

Andrée Starå

@Deborah Kramer

Excellent!

Happy to help!

Yes, Dynamic View and WorkApps require extra expense, so I recommend first trying the multiple report option and adding them to a sheet or dashboard to make it easy to find it.

Feel free to reach out at andree@workbold.com, and I'd be happy to help you if you want to explore the premium apps license and more.

✅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!

Nikki17

Hi all,

I currently have a dashboard that is published and shared to non Smartsheet users. Users are requesting the ability to be able to filter the report on national and market level. Is this possible with a license? We do not have Dynamic View or Workapps

Thanks in advance!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Nikki17

I hope you're well and safe!

Yes, there are multiple ways to solve it. Is there a risk that multiple people will look at the Dashboard simultaneously?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

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!

Nikki17

Hi Andree, Yes multiple people will be looking at the dashboard. The requests are, no smartsheet login for users and the users don’t want to give email addresses which would solve this because I would be able to permission them access.