Restrict users from creating reports using a shared sheet

PaulM87

Hi all,

I was wondering whether there is a facility to prevent people with Editor level access from creating new reports based on a sheet they have access to.

The background is that I have a very large database with lots of People data about my team. I have 6 direct reports managing around 10 people each. Some of the data is confidential in nature - Performance review scores, active disciplinary measures etc. This includes data on the managers themselves.

My intention is to create around 3 or 4 reports that surface different parts of the sheet that managers can change/update as required. I will curate these reports and ensure that only I can add new columns, and I'll hide the sensitive columns on the underlying sheet.

This will mitigate 99% of the risk of managers seeing confidential information about their peers or about people on other teams. As editors they will not be able to unhide the hidden columns on the sheet, or change the communal reports I've shared with them beyond updating individual cells

The risk is that they will still be able to create reports using the sheet and then add whatever columns they want. I've forbidden this and can see if anyone is doing something they shouldn't be by checking the Activity log on the Sheet, but I would be more comfortable if they just couldn't create any reports whatsoever.

The alternative would be to create a separate sheet for this confidential data, but this isn't really viable as I want managers to be able to change fields for their own team on the reports I've set up and I've got a lot of other columns that interact with the confidential stuff in the underlying Sheet.

Many thanks,

Paul

Jason Tarpinian

The answer you are looking for is Dynamic View. Simply put, you can build a report, allow users to see/edit specific fields you dictate, and they don't have to be shared to the source sheet.

WorkApps has similar/lesser functionality, with other bells and whistles, but the Dynamic View will solve exactly what you are looking for.

PaulM87

Thanks Jason, I will investigate Dynamic View.