Multi-tier reporting in Control Center?
I am looking for a way to set up a report in my parent blueprint so that:
Every time a new child project is provisioned, a specific sheet from that project is added to the report at the parent level. The parent report is a collection of that sheet in all child projects.
Things I tried that didn't work:
-Adding the child sheet to the parent report in my template folder (newly created parent report looks at template child sheet and scope doesn't update to include its own new child sheet)
-Linking the blueprint template workspace to my parent report (like above, newly created parent report looks at blueprint template workspace and scope doesn't update to include its own new workspace)
-Dynamic Reports (seem to only work for portfolio-level reporting, not workspace reporting)
Does anyone know how to accomplish this through Control Center, or have other ideas to try?
Best Answer
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Hi @Amy.Mizzi.RP,
I came across this limitation in multi-tier Control Center builds back in the autumn. There is no way I've found of enabling dynamic scope reporting at the mid-tier level, which I believe you are trying to do. Dynamic scope reporting only works for the very top level of your solution, regardless of how many tiers you have.
To pull roll-up data through the mid-tiers you need to route it via the summary sheet and then have a report in the blueprint that pulls from that sheet.
I have raised my concerns about this limitation with Smartsheet, as it makes it hard to justify going to the trouble of building multi-tier solutions. I thought there might be a way around it using Bridge, but currently there aren't any API endpoints that allow you to manage which sheets feed reports, so I hit a dead-end there too.
Sorry it's not better news.
Answers
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Hi @Amy.Mizzi.RP,
I came across this limitation in multi-tier Control Center builds back in the autumn. There is no way I've found of enabling dynamic scope reporting at the mid-tier level, which I believe you are trying to do. Dynamic scope reporting only works for the very top level of your solution, regardless of how many tiers you have.
To pull roll-up data through the mid-tiers you need to route it via the summary sheet and then have a report in the blueprint that pulls from that sheet.
I have raised my concerns about this limitation with Smartsheet, as it makes it hard to justify going to the trouble of building multi-tier solutions. I thought there might be a way around it using Bridge, but currently there aren't any API endpoints that allow you to manage which sheets feed reports, so I hit a dead-end there too.
Sorry it's not better news.
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@Philip Robbins thank you so much for your response. I'm so puzzled, because we had briefly worked with Smartsheet's team on the first version of our blueprint, and nearly all its functionality was based on mid-level reporting. I've mimicked their report configuration (including entire scope of blueprint template workspace) and it hasn't worked at all.
I booked time with the Pro Desk next week to walk through it and reach a final conclusion, whether the news is good or bad. I'll follow up here afterwards. Thanks again!
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@Amy.Mizzi.RP I'd love to be proven wrong on this one, but I spent a lot of time in the autumn working on a solution only to find that any sheets provisioned from the lower level blueprints were feeding into blueprint template reports and not provisioned reports. At that point I asked around my contacts at Smartsheet and came to the conclusion that what I was expecting/attempting wasn't possible.
Part of the issue is around how multi-tier is presented, as it sets this expectation that roll-up reporting can happen at any level. Technically this is true, but even some of the sales engineers at Smartsheet don't appreciate that there are two types of roll-up reporting: summary metrics and dynamic scope reports. Summary metrics can indeed roll-up through multiple levels (via summary sheets), but dynamic scope reporting only works at the very top level.
If the Pro Desk team tell you otherwise, ask them to demonstrate it to you on screen and ensure any sheets that are intended for mid-level dynamic scope reports get added to project reports provisioned from the top level blueprint, not the template report within the blueprint. And if they can show you that, please come back and explain how they managed to do it!
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@Philip Robbins I also would have loved for you to be wrong on this, but my Pro Desk session confirmed that this functionality doesn't exist.
I have no idea what to make of my experience with the Solutions Team and the Blueprint they built (which still to this day successfully creates several mid-tier reports).
But, I certainly can't recreate it in my own Blueprint, so I'm faced with either removing them completely or setting them up manually. Bummer! I will ping you if I ever stumble upon the secret solution.
Take care!
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@Amy.Mizzi.RP I'd be happy to jump on a call so you can show me the blueprint doing its thing. I'm not saying I'll be able to unpick the magic there and then, but I remain curious to see it happening, as from what I've been told it shouldn't be possible.
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@Philip Robbins that would be great! Drop me an email with some times you have available? amy.mizzi@realpage.com
