Sharing reports with data without even view access to the source sheet

CWisnewski

This needs to be fixed as there aren't any other elegant solutions for the user case mentioned by many. I recently tried deploying a similar solution. I require gathering monthly updates from a large department with multiple teams, (Smartsheet forms do not meet my requirement for ongoing collaboration). Team members are responsible for editing their respective team's report, with all data rolled up to a main source sheet. While the main sheet was shared without notification, team members are confused and editing the sheet, not their respective team report. Please advise when this will be resolved.

Samuel Mueller

This is a much needed feature. hopefully this is something Smartsheet implements. We know it's possible because it works inside of a WorkApp.

Gavin Seaton

Agree that Smartsheet really needs to get this sorted. Some have said that Dynamic View is the way forward but it isnt. Dynamic View does not have the ability to Group, Filter and Summarise the data so all you get is a jumbled up list which is very frustrating when you are trying to present data that is grouped into relevant areas.

MartaK

This issue is extremely frustrating and defeats the point of having a report. It doesn't allow to control what data is visible/editable to which team members. What is even more frustrating is that the Smartsheet has not been helpful at all, and actually did not address issues raised in this thread. Not impressed!

KenR

Totally agree with the above, while the ability to edit from a report is a great advantage, it's also a huge weakness in an era needing data integrity and confidentiality. I'm having to take the information out of smartsheets and back to SQL for my simple read-only reporting. Such a shame... so many exciting opportunities curtailed by such a basic operation.

kera

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/352966#Comment_352966

Except Dynamic View does not hold formatting of your report… ie grouping/summary

bryan_intellitec

I am looking for a way to share a sheet (to collect only attachments and comments), but not allow access directly to the sheet. I created a report to show only the data desired, but the underlying sheet needs commentor access (to collect attachments and comments), which then allows a user to see the sheet, if logged in.

Current Solution (not ideal): Create different sheets for the end users and us, then report on both sheets. This works but you lose the ability to aggregate summary sheet data (such as percentages).

Note: The same behavior existed using a WorkApp (the sheet is hidden in the app), until logging in and the sheet is then viewable.

Iley Lorne

This is similar to what I am looking for as well. I would like to share reports without sharing the parent sheet. I have a central budget sheet that multiple offices submit to, however I would prefer the offices not be privy to every other offices' submissions. Unfortunately I have not found a work around as data gets updated so individual sheets for the offices that combine into a roll up sheet would not work effectively.

Stu Benoff

@bryan_intellitec Would an Update Request work for your case where you could just give them the ability to add attachments via the UR where they wouldn't need underlying access to the sheet?

bryan_intellitec

Good morning! That solution you recommended was already tested but the issue is the end user would see each "task/row" as a single thread instead of all assigned tasks together. We are looking for a grid type of assigned tasks (such as a restricted report - client public view) with the ability to attach notes and attachments without seeing the underlying project plan (which is private). This is a great solution, which does work, but is accomplished more singularly than all assigned.

Note: Triggering of the update request is another consideration. Some thought would have to be determined on how/when to trigger the workflow (based on some criteria). The frequency is also another consideration as we do not want to overwhelm the end user with email after email. Your recommendation is sound but does not accomplish what we are looking to do, but very much appreciated!

Stu Benoff

I'm sure you've seen this in your testing but when a user receives a UR for multiple rows, they get one email, as long as, as you mentioned, you can trigger multiple rows at one time, and they are permitted to scroll through the rows from the same message. So, it's still operating on them one at a time, but it is consolidated into one message. I understand that you're looking for the grid view and, I believe, that would only be possible with Dynamic View.

johngraham78

I have a potential workaround for this problem (with drawbacks of course).

If you hide every column in the source sheet (you must keep one column visible though), those with view only access cannot unhide any columns and therefore cannot see any data.

This could be used in conjunction with a duplicate sheet from which reports are based. As some have mentioned, a series of automations and datamesh could keep the sheets in sync.

Dynamic view won't work for my particular situation, as I'm using reports with 'current user' dependencies to feed charts on a dashboard.

Samuel Mueller

@johngraham78 just Fyi they would be able to edit row still, ctrl+E and see all of the values

johngraham78

@Samuel Mueller , if they have view only access to reports and the sheets, then they won't be able to edit values. Are you saying they can still view everything though? When I'm in sheet with view only access, I cannot figure out how to view hidden columns.