Completing Tasks, and Marking Progress

Tony Platts

In many other project management systems e.g. Microsoft Project, task completion is handled efficiently with a simple checkbox. When a task is marked as complete, it's immediately set to 100% complete. You can also choose 25%, 50%, or 75% completion directly from the ribbon, or manually adjust the percentage as needed. This process is seamless and responsive.

In contrast, Smartsheet's current approach feels more restrictive and complicated. To drive completion in the Gantt chart, I have to create a separate % complete column, requiring users to manually set the percentage to 100%. This setup is cumbersome compared to simply ticking a box to mark completion. While I could use a dropdown menu for "Not Started," "In Progress," and "Complete," and use a column formula to drive the %age from there, this sacrifices the granularity of completion tracking. On longer tasks I might want to set a very specific completion %age and column formulas prevent this.

Alternatively, adding a checkbox that sets the % complete to 100% involves automations, but these often run with noticeable delays, frustrating users.

I suggest introducing a designated "Complete" column where ticking a box automatically sets the task to 100% complete, and conversely, marking a task 100% complete ticks the box. An additional interface should also be included to allow for granular adjustments. This would greatly improve usability and make Smartsheet more intuitive for task management. This could look something like the attached image.

Completion.jpg

Bill in Ohio

I believe this can be done using automation. You would need to have a "Complete" field set to a symbol (the Harvey Balls are more descriptive, but you can use the progress line one as well.

I created a test with Set to Zero, Set to 25, Set to 50, Set to 75, and Set to 100. Each automation triggered on the change of the Complete Field, and changed the Completion % field to the appropriate value. I also added setting the Status Column to In Progress for 25, 50, and 75, Not Started for 0, and Complete for 100. You can then hide/show whatever fields you want the users to see/update.

Will this work for you?

Tim C

@Bill in Ohio is correct here, this can be done in an automation, and is frequently used to so exactly what you described.

Tony Platts

The problem is that automation seems to takes far too long in Smartsheet. When testing this very same functionality last week it was taking upwards of 2 minutes to update.

And it's not bi-directional. You can set up an automation to set %complete based on a column but then setting the %complete to another value can't affect the same column.

I feel this needs a proper software solution.

Tim C

I'd typically recommend using 1 or the other method from a change management experience for the end user. Either check the box or used a dropdown status to change the completion to 100% (or with the status column different % based on the status), or change the % complete column, not both. I find in larger teams having multiple ways lowers adoption of the solution due to uncertainty on where the data needs to be entered, but I could see why some teams might want that.

You could set up another automation to where if any number other than 100% was put into the %complete box it would clear the checkbox column mentioned previously. Depending on how your sheet is set up. You could also make a formula in the % complete column change based on the status of another column. Or if you want both options, make the formula in the % complete colmn driven off the checkbox column or a status dropdown column. If that formula is not a column formula you could over-ride the % complete column manually.