Different Dates on the one sheet

AmandaHore

I am in Victoria, Australia and I am using a form to populate a sheet. I want to automatically populate the Inspection Date to be the date the row was created. I am using the formula =created@row

The Created date, being the system generated date is correct, but as you can see the Inspection date using the above formula is the wrong date - depending on the time of day it was entered. How do I get the inspection date to be the created date?

PM_Reeves

Hi @AmandaHore,

I wonder if this is related to issues I have had with Date formats and different times showing. I'm in Adelaide and occasionally have cells displaying dates in US format, which also take on the Pacific Time zone.

So I can have a change made on a Tuesday, but then cell links, formulas, and automations take place and attribute the change to late Monday.

Here's the details from my support ticket

'While it is not ideal, this is expected behavior when cell linking system columns "Created date" and "Modified date". This is documented in the help article: Troubleshooting:How Smartsheet handles time zones.

You may want to submit an enhancement request via our community page for consideration by the product team.'

Best of luck

Rob Hagan

Hi @AmandaHore,

Same here in Melbourne, Australia. From time to time, a summary report of a date field has one or more rows showing a date that is (exactly) one day earlier than the date on the sheet that provides the data for that row. Three days ago, the report had one such instance. A day later it has three. Today it has none. It is hard to imagine how such instablity can even be coded into the product.

@PM_Reeves, we also experience the symptoms of USA date formats and timezone mutations appearing and disappearing from time to time in reports.

These are definitely bugs and to have them pushed down the "enhancement request" pathway is a cop out, but as Smartsheet Support doesn't engage effectively, I can see why one would do that out of a sense of frustration. Oh, yes. That's why I making comment here too!

Maybe just the consequence of living Down Under and using a US product.

I just read the article to which Paul was referred, specificially

Troubleshooting: How Smartsheet handles time zones | Smartsheet Learning Center

and the final item is a concern, "Pacific Time overrides. When changes are made to a sheet via automation, cell links, or cross-sheet formulas, the whole sheet is converted to Pacific Time. Automation services are hosted by service users with a Pacific Time setting. This means that TODAY() formulas and display system column display values may get updated if you're in a different time zone.". How do we work with "may get updated". When and why does this happen?

Cheers,

Rob

PM_Reeves

Hi @Rob Hagan ,

Good to see it's not just me.

A quick way to get rid of the incorrect dates is to access the sheet, click on an empty cell, and then just 'save'. Seems to bring everything back into line

Cheers