Automation : Can it leave my manual work current?

AFriedl

I have a Smartsheet that I have been doing a lot of manual "box-checking" for completion. I have a process set up to data shuttle and automate, however, I don't want to lose all the work that I have competed, since I won't be able to shuttle some of the historical data in.

Is is possible to have my previous content in place and just update the information now that I have a process in place, while leaving my historical data intact?

Example: we are monitoring associates attendance in classes, but I won't be able to backload the attendance from last year, since I don't have that data anymore to shuttle, but I want to make sure that they have credit for the attendance they did have. I am afraid that when I put the shuttle/formulas in, I will lose all my previous data.

Kerry St. Thomas

The answer to your question is One Great Big "IT DEPENDS." 🤣

If you have, for example, a DATE column in what you want to Shuttle in, you, could configure the Data Shuttle to only consider those lines after July 1, 2024 (or whatever date you designate). It doesn't sound like this is part of your data, so you can also configure Data Shuttle to add to your existing sheet using an index key you have in your data - now of course your existing work won't HAVE that data, so you'll also either want to consider creating index numbers on your old data, or being sure you configure your Data Shuttle to NOT DELETE the old info.

In terms of formulas,instead of REPLACING your existing Checkbox column, ADD a column if you're able. Basically, make the logic of the formula something along the lines of

=IF ( [Manual Checkbox Column]@row=1, 1, {Formula you want to create to automate this process})

This will enable you to preserve your manual column (and hide if it you wish, but give you access to review the data if you need to) - and will also allow for automation to take over. Just make sure that any reports, etc. that were previously filtered with that manual check-box are updated to now be filtered with the new column formula.

I recommend you try using a duplicate of your existing data sheet, so that you can write formulas and manage the Data Shuttle while you're building the automations, without risk of your data being erased - that way when you iron out the structure, you can easily transfer it to your live sheet.

Good luck!