Laptop Loaner Pool - moving task to another lane via Smartsheet form

patmo

I'm working on managing a loaner pool of PC laptops here are the details of the workflow:

Each row (GRID view) contains laptop with fields containing information about the device ("serial number", "device name", "borrower name" and "ID number") and then I also have 3 date fields ("borrowed date", "estimated return date", and "actual return date").

The in BOARD view, each "card" is each laptop that we are tracking the status on, so the "Lanes" are In Stock, On Loan, Returned, in Repair.

Since each row (GRID view) and "card" (BOARD view) is a different laptop - we don't ever want to delete rows or add rows, etc.

The technicians that are assigning laptops have just "viewer" access to Smartsheet, so we would like to create a form that they can access that allows them to enter the dates a specific laptop will be on loan, which once submitted, can change the "Lane" to "On Loan" to the row already on the sheet and NOT add another row with the updated loan/borrower information - just updating the existing row.

For Example: in GRID view the Laptop listed in row 1 will ALWAYS be in row 1, and when a form is submitted by a technician for a loan, only the status field changes to "On Loan", and at the same time in BOARD view, the "Card" is moved to the "On Loan" lane. A second form is submitted once the laptop is returned and moves the "Card" back to "In Stock"

Just hoping that someone else out there has a definitive answer as to whether this can be done this way!

Matt Lynn ACT

@patmo Great use case. So simply you cannot do this the way you're thinking. The only way to do this with a form is to have two sheets.
Sheet 1: This is the sheet you're using now to see board view etc.
Sheet 2(new): This is a request sheet that contains the form. On this form would be a drop down with the laptops (Unique value/ID) or maybe they just request any laptop and you assign it. Either way Sheet 1 would have a index(match()) or index(collect()) formula looking at the request Q to update the status… which would move the card.

Now if you want both sheets to update the other so when the laptop is moved back (manually) you'd need helper columns on both sheets looking at the other with index(match()) or index(collect()) formulas and both sheets would have "Change cell value" automations. So when someone moved a card, that would be communicated back to the other sheet in the formula and the automation is looking for that change and would then update/override the non-formula version of that column.

This process can get tricky and it may not work for your use case, but just an option to consider as what you're looking for won't work.

One step further… you could do a URL form query which pre-populates a form with values and list that link on the cards so if you click it, it would open a form from sheet 2 that has pre-populated values in the fields such as the ID number, the new status etc. Again… may not work for your needs… but options to consider.