Summary sheet values don't update in dashboard without entering source sheet?

AlexFullerton

I have a sheet summary report on a dashboard and oftentimes the values will not update unless I go into the source sheet and manually save the updates.

For example, the WEEK TIME OFF value often will not update week-to-week unless I go into that contact's sheet and save.

I have tried adding a daily Chron automation recording today's date in a hidden column to trigger the updates but this does not seem to be working.

Is there any way to make these summary values update more reliably on my report?

Kerry St. Thomas

Generally, dashboards don't update unless there's a recalculation that occurs on an underlying sheet or report. To make a recalculation happen, there are several options - open the sheet, save the sheet, make an edit to the sheet, or a few other choice actions. Many of people (myself included) have developed workarounds leveraging automations. Because I heavily use column formulas and rely on formatting for many things, my workaround involves a separate sheet. That separate sheet is used for overall time intelligence. I use the "Record A Date" automation (which occurs automatically when you schedule it to run each day, and doesn't require you to open the sheet), and then there are a bunch of formulas for "Today", "Tomorrow", "Beginning of this Month", and a few other key dates. I then add a summary field to the underlying sheet I am building a dashboard to, that points back to this separate sheet's "Today" cell.

Each morning at way-too-freaking-early o'clock, the automation runs, which causes the cross-sheet reference to update, which causes the sheet to recalculate, which causes the dashboard to update. Clear as mud. :)