New to Smartsheet and completely overwhelmed - how do I manage trials with multiple tasks?

This is what I would like to accomplish using Smartsheets but I am struggling to find the best way to go about it. Each year we get new vegetable varieties that we need to test in various locations at different times. I would like a tool that I can follow each variety up with a grower.

The following data is added:

Location, Variety, Crop, Date planted, Variety growing days (each variety is different), Potential date harvested (worked out from date planted and growing days added). I would like to have records of where I have put my trials, with which grower and also it would be useful of when the variety would be ready to harvested.

Could anyone help with where to start? I have looked at templates but they are very complicated.

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Jgorsich

In general when setting something up like this you want to start at the easiest version possible and then make it more complex.

So - the easiest version possible is going to be a simple list (start with a Grid view, call this sheet "Main") where you have 1 column each for Location, Variety, and Date planted. This information will always be unique to every individual trial. Fill in 10 or so with fake (or real) data covering a few different varieties and dates so you can test as you go.

Now, you ALSO want to track Crop, growing days, and expected date harvest (I'd consider adding actual date harvested and a notes column at a minimum), so go ahead and make columns for those but don't put any data in yet.

I'd assume that for any given variety the crop is fixed (that is, you don't have two varieties named the same thing that are two different crops). If that is true, on a DIFFERENT sheet (again, Grid view, call this sheet "Reference") you can have a column for Variety, Crop, and Growing days. Fill that data in for all your varieties.

Back on "Main", you can now fill your Crop and Growing Days columns using cross sheet references and index(match()) formulas (you can find lots of explanations on both by searching through old replies here). Your expected harvest data column would just be filled with a simple formula like =[Date Planted]@row + [Growing Days]@row.

Of course, there are also lots of consulting firms that can help you set this up as well, but hopefully that gets you started!

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