I’m hoping to get a second set of eyes from the community in case I’m missing something obvious or there’s a cleaner pattern I should be using.
I’ve used ChatGPT to try and help me group/organize my situation coherently…. Because at this point I feel crazy… I’ve literally worked on this for hours.
Environment
•Smartsheet Enterprise
•Licensed user
•Enterprise Admin
•Row Reports (not Sheet Summary)
•Filters set via Edit Report → Filter Criteria
Use Case
I’m trying to design a single supervisor-facing report that dynamically filters rows so that:
•Each supervisor sees only their direct reports
•Supervisor is maintained in one place (Employee Master) and feeds into a transactional tracker
•The report can be embedded in a department dashboard
•There’s no need to create one report per supervisor
This feels like a common scenario.
Data Structure - Sources
•Employee Master sheet (restricted access)
oEmp #
oEmployee Name
oSupervisor (Contact column, manually maintained)
oOther HR/admin fields
oServes as the source of truth for supervisor relationships
•Transaction / Tracker sheet
oEmp #
oTransaction-level detail (flex time awards / usage)
oSupervisor is populated from the Master (via Emp #) so that supervisor data is maintained in one place
oThis sheet holds the detail supervisors would ideally see
Design Context
My preference is for supervisors to see transaction-level detail from the tracker sheet.
Initially, I attempted to build the supervisor-scoped report directly from the tracker, but because the Supervisor column there is derived from the Master (cross reference formula), I suspected that might be interfering with Current User filtering.
To rule that out, I tested the same concept using the Employee Master sheet, where:
•Supervisor is manually entered
•Contact column
•Single contact per cell
This would at least allow supervisors to see a net balance, even though it doesn’t provide transaction detail.
What I’m Trying to Do
Create a Row Report (tested from both the Master and the Tracker) where rows are limited based on the logged-in user being the Supervisor.
Supervisor column details (in the Master):
•Type: Contact List
•Values: manually entered
•Tested with Allow multiple contacts ON and OFF
•One contact per cell
•Email matches the user’s Smartsheet login
Filters attempted:
•Supervisor is equal to Current User
•Supervisor contains Current User
Behavior:
•Filter applies, but the report returns zero rows
•This includes rows where I am explicitly listed as Supervisor
I’ve verified:
•Filtering is done in Edit Report → Filter Criteria (not column header filters)
•Report type is Row Report
•I’m a licensed user / I am actually Enterprise Admin
•Supervisor in the Master is not formula-generated
Questions for the Community
1.Is there a supported way to make Contact columns work with Current User filtering in reports for this supervisor-scoped use case?
2.Are there known limitations or edge cases with Contact columns + Current User in reports, even when the contact is manually entered and maintained in a single source sheet?
3.Given a model where Supervisor is maintained in one place and feeds a transactional tracker, what is the recommended pattern for allowing supervisors to see transaction detail without creating one report per supervisor or duplicating supervisor maintenance?
I’m very open to being corrected or redirected — I just want to validate the right approach before investing more time.
Thanks in advance!
Amanda
