Milestone Report: how to show parent task or context across multiple project plans?

I’m using Smartsheet with multiple project plans (one sheet per project) and a cross-sheet Milestone Overview report.
In the report, I can see the milestone name and source sheet, but not the parent task or phase, which leads to duplicate names (e.g. “Closing Activity”) without context.

Is there a supported way to show the parent row / phase of a milestone in a report, or is adding explicit context columns the recommended approach?

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Accepted answers

Paul Newcome

@marco_vd_S I usually use a formula to populate this column, but the exact formula depends on your needs. Sometimes it is as simple as a PARENT function, but other times we need to combine an INDEX and an ANCESTORS. Sometimes we even need to use a JOIN function.

If you are able to describe what data you would want pulled into this grouping column and provide some screenshots for context, I'd be happy to help work through a formula.

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Naeem Ejaz

In each project sheet, add a column for Phase or Parent Task.

Populate it for each milestone row.

Include this column in your report so milestones have clear context.

While reports don’t show hierarchy, you can group by Phase column in the report for better clarity.

marco_vd_S

Thanks, that makes sense.

Follow-up question: what is considered the best practice for populating this Phase / Parent Task column?

Is it recommended to use a dropdown list and fill it manually per milestone row?
Or is there a formula-based approach to derive the phase from the hierarchy?

In my case, this setup is used across multiple project sheets (one per project) and aggregated in a single Milestone Overview report.
I’m particularly interested in what scales best and stays maintainable across many sheets.

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

Marco

Paul Newcome

If you are able to describe what data you would want pulled into this grouping column and provide some screenshots for context, I'd be happy to help work through a formula.

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