Regional date format issue in cross sheet reference

KirstyNQDT

Hi, we use control center to roll out project toolkits, the intake sheet includes a start and end date for contracts. These dates pull through to a metadata sheet then to various other assets in the toolkit. To set up I right click the cell and select 'Link from cell in other sheet' and link to the relevant cell in the metadata sheet.

On the intake sheet, and metadata sheet the dates show in the correct regional format (Aus) but on the other assets they continue to show in US format. I have checked my personal settings and cell settings. The reference also doesn't show when I select 'Manage References' and select the cell link reference section

Can anyone advise how I resolve this please?

Melissa Yamada

What’s happening is that the source sheets (intake + metadata) are honoring the AU date format, but once the date is cell-linked into other assets, Smartsheet re-renders it using the destination sheet’s locale, which often ends up looking like US format. Personal settings don’t override this, so checking those won’t help.

The reason you also don’t see anything under Manage References is because you’re using cell links, not cross-sheet formulas. That part is expected and doesn’t indicate a problem.

The cleanest and most reliable fix is to stop linking the actual date column and instead link a helper text column from your metadata sheet.

In the metadata sheet, add a new Text/Number column with a formula like:

=TEXT([Contract Start Date]@row , "dd/mm/yyyy")

Then link that column into your other toolkit assets and make sure the destination column is also Text/Number.

This works because Smartsheet treats it as plain text, so it doesn’t try to reinterpret the date or apply a different regional format. Control Center updates still work fine, and you keep your real date column for calculations and dependencies.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a setting you can flip to make this go away — this is just how Smartsheet handles linked dates across sheets. Most Control Center builders end up using this helper-column pattern as standard practice.