Smartsheet equivalent to a popup window or pivot table?

Question

Is there anything like a pivot table in the smartsheet ecosystem?  I am looking for a solution that is somewhat like a sheet reference, but perhaps saves the time of double entry?

Case in point: those of you that use Concur travel or something similar, how do you organize the data and make it retrievable but also something we can pull financials from?  When I book a flight or hotel, I get a very text-heavy email with some key info - record locator/confirmation number, name, dates, destination, cost etc.  I am tracking all this information manually when I receive a booking email, but I would like to "link" these rows to another submission sheet, so that a travel request from an employee or contractor is then tied to the actual reservation record.

Yes, I can add columns to the submission sheet and that may be the answer, but I am trying to steer away from making some existing sheets that I've been given to work with more complicated or "bigger" than they need to be.  The submission sheet (travel requests come in through a form) is already 25 columns wide…adding another 10 does not ruin my life but it does make the sheet unwieldy.  It also does not solve the problem of tying two reservations together - I have some hotels booked a certain way and other long-term lease accommodations booked another way.

Essentially, I'm envisioning something like a hyperlink for a booking reference or confirmtion number, that redirects to another sheet, but it would be great if this were to function something like the pop up window that has all project information in timeline view.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

jmaxbr · Answer

I think I agree with you.  Because there are two tasks here - tracking submissions through to confirmations, and then analyzing costs associated with those bookings - I think they correct approach is probably expanding the original sheet, rather than adding another destination or linked reference sheet.

Adrien Leduc · Answer

Hi @jmaxbr ,

I would not be afraid to add columns. Once you have all the columns you need, if you want users to only see what they need to see, use reports to pick the columns for the users.

There is a premium app called Smartsheet Pivot App:

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2476736-get-started-pivot

If you want to build another sheet for your 10 columns the main issue is that you will have to populate it with a unique key that's also on the first sheet. It's not impossible but there are constraints and overall it's much easier to keep you columns on the first sheet.