Multiple Projects into a high level Programme / Portfolio Project

Hi Clever Community,

Sorry to ask this question as I believe I've seen the answer but that was 4-5 years ago and I cannot find the article now.

So I have 4 projects, each with a suite of smartsheets (all from a template) including risks, actions, milestones and timeline. So each of the 4 have the same fields and layout etc.

However, these are interdependent projects and so I need a timeline at Programme / portfolio level.

Each project timeline has a level number, depending on it's indendation, so I can identify that I want to pick up all level 1 rows, from each project, and show them in my programme / portfolio level timeline.

At this programme / profolio level I then want to be able to add dependencies - so I can see the impact of the late delivery (or early I'm ever the optimist) of one task in project A on project C for example.

I would also then like to report this back down into the project C timeline to impact the lower level details etc. ideally.

I can think of clunky ways of doing this as i have data shuttle but wondered if anyone else had achieved this, best practices etc. Sadly we do not have resource management where a lot of the templates and discussion around portfolios exists.

Many thanks in advance for your help, suggestions and support

Kindest regards

Sue

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Project Management

Cell linking

Portfolios

timelines

Accepted answers

Melissa Yamada

What you’re trying to do makes sense from a program management perspective, but Smartsheet doesn’t support that model natively.

The important limitation to understand is that dependencies in Smartsheet only work within a single sheet. Reports can pull rows from multiple project sheets, but they’re read-only views.

The cleanest pattern I’ve seen work in practice is to introduce a dedicated program-level sheet and treat it as a coordination layer, not the master of truth for detailed schedules. You’d use reports to surface your Level 1 rows from each project (using your hierarchy/level column exactly as you described), then copy just those key milestones into the program sheet. Once those rows exist in a single sheet, you can apply cross-project dependencies there and see the impact across projects in one place.

Where people run into trouble is trying to push those dependency-driven changes back down into the individual project plans. Smartsheet simply isn’t designed to propagate dependency logic across sheets. You can bring dates down using cell links or cross-sheet formulas, but those are just values, not true dependency relationships.

All comments

Melissa Yamada

What you’re trying to do makes sense from a program management perspective, but Smartsheet doesn’t support that model natively.

The important limitation to understand is that dependencies in Smartsheet only work within a single sheet. Reports can pull rows from multiple project sheets, but they’re read-only views.

SueinSpain

Thank you so much for your very comprehensive answer.

I have some ideas on how to manage this particular requirement as it is a one-off in our business and will discuss with the stakeholders how they want to move forwards and which compromises they are willing to make :)

Mickael Osswald

Please consider merge your four sheets into one and use reports to get the 4 separate parts of it. That way it will easily work. If you need more information, do not hesitate to ask here and I will try to make some screenshots for you

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