SUM Function

LBourg

I am trying to calculate Percentage Complete on a task (Project). I know the Percentage Left (that calculation is working perfect), but the Percentage Complete works on one sheet and not another. 

=SUM(1 - [Percentage Left]4)

On the next sheet I try the same thing and all I get is the return of the function syntax. Any ideas?  

 

Jim Hook

It's really difficult to see why something so simple is not working, it should display a value of 0% it looks like. I occasionally run into a situation where a formula doesn't seem to be working and the only way I can fix it is to right click clear cell, save the sheet and reload the page forcing the sheet to be reloaded from scratch. Then I reenter the formula in the cell and it works.

Good luck.

Chris McKay

Hi LBourg/Jim,

If I had to take a guess here, the reason your formula is not working is that you have specified the column where your formula resides as the project % complete column (see attached).

Smartsheet performers some jiggery-pokery (fancy way of saying formulas) behind the scenes to calculate Child values and roll them up into a Parent value.

As an example, when you configure Start and Finish dates in a project, you also get a Duration column as part of the deal. There is an undocumented formula CALCDURATION that is copied into the Duration column. Go ahead and try it. Enter =CALCDURATION([Start Date]1, [Finish Date]1). You'll see the formula returns a value, but there is no contextual help. It's super secret, shhhhh......

The key to identifying this is when you advised that all you were seeing was the return of the function syntax. Dead giveaway that Smartsheet has hijacked your column.

Kind regards,

Chris McKay