Update requests for outside users

Monika Vermeulen

I have a database of clients that i curently run on a traditional database platform. I have been thinking of mooving completely to smartsheet but one thing has been holding me back... i want to be able to send update requests directly to my clinets regarding information that only partains to them, without having to share my workspace and all my other confidential data with them.

Currently iI can only get new information when my client bothers to go to the website and update. They can also not see what their current information is for their account because I cant filter it to them specifically.

I have to manually replace old data with new data and then update it to the cleint database, once again mannualy. I do not want them to be able to see other entries in the same form. Is there a way to get around this? Is there a feature update for this on the horizon?

 

Richard Rymill SBP

Hi Monika, you cannot do this using a Form as it would only populate a New Row, not update an existing one.

However if you design your database sheet, so that information contained across all the columns is ok to be Shared with and updated by EACH client, then you can use Update Requests which can go out on demand or scheduled on a regular basis. That gets you what you need from them with a covering explanatory email for guidance and they see and update only the Row you want them to see and nothing else.

Hopefully that resolves your question? If not please let me know?

Regards RichardR   

Travis

Depending on how you would have your sheet set up you might be able to do this with update requests and the report publishing tool. Lets say you have one sheet with all your clients info in it. You can send an update request to your clients and include only the specific rows that are relevant to them (and would not require them to log in or be shared to the sheet). They would only see the rows you send and could update the information on these rows. As far as allowing them to see all the data (rows) that pertain to them at anytime without seeing other clients information - create a report for each client that contains only rows pertaining to that client then use the report publishing tool to publish the report. Publishing reports is similar to publishing sheets. You will get a URL which can be shared with your clients which will allow them to view the data in the report without logging into Smartsheet or being shared to the underlying sheet or report. The report publish feature is available in Smartsheet Labs as a feature we are currently testing. 

 

Here is more information on publishing reports: http://www.smartsheet.com/apps/smartsheet-report-viewer