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Relational Database?

We're pretty excited to start our Smartsheet journey; the functionality looks amazing!

I'm struggling to wrap my head around how to make different sheets related to each other.

Let me give you an example of what I want to achieve, and perhaps someone can point me in the right direction.

Imagine operations has a long list of tasks on a sheet that are currently in progress or ready to start, and the ops manager wants to organize each technician's day. he might assign tasks to each tech.

He then wants each task to show up on each technicians individual ask sheet. They can only see their tasks and no one else's.

Cell linking doesn't work as this is only one way (I think), so if the tech wants to up date their task they can't, they'd have to go the original sheet, not ideal.

I can't figure out if VLOOKUP is instead the key.

I guess I'm fundamentally looking for a relational database here. All the data is in one place, and you can create different views and such with it, and manipulate it both ways.

Any advice?

Sean

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Andrée Starå

Hi Sean,

Welcome to the Community and the wonderful world of Smartsheet!

There are a few ways to structure it.

The best one that I would start with if it works for your use case would be to use reporting. The only thing to be aware of is that the technicians can see everything in the sheet because they have to be shared to it to be able to see their tasks.

Would that work?

Hope that helps!

Let me know if you have questions and I'd be happy to help!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

Sean.Rowan

Hey Andree,

Thanks so much for replying.

I could have probably made my question clearer.

Image the master sheet has "Tasks" and "Assigned To" data for Barb, Jason, and Kevin
Now image I want to create 3 different sheets showing each person their tasks and nothing else, these will be like their technician task lists.
But importantly I want these individual task lists to update if changes are made on the master sheet
And, just as importantly I want the master sheet to update if any changes are made to the individual sheets
So the cells are not just linked one say, I need them to e linked both ways

I'm pretty sure reporting is kinda like cell linking, it's only 1 way, yes?

If so, any other solution options you can think of?

Cheers

Sean

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Fortunately, reporting isn't like cell-linking. It's a view of one sheet or multiple sheets with the same permissions from the sheet(s), so the fields can be editable

In your use case, you could use reports for the technicians to only see their tasks and they will be able to update the fields as long as the permissions allow it. But for the technicians to be able to see the tasks, they have to be shared with the underlining sheets and if they know how they can open that sheet and see everything.

Would that work? Is there any sensitive information in the sheet(s)?

Hope that helps!

Andrée Starå

More info about Reports: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/reports

Let me know if you have questions!

Sean.Rowan

Gosh Andree, thanks for all the help!

I apologize, I must have missed the two-way solution that "reports" has when I watched the video training.

Yes, there would be some sensitive information, but I think I can hide these columns on the master sheet, so only the sheet owner can see them, no?

Gosh, gotta say, we're excited to find a solution that doesn't fundamentally require us to fit around the software, but the software can fit around us.

Sean

Andrée Starå

I'm always happy to help!

Easy to miss!

Yes, you can hide the information, but it's still possible to see it if you know where to look.

I'd be happy to have a quick chat on what would be the best way to structure it.

Please e-mail me at andree@workbold.com if you'd like and well take it from there.

Troy S.

Hey Sean - I would suggest creating the report filtered on "Current User" in the assigned to column, then you only have to create one report that looks different for all three of your technicians.

Best,

Troy

Mike Wilday

I agree with Troy. But the only issue I've found is that when creating a currrent user report, sometimes certain users like certain fields bigger or in different orders. Changes made to a current user report affect all the users. Just something to think about.

Here is a link to more about working with multiple users that might be helpful.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/522214-creating-reports

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