Sheet Formulas Not Auto Updating

MFuller

Just recently I noticed that the formulas within my sheet are not working in the background and updating my reports as they used to. I have a formula that populates a status based on a date, so if the date is in the past, it marks the status complete  and then my report only pulls tasks that are not complete - I only have this formula in one of the 12 parent sheets of my report. BUT, the last week this formula isn't automatically working so there are past dates activities in my "today" report. When I open the sheet that should be automatically updating, it runs all the formulas which updates fields and then suggests I save the changes (without me actually touching anything) and then my report is correct. Is anyone noticing the same issue and/or is there something that changed in the back end that I need to work around. Thanks in advance!

Mike Wilday

The Today() function if used in your sheets will only update once a sheet is opened. Relying on it to provide updated data in sheets that aren't opened daily will not work.

See the usage notes here: 

https://help.smartsheet.com/function/today

Paul Newcome

Mike is correct. This is (and has been) expected behavior of the TODAY() function. I would venture to say that when you first set it up and it was working the way you expected it to, the sheet was being activated daily.

 

There are a few different options to help with automating the TODAY() function to get it to update daily without actually opening the sheet.

 

The easiest would be with a 3rd party app called Zapier.