Submitting Multiple Rows using one Smartsheet Form

We are creating a new Smartsheet to track deliverables. We have asked competing vendors to add delivery details within a ‘Smartsheet Form’ to auto-populate the sheet. Orders contain 1 to 100 shipments. Our Order Number is the same for all shipments. Ideally the vendor would like to enter the Order Number and the Order details once, then add the many delivery IDs in one Form. On the Smartsheet, the order header details populate the Parent row and the delivery details are the indented children rows.

Based on the feedback in this 4-year-old post (https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/submitting-multiple-rows-form), I assume that this functionality is not available for Smartsheet FORMs? Do we need to get an excel report from the vendors, copy/paste into the smartsheet and indent the children rows manually? Or ask the vendors to submit up to 100 FORMs reentering the same Order details each time, one for each delivery ID? Are there any other options?

Thank you for your help.

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Comments

Andrée Starå

Hi Emily,

I think we can come up with a good process for this use case.

There are a few different ways to structure a solution.

Can you tell me more about the structure of the sheet? Would it work if the Vendors had their own sheets instead of a form?

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

EmilyH

Hi Andrée,

Thank you for the response.

Here is a screen shot to help explain the objective.

Competing vendors supply line order details, but our analysis will be at a Header (parent) level. If we create a smartsheet for each vendor, and pull the line details into a Smartsheet Report, how can we track and add data at the Header level?

Thank you for your help and advice.

Emily

Screen Shot 10.png

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Yes, we can add data to the header/parent level. We would structure the sheets and reports so that we can show the parents as needed and make it easy to add/change the information.

How many vendors will you looking at, and will the structure for each be the same? How many items?

I have a few other ideas, but the structure has to be the same for it to work.

I hope that helps!

EmilyH

Hi Andrée,

Currently, the number of vendors is unknown (maybe 10), the lines will vary from 1 to 200. This data is being captured in other apps manually, I would like to start using a Smartsheet template to capture order lines for all vendors. Therefore, the structure is the same for all vendors.

We are hoping to create two workflows:

Vendors add line data to a FORM or a specific vendor Smartsheet.
Internal department works within another centralized Smartsheet or Report that contains all vendor order lines but also contains Header level (parent) details. The Internal Department adds additional data at the Header level only.

How can we create a vendor sheet without getting vendors to indent children rows manually? And how can we pull the ~10 sheets into one Smartsheet so we can review and add data at a Header Level?

Thank you for your help.

Emily

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

I'd recommend creating one sheet by a vendor that they can work from, and it could be combined with a form or only used by the vendor through the form.

We would then create a Master Vendor Sheet where we would collect and calculate on the date from the individual vendor sheets.

To see everything together, we would create a report structured, so it's sorted with the Master Vendor Sheet and then the vendor.

Master Information for vendor 1
Specific information for vendor 1
Master vendor 2
Specific vendor 2 and so on

Make sense?

Would that work?

EmilyH

Hi Andrée,

Yes, that makes sense. Thank you.

Please correct me if I am wrong but I think my only option is to:

Vendor copy and paste all line level data to individual “Vendor Order” sheets (Sheet 1).
For each “Vendor Order” sheet, send a Smartsheet alert to the “Centralized Header Order Level” sheet administrator (Sheet 2).
Sheet administrator will manually add the Header Order number to Sheet 2.
Create Sheet 2 formulas that count or sum the “Vendor Order” sheets (Sheet 1) line level data on the centralized sheet. These could be long formulas, depending on the number of vendor sheets.
Sheet 2 Admin can now add additional Header order data.

This is going to be a very manual workaround, especially if there are new vendors. To help reduce the manual effort, it would help to have the following functionality:

Submit multiple rows using one Smartsheet Form: Header is Parent, Line is Child Rows. Reduces the need to manually create look-up formulas and update if new vendors are added. Also reduces the number of sheets and forms since the data will be in one report.
One Form updates two Smartsheet sheets. Even if we receive an alert to add data to Sheet 2, it is manual and sometimes emails/notifications are not managed in real-time.

I understand the two requests for additional functionality should be submitted as a SmartSheet Product Enhancement Request, but I am sure these were already submitted as enhancements. Should I submit anyways?

Thank you.

Emily

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

I think this can be much simpler. Either in Smartsheet or with the help of a third-party service. Is that an option?

Can you maybe share the sheet(s)? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

sholmes

Hi @Andrée Starå , I was hoping you could help me. I have a sheet where I just need to send a notification, but I want each line to be sent separately. So, I thought I would try using forms so it would do that. If I use the form in the automation, I can't update the settings - or can I? If I create a form, how can I send them all at once to capture the line item to each individual?

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