Doing things first time right with data validation

Mahmoud Hamadeh

In a productive organization, the most efficient method for cutting waste is to attack anything and everything that is not done right the first time. The only drawback to SmartSheet is its ability to manage "data validation" like excel does. Even with column properties set as Date, users can still write stories "text entry".  The same with dropdown lists, users can just types their own list with no validation! Some maybe suggest to use web-forms, but it is not an option when you manage a project you still need to access all tasks "lines" for progress updates. Or using maybe conditional formatting for validation which still against the "first time right" concept. I wish if SmartSheet consider this in their future road map.

Kara Lumley

Mahmoud,

 

I hope you are doing well! Thank you for the post. This is something that has been brought up with our product team multiple times, and we think that we have settled on a good solution - have an additional column property that the sheet owner or sheet admin can set, that enforces "strong typing". For example, this would enforce a date only in a date type of column, or a selection from a dropdown list that only comes from the entries that are set up by the sheet admin.

I'll check to see where that is on our roadmap and get back to you.

Thanks Mahmoud.

Kara Lumley

Hi Mahmoud,

Good news - this is actively being developed and as I have more information on the release date I will let you know.

Best,
Kara

Kara Lumley

Hi Mahmoud,

We are hoping for February for this release.

Thanks,

Kara

Mahmoud Hamadeh

Thanks for the great news!

 

Mahmoud

Mahmoud Hamadeh

One more thing to add here!

 

With data validation, column type under column proporties need to be upgrated as well to difreanciate between whole/dicimal number & text; currently both are under the same category. with this upgrade the validation will work to reject text values in numeric columns.

 

Thanks! 

Mahmoud Hamadeh

Hi Kara, any updates on this?

Kara Lumley

Hello Mahmoud!

We are now targeting March for this release. This feature is still in active development.

Thank you,

Kara

Mahmoud Hamadeh

Hello Kara, I've been waiting for this update, do you have a good new for me?

 

Regards, Mahmoud

Kara Lumley

Hello Mahmoud!

Thanks for the reminder - we are still working on this and have targeted April as the release. I appreciate your patience - we want to ship the best product possible

Best,
Kara

Mahmoud Hamadeh

Hi Kara, shall we expect release this very soon?

Regards, Mahmoud

Kara Lumley

Yes, it is planned for the 3rd week of May

Mahmoud Hamadeh

Wow, you did it guys! well done.. I can see the validation options on dates & drop-down menus.. Thank you!!

I would also suggest to split (text/numbers) vs. (numbers-only) in columns with data validation, this way we will get 0 errors in sheets data entry! what do you think?

Kara Lumley

Thanks for your patience with this Mahmoud!

I will take your suggestion to the team and see what they think

Thanks,

Kara

Mahmoud Hamadeh

Thanks Kara, we have some columns to specify costs and we have encountered users typing text in those columns.. if you have column type restricted to numbers only this will help a lot. 

mvrao

Any updates on this thread?

We are seriously evaluating Smartsheet as a possible solution for some of our requirements, but Smartsheet has very very limited functionalities when it comes to data validation.

And if we cannot restrict data to numbers (at source) and stop invalid entries, then we cannot request collaboration from multiple stakeholders who are required to enter only numbers/number ranges/percentages.

Is this an unreasonable request?

If you want to get this right, may I recommend validation at "Cell" level (like MS Excel), not column level. I also dont want to be using two products such as Google forms at the front and "integrate" with smartsheet. Sounds silly to me.

Without this basic validation, we cannot integrate smartsheet with BI tools and consolidate data from those stakeholders and provide meaning insights / reports.

 

I have seen posts dating back to 2016, and there have been no developments in this regard.Please let me know if Smartsheet doesn't believe this to be a critical feature? And also since this hasn't yet been addressed, should I look elsewhere for a better alternative.Thanks,