Clever ways of recording when a task moves from one stage to another

s_mawer

Hi all,

Can anyone think of a clever way to record when a task moves from one stage to the next, or how long a task was at each stage? Our standard task has 5 stages to go through before it is complete. My boss wants to be able to analyse how long each task is taking at each stage. My first thought was to put a date column for each stage where you just record when it has been completed (and then have another column which auto populates what stage the task is on based on which column has a date in it) - we could then calculate the number of days between each stage.

However, the team in charge of inputting the data are reluctant to have more columns to update - at the moment they just change the value in a "Status" column. Can anybody think of any innovative solutions that I could use where it doesn't feel like you're doing lots of data entry. I tried looking to see if Smartsheet could record when a cell has been changed from one value to another but that doesn't seem to be possible without third party software.

Thanks in advance for your help. Oh, and I know that simply adding a date in a column isn't really any more work than changing a status column and could give me much more functionality, but ... some people can't be reasoned with!!

Sarah

Andrée Starå

Hi Sarah,

The third-party service, Zapier, is an excellent option for this scenario. Is that an option for you?

Another possible workaround that could work would be to use the copy row workflow to another sheet and measure it that way.

Would any of those options work?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post help answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

s_mawer

Thanks Andree, the copy row workflow may be a good work around. I'll do some further digging.

Andrée Starå

Excellent!

Happy to help!

Let me know how it goes!

✅Remember! Did my post help answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!