Autofill a date based on the date in another cell

Terry James

In the grid format I would like to be able to have a field auto-fill with a date that is based on the date in another field. So I'm doing conference tasks - if the conference starts on May 15th I enter that in the start date and have other fields automatically fill in for tasks that need to happen prior to the conference. So in the "Ship booth" field, I want to automatically enter a date of May 15th minus 10 days. Is this possible?

Andrée Starå

Hi Terry,

Yes, it is. You can either use dependencies and predecessors or formulas to make it work.

If possible I would recommend the first option.

More info:

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/765727-enabling-dependencies-using-predecessors

The formula could look something like this.

=Date2 - 10 

Would that work?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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MaureenCondon

I tried the formula option because Dependencies is not going to work for this situation, but I keep getting the error of #INVALID OPERATION

Is there a certain formatting I should be doing? Should I be typing in the actual date as Date2 verse linking the cell?

Arvy Gosal

Hi! Is there any further info on this please? I am also getting the same error when trying to use the formula. What should the first part of the formula be attached to (=date1)? I need to be able to calculate prior dates from a date in another cell. thank you!

Arvy Gosal

Hi Is there any further info on this please? I am also getting the same error when trying to use the formula. What should the first part of the formula be attached to (=date1)? I need to be able to calculate prior dates from a date in another cell. thank you!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Arvy Gosal

"Date2" is referring to a cell in row 2 in the column called "Date".

For example, if your date column is called "Start Date" then this is how it would look:

=[Start Date]2 - 10

Here's information on referencing cells in formulas: Create a Cell or Column Reference in a Formula

You may also want to review this article: Create and Edit Formulas in Smartsheet and Use Formulas to Perform Calculations With Dates

Let me know if that helps!

Cheers,

Genevieve