Update cells via form or secondary sheet?

I have a sheet of contracts with 30 columns (status/progression/etc). The columns are updated by different people in different departments. Is there anyway to create a form that would have a dropdown of the contract ID and then the cells I need updated?

If that isn't possible... Is there a way to make an automatically updating linked sheet with only the data that needs to be changed? e.g. Contract ID, Completed date; where every time a contract is created this sheet would have a copy with a completed date cell linked back to the original sheet's completed date?

Ultimately this is to be added to a dashboard where my users can just click and update the data they need.

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Accepted answers

Andrée Starå

Hi @Xander Brennan,

You could maybe use a report instead.

Would that work?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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All comments

Jeff Reisman

You can use automation to send an update request to the appropriate person based on values selected when the new row is created. The person would receive a link to an update form, with the form showing the existing values and letting the user make and save their changes for that record.

Xander Brennan

It needs to be something that people can click to open and update.

I got something that (inelegantly) works. I was able to create a report that opens from a the dashboard and people can find the record and update the field (without seeing the whole sheet).

I would still rather they click a button and the form opens up with a drop down to select the item, but this works for now.

Jeff Reisman

So it just needs to be clicked by anybody, not any one person or group in particular? I guess the inelegant is what it needs to be for that requirement.

Xander Brennan

Currently it is one of two people, but in the future we could have up to 8 different individuals who would need to fill out the specified field. And this wouldn't be something that would be time sensitive (so an automation wouldn't really work).

The boss is happy enough with how it works, but I can see issues on the horizon when we have much more going on.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Xander Brennan,

You could maybe use a report instead.

Would that work?

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

Jeff Reisman

That's one reason why automation makes sense. I have 6 possible people who could be notified for an update based on value in the row. The users can set their own settings on whether to be notified via email, via the app, or both. You determine what fields they see in the update request.

My users route their emails into a special folder for Smartsheet updates, so they get to them when they need to. They open the update form, make their changes, and save - then automation can send along the next request to the next person in the chain, or whatever else is needed.

Xander Brennan

I wish I worked with users intelligent enough to save the messages.. LOL

I'm lucky if I can get them to click a big red button that says "CLICK HERE TO UPDATE".

Xander Brennan

@Andrée Starå

That is what I ended up doing. It is inelegant and will cause issues in the future, but will hold us over for now.

Ultimately, I have to have a way to avoid having a huge list of all the information, that my users scroll through. I'm working with barely trained monkeys, this has to be as simplistic as I can make it. 😂

Andrée Starå

@Xander Brennan,

Is there anything on each row that indicates who needs to see it? If there is an Assigned to or similar, you could use the current user feature, so the one looking at the report will only see their relevant information.

Xander Brennan

@Andrée Starå

The rows are complete contracts (the big boss wants to see the whole life of the contract on a singe row), the individual cells pertain to different departments (accounting, insurance, and the managers). Right now, accounting and insurance need to see the whole row with all the data so they are fine. The issue comes when we need a manager (currently two individuals) to update the "Work Completed" cell with a date. All they need is to grab the contact number and add a date.

I have the report working well, it shows all the contracts and allows them to enter a date. This is fine for now, as we are dealing with a limited number of open contracts per week this year. But, I'm expecting to have upwards of fifty active contracts early next year. This will make scrolling through the report untenable.

Andrée Starå

@Xander Brennan,

When you say it will be untenable when scrolling 50 active contracts, do you mean vertical or horizontal?

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