New Columns Not Available to Select in Report Builder

Donna T

I am using the Communications template Smartsheet has available. I modified the categories to suit them to our business. I went into Report Builder to modify the report and the categories do not appear to select. Just for testing's sake, I changed all the categories back to the original names and report ran and calculated fine. I know I am likely missing something easy. As always, I appreciate the help and experience this community always provides.

Mike Wilday

Try right clicking in the header of the report and adding the column to the report, then adjust your report settings.

Donna T

Thank you for your time to respond. Unfortunately the suggested approach did not change the result. Maybe I am not understanding the purpose of the summary report?

My sheet has a column for "Method of Communication." It is a multi-select drop-down, because some of the communications are sent using multiple methods. I'm trying to summarize how many messages are sent by each method. If I just calculate manually using a "countif" statement, it won't capture where there are multiple selections for one communication -- it only counts the first selection it sees. This is what I am trying to resolve, so that I can reflect the methods used as a metric for a dashboard.

I tried watching the tutorial video, but it was not very clear to me -- Everything else has been so intuitive for me, but this report builder is eluding me. :)

If there is a better way to accomplish what I'm trying to do, I am open to it.

Thanks!

Donna

Andrée Starå

Hi @Donna T

There are two different report types, Row report, and Sheet Summary Report.

The one you’re configuring is the summary type, so the fields shown are the ones that are in the Sheet Summary section.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/522214-creating-reports

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479206-create-a-portfolio-view-with-a-summary-report

Make sense?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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