Auto-Populate Left Stub for Schedules

Trisha Martinez

Thanks to Paul Newcome, I was able to get a WBS schedule working. Now I need to create several schedules, using the WBS as the left two columns. Here is the problem - I need for all schedules to update whenever a row is added or deleted from the original WBS sheet. Simply using Cell Linking does not achieve this.

Here is what the WBS schedule looks like:

This works fantastically well -- when I add a deliverable, and indent it properly, the WBS number automatically populates! When I delete a deliverable, all the below WBS numbers update automatically.

I need all that automatic WBS numbering goodness (when adding and deleting rows) to transfer to several other schedules, where the WBS is essentially the "left side stub." I'd prefer to keep just the master WBS sheet, and have all other sheets (schedules) simply populate from the master WBS sheet.

Is there a way to do this, that will also update row deletions and row additions?

Thanks so much!

Trisha

Paul Newcome

Have you looked at reports? Are you able to provide a screenshot or two of how you would like things to work with data manually entered to show?

Trisha Martinez

Unfortunately, Reports does not show the indentation of the hierarchy, which our client is insisting gets included. Other than missing the indentation - Reports would be exactly what I need!

Andrée Starå

Hi @Trisha Martinez

Does your client require the + for the parents, or would it work to show the hierarchy in another way?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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

Trisha Martinez

My client is very insistent upon seeing the indentation, along with the numbering, of the WBS. Visually, this makes it easier to see which items is parent to which child. I imagine they would be open to seeing the hierarchy a different way, and we still need to report down to level 3 or level 4.

Is there another way to visualize hierarchies - maybe on Dashboards that I could pdf as a report? I've already read that it's not possible to show the hierarchy in Reports with today's SmartSheets.

Trisha

Andrée Starå

@Trisha Martinez

You can structure it in I report, so each parent is a different color and also show the hierarchy tree.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?