Setting up Quarterly Tracking System on a Reservation

Doyle54

I am trying to figure out the best task management process for our Field Officers who monitor environmental and cultural aspects on a reservation. If you could even just give me a few words or ideas as the best tract to go I would appreciate. I am trying to think of the best way to set up the following in Smartsheet:

 

I have 4 field officers who are each responsible of environmentally inspecting a portion of 344 well pads on the reservation. 

 

Each officer is given an area with a portion of the 344 pads based on location defined as Section – Township – Range and this inspection is completed quarterly.

 

Each pad is inspected for operational components, environmental status, and other issues. The inspected aspects are reported by officers by selecting yes and no fields, dropdown menu options, and comment fields.

 

Finally, I have an inspection checkoff list after the inspection is done which then moves the row to a separate “Archive” Master sheet which reduces the sheet list of pads the officers need to inspect that quarter.

 

Since a completed pad inspection is moved to the Master Archive each time inspected, at the start of each quarter any uninspected pads are counted and noted and a complete new set of the same officer inspection pads and associated Administrative info are input into their pad inspection sheet for officer inspection cycle start over.

 

I want to design a sheet form that optimizes the selection process for each officer and their particular pads they are responsible for inspecting. For example, I am considering creating a conditional field in the form where the officer selects himself. There would 4 field officer to select for the field. When the officer selects himself, using conditional logic SS brings up only the fields for that officer. The fields would be Pad name field and location field for the Pads that particular officer is responsible for. The Pad would be selected from a dropdown list. Challenge - each officer has about 75 Padnames or Pad locations which seems very big for a dropdown selection. Picking the pad would automatically populate a row with the stored administrative fields for that pad. This would allow the officer to focus on just the inspection and inputting the inspection fields.

 

Finally, one of the officers has very little pc knowledge and comfort. He really likes the current form we have now but that form requires he continually input his pads administrative information over and over. So I need to make it straightforward and easy to operate. 

 

All of my work are Bucket list items that have been missing for decades on an Indian Reservation. I would like to leave them eventually knowing I don’t have to be here for them to have the right tools.

Ben Goldblatt

Hi @Doyle54,

It sounds like some of Smartsheet's Automation features could be used to help with what you're looking to accomplish. For example, when a task is completed or when an inspection moves on to a different phase, automated alerts could be used to notify people of a particular status and a "Move Row" action could be setup to automatically move rows to an "Archive" sheet once an inspection has been checked off as completed. More information on these features can be found in the following Help articles:

• Automation - https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/automation

• Automatically Move or Copy Rows Between Sheets - https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2479626-automatically-move-or-copy-rows-between-sheets

Conditional logic in your form could help to only show officer-specific fields, but you may run into some issues with the size/number of logic rules that can be added to a single source field. We don't have a documented limit for this but I've received errors in my own testing stating that a logic statement is too large and I've had to reduce conditions to resolve the error (click here for more information on this).

You may want to look into our Pro Desk services for tips and best practices on the work process you're looking to create. If you're not familiar with this, Pro Desk delivers practical one-on-one coaching sessions (30 minutes per session, 10 sessions per year) with a Smartsheet expert to accelerate your setup time and help you optimize your projects, programs, and processes. A Pro Desk expert will provide coaching, guidance, best practices, and resources for further development. To view available session dates and times and to schedule a Pro Desk appointment, visit https://www.smartsheet.com/pro-desk.

I hope this helps!

Ben

Doyle54

Thank you Ben. I got that last week. Is there a way to setup an easy input platform for a non-licensee on my staff to put in - Say - a start and end date into two cells that generates a Report using those dates?

Doyle54

Ben - You have disappeared on me. Pro Desk helped with SS responsibility for software crashes. I really appreciate they dealing with it. But Pro Desk does not deal with programming or systems planning. Help with my question regarding executing on a different sheet. I cannot find any article on it in your learning or community. Carey

Ben Goldblatt

Hi Carey,

I see you spoke with Jim from our Support team and I'm glad you were able to connect with someone there. Just to clarify our resources:

• Smartsheet Support is the go-to resource for troubleshooting user-specific technical issues as well as reporting and resolving service impacting events such as system-wide crashes or if a particular feature isn't working as expected.

• Pro Desk delivers one-on-one coaching sessions and offers guidance, best practices, and resources for further development. These are scheduled sessions, based on the available dates and times listed on our Pro Desk site

• Smartsheet Consulting can work with you to provide processes and strategies for building solutions that will best fit with your business needs.

• Solution Services is the best resource for implementing high-quality solutions quickly via packaged offerings and can build out these solutions for you.

I'm confident that we can find a team or set of resources to help with what you're looking to create and I'm going to loop in your Sales rep on this. He will then reach out to you directly to discuss possible options for what you're looking to accomplish, but I think Consulting or Solution Services may be the way to go here.

Doyle54

Ben - I spoke to Jim over about 2 weeks ago. I have sent him a request for help but no answer. c

Doyle54

Ben - If I wanted to use any of your support services it will have to come out of my pocket. The Tribe does not have the funds for a concept - digital platform - that is very new to them. It might be possible at some future time when the economy is better and I resolve my early stage challenges and the Communication Hub platform has reached an initial stable configuration.

Let me also check the cost of your certification program.

Carey