Is there a way to Formula Variables in Sheet Summary changeable?

Doyle54

I want my people to be able to run standard reports using different dates and people but I am the licensee in our Group.

L_123

You can add another sheet with a form that has whatever you want them to be able to parse, then use helper columns along with an Index( ,1) to always grab the most recent submission and filter the report by the helper column.

Doyle54

L@123. thank you for all your help but I am very close to moving on to another software program. The limitations, lack of documentation, and the ridiculous errors are getting to be too much. I have been working with Indian Tribes for 10 years trying to help them with their energy issues. they do not have systems platforms. My hope was to create a basic platform using SS and disseminate it. But the roadblocks, poor documentation, and continuous failure of SS "explained" methodology it just getting to be too much. Today, I needed a quick Row Report. One Sheet, One Condition - Date. Columns in the Sheet are not available in the Report Builder, the Date field condition returned no records despite a large number of records, etc, etc. etc. I'm just terribly disappointed.

L_123

Yeah I'm not a smartsheet employee, I just help on here for self improvement. Smartsheet does have its glitches, but it is generally a fairly consistent performer as far as spreadsheet software goes in my experience. As far as what you are talking about reports, I have never seen a column that wasn't available to a report, date or otherwise, and what you are talking about should take near 2 minutes to build, even with dozens of sheets and several criteria, provided columns are named consistently between the sheets.

As far as documentation and training goes (which I view as hand in hand) smartsheet has so much it can be overwhelming. It is everywhere, there are templates, dozens of documents detailing how to use formulas, relationships, and all kinds of applications, all the way up to and including the API. I know because I have used their documentation to provide training to employees of 8 facilities throughout NAFTA for the last 3 years.

@Genevieve P can probably address these concerns better than I can.

Doyle54

L@123 - You have been Great and I did not think you were an employee. I have 10 university degrees - 3 engineering. See the attached pictures. You can see the Padinsp is in the Sheet but not in the Report Column Option. Nor is the Contact Field available in the Report Who?.

I also hear you about the 2 minutes. I usually start with the full Report or function code and then when something does not work I go simpler until I am at a point when I reach something that I cannot address like a missing column in the What? box. carey

SS No Column for Padinsp date field.jpg Sheet.jpg

SS No Column for Padinsp date field.jpg

Paul Newcome

I agree with @L@123 The documentation and training resources are vast and can become overwhelming if you just dive right in without some kind of plan.

Did you verify that you selected a row report instead of a summary report? That's about the only thing I can think of that would cause sheet columns to not be available other than accidentally selecting the wrong sheet.

Andrée Starå

@Doyle54

Which columns were missing?

Doyle54

Paul - You have been most helpful. But he was also right that the Report generation should have taken 2 minutes. Instead an hour later I am finding in SS Report Builder missing columns, data not found, etc.

Doyle54

Andre - For starters you can see the PadInsp in the Sheet and not in the Report Builder

L_123

I think what probably happened was columns got renamed inside of the sheets after the reports were built. Thats the only thing that I can think of where it would say "Column not found".

Andrée Starå

@Doyle54

Did you rename any columns in the sheet after you created the report?

Paul Newcome

Some columns are only available in certain sections such as date type columns will only be available in the "When" section, and you won't find a Symbol type of column in the "Who" section.

Whenever I am getting an unexpected result from a Report Builder, I will go to the source sheet and create a filter that mimics exactly the conditions I was trying to build into the Report. That's a pretty quick way to determine if there is an issue with the report or if maybe I am not entering the criteria the way it needs to be to produce the results I want.

Doyle54

Good point. When I could not find columns, I exited the first Report and then started over with a new report. Particularly with the Contact - Field Officer column in the Sheet. The Contact Field never appeared.

L_123

@Doyle54 You are looking in the what section,as this is a date, it should show up in the when section.

Paul Newcome

@L@123 I forgot about the renaming causing the "Column Not Found" problem. Even if you change the column name back to what it was when the sheet was originally built, it will still have that column down at the bottom of the list as Column Not Found, and you'll have to re-select it from the list of available columns. Good question.

Paul Newcome

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/253675#Comment_253675

Check to see if this column appears in the "Who" section since you have it formatted as a contact type of column.