Is there a way to change info in a master sheet to be reflected in sub sheets?

Alex Zylka

Hi all!

New to Smartsheet so please bear with me and my (maybe perhaps)silly question but one I haven't been able to find a solution to. I am using Smartsheet to compile online student registrations. My format: I have one "Master Sheet" where all of the registrations flow into. I have created "sub" sheets, and created work flows that will feed and copy the rows based on class type (ie Science). The work flow works great and feeds into the sub sheets but my problem is that when I change information in a row on the masterlist, click save, it doesn't show the change in the respective sheet.

Example: I am going through the masterlist to verify student information, and I notice a spelling error in "Johnny's" name. So Infound that if I just click on the box and change the information, save, the change is reflected in the master list, but when I go to the sub sheet where Johnny's information was automated into, nothing has changed. One method I found that works (but is tedious and creates double the work), is that in the mastersheet, I will completely delete one box under the "class type" column (ie. Science), press save, change the desired information that is incorrect (spelling of Johnny's name) and then paste back the "Science" then click save, then go to the Science sub sheet and click refresh, it'll populate a NEW entry with the information I changed, and not "edit" the existing row that was already there. So then I keep the new row with the updated information and delete the row that didn't change. This is tedious as I basically have to check every single one to see if it copied into the sub sheet.

Long question short, is there a way to change information in a row in the Mastersheet, to be reflected in the "sub" sheets that it feeds into? Is there a special way to change or save I'm missing?

Thank you SO much in advance for your help! Only been using Smartsheet for about a month and still learning the ways.

• Alex

Andrée Starå

Hi Alex,

How many rows and columns do you have in the master sheet that you want to show in the other sheets?

One possible solution would be cross-sheet formulas, VLOOKUP, or a combination of INDEX/MATCH.

The information would be linked from the master to the other sub sheets, but can only be changed in the master sheet and shown in the separate sub sheets.

Make sense?

What do you think? Would that work?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Alex Zylka

Hi Andrée,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and help! I was truly lost. At the moment I have a total of 500 rows (“students”) (however could get up to 1000) but I don’t want all to show up in all of my sheets (if that makes sense). Ie. I have sheets for Math, Science, Art etc and the students get workflowed into the sheet if their program matches. Some sheets have 20 rows, one has 150 and so on.

I think cross-sheet formulas sounds like the solution I need! I’m only getting started with smartsheet and it’s functions, so I only have workflows from the master sheet that feeds into my sub sheets. I haven’t tried VLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH -

Ideally what I want is when i edit a row in the master sheet, I want that change to be reflected in the sub sheet (So it matches the row in the mastersheet) (ie, I change the spelling of a student name in the master sheet and once I change it it will automatically be changed in the sub sheet without going into the sub sheet myself manually)

Do you think that’s possible?

Thanks again and have a great day!

• Alex

Paul Newcome

What is the purpose of the sub-sheets? Have you looked into reports?

Alex Zylka

Essentially, my master sheet is the sheet that contains all of my student registrations (information gathered through Smartsheet forms) so we created sub sheets for all of the individual classes that we’ll be hosting (Math, Science, Spanish etc) so each sub sheet contains students that have registered for that particular subject - and these sub sheets are accessible by their teachers for planning purposes etc.

Are reports similar? Myself and my colleagues are fairy new to Smartsheet, we thought this would be the best way to go (however I could be wrong).

Our goal is to basically have the sub sheets match the information I change or edit in the master sheet (if that makes sense)

Paul Newcome

Reports basically pull rows that meet specified requirements. Changes in the source sheet are reflected on reports, and (depending on how cells are populated) changes in reports are also reflected back to the source sheet. If you are only "filtering" based on the individual classes so that you have your lists, reports would definitely be the way to go.

Andrée Starå

@Alex Zylka

Happy to help!

I agree with Paul, and I would recommend that you try the reporting route first, and if it doesn't work, we can look at the other method I described.

Reports are basically another view of one or multiple sheets.

What do you think? Make sense?