Automatically adding a new row when a new phrase/word is added to a colomn

Wini

I don't know if this is possible at all. So I have a column and it's the importance of the tasks in the sheet. I have another sheet that has a summary and tally up how many tasks are there for each severity level. Someone did this manually. First, I want to ask if there is a way to produce a column of the severity column but without the duplicates with the numbers of each items, so we don't have to manually do it. And if this is possible can I have the summary sheet automatically update when a new severity level is added? Like for example, now I have 50 tasks, 30 is minor, 15 is major, and 5 is urgent. If I added a new task that has the severity of critical, can I have the summary sheet automatically add a row and count how many critical tasks there are?

eg.

Before:

Severity number

Urgent 5

Major 15

Minor 30

Total 50

After adding a new task in the tasks sheet:

Severity number

Urgent 5

Critical 1

Major 15

Minor 30

Total 51

Wini

the formatting is off for my example but severity and number should be 2 columns

Stefan

Hi Wini,

I'm not sure if you maybe need just some cross sheet formulas in your summary sheet. These formulas would count all types of severity levels every time you you open the summary sheet.

The formula would look something like this:

=COUNTIF([reference to the severity column in you source sheet], "Critical")

If you need more than just the counted severity levels, then you may look into the automation function to copy rows. Though the tricky part here is how to identify the newly added column so that the automation workflow copy just this row. And be aware, that the copy row action will copy the complete row with all columns to your summary sheet !

Hope this helps

Stefan

Wini

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the reply! The countif function is what we are currently doing, the thing I want to do is instead of manually identifying all the levels of severity and counting for example "critical", I want the sheet to automatically retrieve all the levels and counts it. Because we don't have a fixed amount of severity levels, and if every time someone adds a new level we have to change the summary sheet it would be annoying. I was looking into this, I think the major issue is that smartsheet doesn't have a formula that lets you automatically generates a new row when something is triggered. If you have any idea of how to do that please let me know!

Thanks,

Wini

Stefan

Hi Wini,

I see. I must say, that I think the problem really is an organisational problem and trying to get around it with Smartsheet will not help in the end.

How do you want to make informed decisions and take action based on a severity level, when everyones understanding of the naming and the meaning is different?

Currently I have no idea how to dynamically collect every possible severity level and count every type. In addition to that problem you would have to sort different wordings for e.g. critical severity.

Sorry for not providing an solution but my best recommendation is to solve the organisational problem.

Greetings

Stefan

Andrée Starå

Hi @Wini

I think we could make it work with the copy row automation.

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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