Is it possible to add any form of Approval / Draft data for a smartsheet, like one would do in Excel

Edward Bedell

Hi,

For compliance I really need to add Draft, Review and Approved data to a Smartsheet, by when and whom etc, like you might get on many document. I am actually trying to do a risk assessment, and had it in Excel, but I find some Smartsheet very helpful. In Excel one would just had a table on another worksheet with the relevant review data. However can one get around this in the Smartsheet world.

Huge thanks for any wisdom,

Edward

Andrée Starå

Hi @Edward Bedell

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Edward Bedell

Hi Andree,

Really appreciate your reply.

On my Excel Risk Assessment I would have the following to capture version, document status and review status which is important for compliance. I am using Confluence to hold my ISMS. I find SmartSheets more powerful in many ways than Excel especially with its workflow and forms, however it is lacking on this.

I did find that I could add some "Summary" column this morning for a sheet which at least allows me to add

I could Save off a copy of a Smartsheet when reviewed and approved then potentially link to a read only version of this. I could potentially export/publish it to Excel and record it there, so I am effectively using SmartSheet to manage the process then one would "publish" at certain times?

Not sure if there are any Add-Ins that could help. May be that I am not seeing something. One other thought I had was having another "Document Review" SmartSheet that recorded Statii for other SmartSheets.

Thoughts? Really appreciate your help.

And yes keep well,

Ed

Andrée Starå

@Edward Bedell

Yes, the Sheet Summary would be a great way to handle it.

Another option/idea could be to have a Risk Assessment Intake Process with a form and then link that to the individual Risk Assessment sheets.

What do you think?

Edward Bedell

Hi Andree,

Thanks for this. Appreciated.

Each row is a risk assessment, so the sheet represents the "Risk Assessment" document. Bit of a grey area as SmartSheets is very much a SaaS system whereas an Excel document is a document. We are doing 27001 by the way.

With the workflow, one is processing one row at a time through it, whereas I am seeking a workflow, if you like for the entire sheet. In the real world I think one would baseline a risk assessment ie "Review it on a date", and then one perhaps should create a snapshot of this "reviewed risk assessment" which perhaps could be a seperate sheet, or PDF or XLS. So perhaps developing a "snapshotting" mechanism is the answer, and a simple first approach may be to save as a new sheet with a title such as "Register_Approved_20200812". Can set the Summary fields as well. At least it is a mechanism.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Ed

Andrée Starå

@Edward Bedell

Ok.

You could have an automatic report with an included PDF or Excel file on a recurring basis.

That could be the snapshots.

Make sense?