How can you share a report without giving access to the sheet?

Shannon Franks

I have created a time tracking report for all employees utilizing a weekly form each completes. As I don't want employees viewing other's time, I created a report for each employee so they could see their own time collectively and make changes if needed, however it only works for the members of management that have access to the sheet. I've seen other discussions similar but they are older and was hoping a new setting or work around is available. Publishing didn't work either, just as an fyi... It would be very helpful if this could be addressed as not everyone needs to see various sheets but can benefit from items included in a report.

Sarah Donnelly

In order to view a report in Smartsheet, the underlying sheet must be shared with the individual.

We struggled with a similar employee time tracking issue and ended up creating individual sheets (with a corresponding form) for each employee. These individual sheets were shared with specific employee and the needed management members. Then, we created a Report shared only to management that pulled from all the individual employee sheets. Our management members use the Report to view/adjust everything they need. Employees only have access to their individual sheet so they only see their time.

The part that took us the longest was setting up the form/approval workflows on each employee sheet. Although, if we had thought to save that first employee sheet as a Template it would have saved us some time. But, we were still new to SmartSheet.

Granted we are a small company (>20 staff). Our process might not work in a larger setting.

Shannon Franks

Thanks! This is definitely a great work around for this use as we too are less than 20 employees and the template idea will make it easier to add new employees. I appreciate your input!!

Sarah Donnelly

In order to view a report in Smartsheet, the underlying sheet must be shared with the individual.

We struggled with a similar employee time tracking issue and ended up creating individual sheets (with a corresponding form) for each employee. These individual sheets were shared with specific employee and the needed management members. Then, we created a Report shared only to management that pulled from all the individual employee sheets. Our management members use the Report to view/adjust everything they need. Employees only have access to their individual sheet so they only see their time.

The part that took us the longest was setting up the form/approval workflows on each employee sheet. Although, if we had thought to save that first employee sheet as a Template it would have saved us some time. But, we were still new to SmartSheet.

Granted we are a small company (>20 staff). Our process might not work in a larger setting.

Shannon Franks

Thanks! This is definitely a great work around for this use as we too are less than 20 employees and the template idea will make it easier to add new employees. I appreciate your input!!

Madyson Morris

Hi Shannon,

What sdonnelly recommended is a great workaround for a smaller scale. I want to let you know that our product team is definitely aware of this request and you are not alone in wanting this functionality!

If your scale ever needs to greatly increase, I recommend looking into our Dynamic View product(https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/premium-apps/dynamic-view) and evaluating if that will fit your use case.

Thank you so much for using Smartsheet and contributing to our Community!

-Madyson, Product Manager-Reports

dadkins

Any progress on this functionality being expanded? The only possible work around I've found is the published option but it's locked in the Enterprise account which isn't viable for our moderately-sized business with lots of manual labor/service part-timers.

ColtonPhilp

I would also like to second the follow up on this functionality. There are many reasons outside of employee rolls to only share certain columns of a sheet. Any other workarounds anyone has seen?