Tracking date when a drop down value is selected

Cole Fuerste

I'm creating a project tracker where I can assign what phase the project is at (design, prototype and complete). What I want to do is track how long the project is in each phase, so what I plan on doing is tracking when the drop down items are changed. I thought of using an IF statement where if "design" is selected, then I mark today's date in the "design" column. As you can see from my pictures, once I select the new phase, it erases the date I had in the "design" column. Is there a 'do nothing' function for an IF statement, or a work-around for this without buying an add-on?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Cole Fuerste

Please have a look at my post below with a method I developed.

More info: 

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/68589/lock-or-store-date-value-solution-without-using-zapier

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Cole Fuerste

Hi Andree,

I don't think this will help unless you elaborate your idea more. So yes, I can use the copy row automation to create a new row in the new worksheet. And yes I can use the auto/number column to make a "created" timestamp, and then use VLOOKUP to paste that date in the original sheet and that would work for the first project phase, but it wouldn't work for the rest.

Andrée Starå

@Cole Fuerste

Why don't you think it would work for the other phases?