Modified (date) and filters

Ming

My team is maintaining a sheet consisting of row entries for tracking activities. Multiple collaborators are providing updates. I have a column with their name so they can easily filter which rows belong to them from a pull down. I also have a column with a Modified(date) field. I do some calculations to show when a row has aged a certain number of days from the last update. So if nothing has changed with the row for 10 days, it highlights yellow indicating a need for attention.

In Principal, this works. However I noticed that whenever someone comes in an filters the sheet, it automatically changes whatever status bit triggers the Modified(date) field and the column updates to the current date even if no changes were made to any rows. Is this how modified(date) is supposed to react? I would assume there would be some checksum based on content of the row, seems like row position is one of the fields that's being evaluated. Any workaround to maintain the date the content was modified versus the date when the sheet was last filtered?

Thanks in advance,

Ming

Andrée Starå

Hi @Ming

The new Record a date feature might help, and if you need the time as well, you can 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 day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Ming

@Andrée Starå Thanks for the quick response. Admittedly, I am relatively new the SS. I'm decently versed with sheet based tools, but by no means a power user.

I'm intrigued by your record date solution, I do not need the time just the date when a field in the row was changed that isn't triggered by filtering. Could you elaborate on how I could take advantage of this. I browsed the linked the post, but I have to admit I'm not clear on how exactly to use a helper sheet to accomplish what I'm trying to do.

Ming