Assign task owner to multiple lines

Randy Van Winkle

I have a project template that has assignments for multiple departments (i.e. payroll, HR, operations).  The individuals in those departments change depending on the region.  Each department has multiple rows assigned to them.  I want to set up a project team section on the sheet where I can define the project team which then populates the rows with the individuals assignments.  I want to plug the team names in once rather than having to populate each line item of the project.   

 

My initial thought was to either link each line item from another cell on the same sheet (i.e. the project team section), or use a similar = formula.     It seems that the cell linking does not work within th esame sheet, and formulas don't work on a contact list. 

 

This is my first post, so any pointers on information needed appreciated. 

J. Craig Williams

Randy,

 

You found both pitfalls in this problem.

 

For cases like this, I have a role and responsibilty column. The role is something like "lead engineer". The responsibility is the Assigned To. The Master schedule has the first filled in but not the second.

 

I then create a report to show the unassigned responsibilities.

It would be a simple matter to configure the report to also show the names at the top and then to copy paste into the various roles. 

Certainly saves on one-by-one pasting.

 

Craig

 

Michele Deo

The other issue to this scenario is that you are not able to put multiple resources to a singe task.  Some of the tasks that I have in my project schedule are shared by two groups, but I can only list one, unless I create 2 rows in my schedule with the same task name with the same role, but different resource group.  That makes the project schedule messy (the two rows).  And it causes confusion when you have only one of the two resource groups listed, I end up putting in the "comments" shared task.

Andrée Starå

Hi Randy,

This might help you!

Yes, assigning multiple people to a task is now available.

Please see the attached link/screenshot for more information.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/518335-assigning-people-to-a-task

I hope this helps you!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

--

Hi all,

We're pleased to announce that you can now quickly & easily assign tasks to multiple people. To do so, check the new "Allow multiple contacts per cell" checkbox in any contact column. The cells in that column will then allow up to 20 people to be added.

You can still leave that option unchecked when you only want a single person to be assigned to a task at a time.

Adding multiple contacts to a cell is useful not only for assigning people, but also for other scenarios where you want to associate multiple stakeholders with a row. For example, you might want those people to receive notifications when the row changes, or you may want them to appear in reports and filters.

For some projects, you may want to add 2 contact columns: one for the primary owner, and another for additional team members.

We welcome you to try it out and let us know what you think.

- Daniel