Row/Column Level Access

mg3245

I have sheet on which people from multiple departments will have access to. A couple of my requirements:

1) I'd like certain departments to be able to see only the data in specific columns only relevant to them. Is this possible?

2) There are 3-4 attachments that will be added to the rows. I do not want departments having access to attachments which are not relevant to them - I understand that it is not possible to regulate this access but any suggestions on how to work around this? I'd create a Report for each department's data but the attachment for that row would not be visible in the Report

Paul Newcome

Attachments should be visible in reports.

mg3245

Attachments are visible in reports but I'm still unable to control/restrict row level access. Any workarounds?

Paul Newcome

I'm not sure what you mean by "row level access". If you create a report for a specific department, you should be able to have that report filter out any rows that are not applicable to that particular department. Do you have a column on the source sheet that list which department(s) should have access to each row?

mg3245

Hi Paul, thanks. What I mean by "row level access" is in the scenario where there are 4 child rows, 3 pertaining to Finance and 1 pertaining to HR, I would want each respective department to view only the data for their relevant rows. I've added a column which specifies which row corresponds to which department on the source sheet, but in a Report, a person from say, the Finance department can simply choose to change the filters and view the data corresponding to say, the HR department.

I'm not sure what you mean by whether I have defined which department has access to which row, in my source sheet. Could you elaborate?

Paul Newcome

DO the users need to edit the data in the report, or is it view only?

mg3245

Yes they would have to edit certain aspects of the data in the report

Andrée Starå

Hi @mg3245

I hope you're well and safe!

Because they need to be able to edit the data, two options come to mind.

The premium add-on, Dynamic View.

More info: 

https://www.smartsheet.com/product/dynamic-view

The premium add-on, WorkApps. (access depends on your Smartsheet plan)

What plan do you have?

https://www.smartsheet.com/platform/workapps

Would any of those options 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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mg3245

Hi,

I currently have the Business plan so neither of the features are available to me. Ideally I would like to work within this Framework. However, I understand that in order to limit the level of access each user has for the same Smartsheet, I would have to use Dynamic View and in the regular Business Plan this is not possible. Correct me if I'm wrong about that or if you have any suggestions to work within this Framework. Thank you!

Andrée Starå

@mg3245

You can add Dynamic View to your plan, but it's an add-on. Let me know if you want to explore that as a potential solution.

Another option could be to split the sheet into multiple sheets instead and then show everything together in a report.

Would that work/help?

mg3245

Splitting the data into different sheets would be cumbersome because then multiple forms will have to be filled in order to collect the data. Another shortcoming would be that the way I have currently set it up, is that I have one Master Sheet and from this sheet I'd like to filter the view depending on the User that logs in ; in terms of column + row data, which would not be possible with this solution.

I am therefore interested in Dynamic View and would be interested in exploring it further to cater to my requirements.

Andrée Starå

@mg3245

We could have one master sheet to collect the submissions for the form, and then they would be copied/moved to the other sheets.

For the filter to the current user, it would still work with a report.

Regarding Dynamic View and the above.

Please e-mail me at andree@workbold.com, and we will take it from there.

mg3245

If they were to be copied/moved:

1) All the columns would get copied/moved, correct? This would defeat the purpose since I want to show say, columns 1-5 to Department 1 and columns 6-10 to Department 2

2) Do the attachments along with the row also copy/move if this automation were to be applied?

Andrée Starå

@mg3245

Please see my comments/answers below.

If they were to be copied/moved:

1) All the columns would get copied/moved, correct? This would defeat the purpose since I want to show say, columns 1-5 to Department 1 and columns 6-10 to Department 2

[Andrée Starå] Yes, but we could create a solution with so-called helper sheets, but it would require a quite advanced structure for your need.

2) Do the attachments along with the row also copy/move if this automation were to be applied?

[Andrée Starå] Yes.