Form fed info to build a "Final Assembly" from multiple parts

Sol Elisha

New to Smartsheet. Have 30 sub-assembles to choose from to create 50 final assemblies. Each "final assembly" is custom and unique. I would like to feed answers into a form. The answers would pull only the relevant sub-assemblies from the 30 sub-assembles so I can CHOOSE which of the relevant sub-assemblies I want in order to form the final assembly. Each has a unique cost.

Although we are a construction company, my question is easiest, I think, to understand from a cooking perspective. For example, I have the following sub-assemblies: Chicken stock, beef stock, marinated beef cubes, marinated pork tenderloin, roasted chicken, mango chutney, pickles, marinara sauce. Preferably through a form (can do the most efficient thing), I get asked a series of questions about what I in the mood for and quantity based on 3 people eating dinner (I inputted 3 people...the program just returned the 2 options...I have to now tell it that 3 people will be eating and also let my sheet know that each person will eat 6 ounces of pork and 2 ounces of mango chutney) and it ultimately gives me the answer: Marinated Pork and Mango Chutney and related costs for each.

Do I have the form populate a form and do a bunch of If statements? Any direction or help would be much appreciated.

Sol

Genevieve P.

Hi @Sol Elisha

I'm not quire sure I understand how your sheet and assemblies are set up, would you mind clarifying further? It would be helpful if you could share a screen capture of your sheet set-up, either with filler information (such as your cooking idea) or with sensitive data blocked out.

Is each sub-assembly an option from a Multi-Select column (see here), or do you have 30 columns (one for each)?

Forms are unable to house formulas and present calculations based on information selected. You would need to have the user submit the information to the underlying sheet, then the sheet can use formulas (such as multiplying a value, 3 people, by another value, 6 ounces). You can then send out an alert to that user which contains the final calculations as a follow-up email.

Or, you can set up Conditional Logic (see here) within your form to show/hide certain fields and descriptions when selections are made, but it wouldn't be able to create a calculation. Does that make sense?

I'm happy to help further, but it would be really helpful to visually see an example so I can understand what you're looking to do. You may also want to join the Construction Group here in the Community to chat to other construction companies who may have developed something similar.

Cheers,

Genevieve