Grouping a Multi-contact Column on Report

Edidiong Obot

Dear Team,

I want to group a contact column with multiple contacts on a report to have a visibility of the tasks assigned to the the contacts.

When I look for the column under the group dropdown, the column des not appear. However, when I uncheck the allow multiple contact per cell button, the column appears.

So, I want to find out if a contact column (with allow multiple contact) can be grouped.

Any helps or tips would be appreciated.

Regards,

Eddy

Genevieve P.

Hi @Edidiong Obot

Thank you for the clarification!

I was thinking that we could create a helper column to turn the names into text, then group by this Helper, but then you wouldn't have each individual resource parsed out to show their allocation.

Currently the only way to achieve the outcome you're looking for is to have the Assigned To column be a Single-Select column. You would then need to create duplicate rows for any task where more than one person is assigned, so that this row will appear under each person's Group and display a correct Gantt view per-individual person.

If you cannot create duplicate rows in the project, then an alternative would be to have two separate Single-Select Assigned To columns, one for the Primary resource then one for the Secondary. In this case, you would need two separate Reports: one to Group the Primary contacts and one to Group the Secondary. Then you could display these both in a Dashboard, to show the data side-by-side.

Please let our Product Team know of your Grouping request by filling in this form if you haven't done so already. It's very helpful for them to understand the specific use-case and scenario for why this feature (grouping multi-select by individual person) would be beneficial for you.

Thanks,

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @Edidiong Obot

No, currently Reports cannot group by multi-select columns, including Contact columns with multiple selections. See the note under the "Tips and Tricks" section of this Help Article: Configure Grouping to Organize Results in Report Builder

Please submit your feedback to our Product Team, here!

As an alternative, we may be able to figure out an indicator (likely using a formula in a helper column in the sheet) based on the multi-select options that you can then use to Group. Can you explain your process a little more? It would be helpful to see screen captures of your source sheet (but please block out any sensitive data).

Cheers,

Genevieve

Edidiong Obot

@Genevieve P.

Thank you for your input.

So, I am using Smartsheet for project management. I have loaded my site personnel resources on the column named 'Assigned to' and also gave a % allocation. These resources are assigned to multiple projects as shown in figure 1.

Now, I need to have a visibility of the tasks activities assigned to each resources on a Gantt view to be able to rectify any resource overallocation and eliminate clashes.

So, I created a Report sheet at a portfolio level to filter the project source sheets and group by the resources and then by project names. On a single select resource column, it works fine as shown in figure 2.

However, for a multi-select resource allocation column, it is not shown under the group tab of the report sheet. Hence, I am not able to effectively use the Smartsheet to Manage my resources.

The resource view does not give a better view of the resources for this purpose

figure 1 - source sheet

figure 2 Report allocation sheet

Genevieve P.

Hi @Edidiong Obot

Thank you for the clarification!

I was thinking that we could create a helper column to turn the names into text, then group by this Helper, but then you wouldn't have each individual resource parsed out to show their allocation.

Currently the only way to achieve the outcome you're looking for is to have the Assigned To column be a Single-Select column. You would then need to create duplicate rows for any task where more than one person is assigned, so that this row will appear under each person's Group and display a correct Gantt view per-individual person.

If you cannot create duplicate rows in the project, then an alternative would be to have two separate Single-Select Assigned To columns, one for the Primary resource then one for the Secondary. In this case, you would need two separate Reports: one to Group the Primary contacts and one to Group the Secondary. Then you could display these both in a Dashboard, to show the data side-by-side.

Please let our Product Team know of your Grouping request by filling in this form if you haven't done so already. It's very helpful for them to understand the specific use-case and scenario for why this feature (grouping multi-select by individual person) would be beneficial for you.

Thanks,

Genevieve

dbeauhaire

Hello, reading this post, I am looking to obtain same results as Edidiong Obot's post. I wonder if there were any smartsheet enhancement since then that permit to create grouping in a report from a contact list with multi-entry

thanks,

David

Genevieve P.

Hi @dbeauhaire

Currently Grouping in Reports can only be applied to a single-select type of dropdown column (whether that's a text list or a contact list). See this article for more information: Configure grouping to organize results in report builder

Please submit your feature request to the Product team by creating an Idea Post in the Smartsheet Product Feedback and Ideas topic here in the Community. This will allow other users to vote on your enhancement idea!

Cheers,

Genevieve