Using link for reporting and timestamping with multiple persons

Vinton Douglas

Hello,

Can I use a link to sent to multiple persons requesting them to acknowledge tasks completed so that it is timestamped by the various individuals and can be seen on one mastersheet? If not, is there another option to achieve this task?

Grateful for any assistance.

Kelly Moore

Hello @Vinton Douglas

I hope the rest of the community weighs in with other approaches that might work for you.

If all you need is the date (no time), then you can quickly, easily, immediately do this with Record Date automation where, with the addition of Date formatted helper columns per approval role, you capture the Date approved when the relevant approval data appears in the sheet ( automation trigger = rows added/changed). You would have one helper column per approval role and would capture each approval date individually.

If you must have the timestamp, the approach becomes more complex. I have done this using the Premier App Bridge- access to this depends on your subscription model. To get the timestamp to display in the smartsheet, however, I have to parse the date/timestamp into two columns since only the system-generated columns have the ability to display the timestamp along with the date. You can test if this parsed approach would be viable by trying to split the system-generated Created field into date and time components - then trying to see if that Time field will allow you to progress whatever you are trying to achieve in your next step. Smartsheet does many things extremely well however handling time isn't yet a capability I would put in that 'do well' category. The problem is, regardless of how you capture the timestamp, how that time will be displayed in the sheet. I would very strongly encourage you to test, using the Created field as a test data source, if this parsed time will work for the problem you are trying to solve before investing too much effort into a more permanent solution of capturing the timestamp.

If interested, here is information on Record Date Automation

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2481986-set-the-current-date-with-record-a-date-action#:~:text=To%20create%20a%20new%20Record,sets%20dates%20into%20date%20columns.

Kelly

Andrée Starå

Hi @Vinton Douglas

I hope you're well and safe!

Here's a possible workaround or workarounds

Please have a 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 week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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