Is there a way to create a report that can be Sorted/filtered by a viewer.

mikellester

Hello,

I have a source sheet with tons of data, and I would like to create a summary report to present to my clients. I do not want my clients to be able to accidently edit any of the information in the data set, so the columns need to be locked, or the people with access have to be viewers. In either of these options it appears that the "Viewer" lacks the ability to sort or filter information to further condense the data to fit their needs. So it can be difficult for them to find what they are looking for in my report. I do not want to break up this report into smaller chunks instead I would rather have a "user friendly" report that enables viewers the capability of sorting/filtering. Is this possible with smartsheets?

Genevieve P.

Hi @mikellester

The Filter in a Report is a core element of how that Report is built, so it's locked to only be editable by Admins or Owners of the Report. (See: Sharing permission levels on reports).

If you want your Viewers to be able to apply filters, you could share them directly to the underlying Source Sheet where they can create custom filters or use the ones you've set up ahead of time (see: Create and Use Filters).

They'll also be able to apply a Sort to the Sheet, but they won't be able to save the sheet with that Sort applied as it would affect every user looking at the item (they'd need at least Editor permissions to do this).

Cheers,

Genevieve

BryceBorgman

Are there any plans to add filter functionality to the report views for viewer access? This is a common request we receive when viewing a report. They would like to further refine the report as needed and we would prefer to avoid creating specific reports for every instance.

Lindsay TR

I agree this would be helpful. Our purpose of creating a report right now vs. giving source access is that there are several data fields/columns we do NOT want to share with them, so we filter them out using the Report functionality before sharing. But, it would be incredibly useful for those viewing the report to still be able to sort and filter the data they have access to.

Bob Wiedenbeck

I also have this need, in that we have a report that pulls records from the last x days… But that means the report must be viewed on a specific date, or is only good for a small number of days. If we could allow the user/viewer to identify which week they want to see results from, then we could use that same report over and over again at any time (as we do for the current report that is only good for a limited duration of time) simply by making sure the helper field identifies the appropriate week associated with the range of days. If someone wanted to see the results for 'Week 23' then they could do that regardless of whether it was still Week 23 or not; they could run the same report for any week in the year at any time. There is too much information in the underlying sheet that giving them access to the sheet and allowing them to create filters isn't acceptable.

Essentially, if we had a pop-up Form that allowed them to enter the week and year that they desired information from and then execute the report with a button click, they would be able to request the report dynamically. Otherwise, we would need to create 52 reports for each year in advance; and they'd then need to select the correct report to see their desired content.