Control Center: Report from Intake or Rollup?

Mary_A

General "best practices" question. Do you do your reporting from the Intake or Summary Rollup sheet?

Paul Newcome

It isn't so much a delay or anything like that but more user friendly. Naming conventions ("intake" vs "summary") help denote exactly what to find in each sheet. It also allows you to better control which projects are approved for provisioning so that only approved and provisioned projects populate the summary sheet. This helps cut down on cross sheet references, allows for easier archiving, and helps keep your sheets and data organized. I also find that it is easier to set up in Control Center and makes the overall builds easier in the long run. Metrics sheets and reports require one less range/criteria set or filter because you can safely assume that all projects in the Summary sheet are active. It also helps with volume control if you anticipate a large number of projects.

Paul Newcome

I tend to do my reporting from the Summary Sheet. The Intake Sheet I usually leave as just that. Simply the intake and creation of new projects.

Mary_A

Thanks, Paul. What is the reasoning for your choice? Do you find that the reporting causes a delay in intake/creation? Is Smartsheet keeping one sheet more "recent" than the other?

Paul Newcome

It isn't so much a delay or anything like that but more user friendly. Naming conventions ("intake" vs "summary") help denote exactly what to find in each sheet. It also allows you to better control which projects are approved for provisioning so that only approved and provisioned projects populate the summary sheet. This helps cut down on cross sheet references, allows for easier archiving, and helps keep your sheets and data organized. I also find that it is easier to set up in Control Center and makes the overall builds easier in the long run. Metrics sheets and reports require one less range/criteria set or filter because you can safely assume that all projects in the Summary sheet are active. It also helps with volume control if you anticipate a large number of projects.

Mary_A

Just to recap, the best practice might go like this. Our configuration has projects in the intake with a pending status that are not provisioned. If we want to report on pending, non-provisioned projects, we would use the intake in reporting.

In our profile data, we have information that is not located in our intake, calculated or formula driven. This information does land in the Summary sheet, and if I needed to report on that data, I would base the report on the summary sheet.

Paul Newcome

That is correct. Since Control Center can automatically create new rows/cell links/etc. on the summary sheet when a project is provisioned, it is easier in the long run to keep those data points separated. One less argument in formulas and one less filter in reports.

Mary_A

@Paul Newcome Interesting, I hadn't considered optimizing for formula, thank you for that.