Issue with Date column with formula =today()

Hey Smartsheet community

Has anyone encountered this issue where the Date field with the formula = today() is not updating on its own until and unless you open up that sheet?

I have a sheet which powers my Dashboard and I need to open up this sheet so that the date column reflects todays date and hit save, else it will be stuck to the last date when I opened the sheet.

PS: The moment I open the sheet the Date field does get updated to todays date and i can see the "Save" button get highlighted as soon as I open the sheet.

After saving the sheet:

Would appreciate anyone could help me out with this, since the Dashboards are supposed to be dynamic and I don't prefer opening the Matrix Sheet every day just to update the dashboard.

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Terry Lewis

Yes, this is known issue.

The TODAY() command will only update when the sheet is "active."

I know several of us who user Zappier (third party app) to ping a sheet early every morning. Zappier sends a row and that activates the sheet. You can do this everyday to one sheet with a free Zappier account.

I maintain one sheet that is nothing but the daily row added by Zappier. My first row contains a Today() cell which I then link out to any sheet I need updated daily. (cell links update without otherwise having to "activate" the sheet.)

It is fairly simple, just follow the instructions on the Zappier site. You'll have to have Zappier do something--I elected to have it tell me the date and time. I ignore that data--but it is enough to activate the sheet and trigger all the sheet's linked to it.

Hope that helps!

Veer Sanghavi

Hi Terry,

Thank you for the reply, I agree with the answer since I have been using Zapier quite frequently and this solution would work perfectly as long as there is one sheet to be updated.

In my case however, I have multiple projects going on and I have some key widgets getting powered by this TODAY() function on different sheets.

Probably something to look forward to in the future updates hopefully. Thanks again for the solution nevertheless.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Veer Sanghavi @Terry Lewis

I hope you're well and safe!

Please have a look at my post below with a method I developed to update the sheet(s) daily.

More info:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/74527/daily-update-solution-without-the-need-to-open-the-sheet-use-zapier-or-similar

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up, Awesome, or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

Terry Lewis

@Veer Sanghavi - Yes, but then I buried the key: "I then link out to any sheet I need updated daily. " I have that one sheet along with some other admin files I keep and then I just link the cell to a "helper" column on each sheet I want to activate daily. But look also at @Andrée Starå solution above. This skips the need for Zapier and keeps it all in Smartsheet (do it to one sheet and link as I do, or do it to each sheet).

@Andrée Starå - thanks for this. I'd seen some conversation about trying some of the new automation, but haven't tried myself and hadn't seen your success yet. Well done!

Thanks, Terry

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