Looking for a SmartStrategy to be a Smarter-Smartsheet-er (Basic Process Question)

AndyFAFF

I have been using Smartsheet for over 4 years. I have not used it with the efficiency it deserves. I am wondering if it is better to have several "smaller" sheets (i.e. "Contacts," "Customers", "Vendors") and then, by using a common "primary" column, utilize the the "Report" function to create...well, reports. OR, and this is what I've currently done: Create at massive Sheet that has a ton of this info and I've manipulated it with a great many filters and conditional formatting tools. I am not sure what is a smarter way to proceed. I am a company of 1. At this point, to those people I'd be sending things to, I: A) Don't have "buy in" from my community with filling out Smartsheet forms, or B) using Smartsheet's many options to collaborate and monitor projects, or C) Anyone able to break away from Google Sheets or Excel, or Word Tables. That said, I have no problem trying to get them on board with a certain degree of all of this, but, I don't need them to be actively checking a Dashboard, Commenting, Reviewing,--I will be the only true User. Again, this is basic and I've combed through many webinar/help topics/videos and have not been able to quantify it all. Any thoughts or direction would be much appreciated. This Community has saved my bacon a number of times, but I could probably avoid many problems if I start off on the right foot. I'm willing to do a re-design and re-entry of all my current sheets in order to make it work smoother. Thanks.

Paul Newcome

I would use a master sheet and then break it out as needed in reports.

AndyFAFF

Thank you. I just feel it cumbersome, but, it's a good bit of advice and I will read up on running better reports. Thanks, Paul.

AndyFAFF

Paul Newcome

The challenge with using smaller sheets and then having a report pull them all together is that the report will not move data onto different rows.

If one sheet has "A" in [Primary Column] and "random text" in [Column B] and another sheet has "A" in [Primary Column] and "random number" in [Column C] then your report is going to have two rows for "A" in the [Primary Column].

It also makes pulling together metrics using cross sheet formulas more tricky.

Even though a larger master sheet may SEEM more cumbersome, breaking it down into reports or using Dynamic View can make data entry much easier because you can edit data there and have it push back to the sheet itself.

My personal goal when building solutions is to not have anyone accessing the master sheet directly for any reason, so as long as you keep it within the various size limitations it really doesn't have to be "pretty".