Send Dashboard via email - manually and automated workflow

TomG

My idea is to create functionality to be able to send a dashboard snapshot via email from within Smartsheet, both manually and via an automated workflow. Ideally using an HTML format so any links in the dashboard are links in the email.

Smartsheet Dashboards are fantastic and we use them heavily with our project teams and leadership. However, I've received the same request on a regular basis from leaders at multiple companies. "Can the dashboard be sent as a weekly status report to me via email?"

While the publishing feature is useful for folks that want to interact with the data, most leaders want information presented in a way they can view and immediately act. Having to open a browser or link, log in (id and password), 2FA approval/input, then select another link or 2 is certainly tedious for everyone, but is a big waste of time for an executive or for someone leading many projects or programs.

As a result, many leaders request their project manager create weekly status reports which largely contains the information from their designed dashboard. 🙂

Having a way to do this in an automated way in Smartsheet would save project managers a lot of time each week as manual status reports could be automated, and would improve executive efficiency by putting the information in the location they use very frequently through the day, their inbox. 📧

Sing C

Everybody loves a weekly report! Our project dashboards are setup (like most I suspect) to surface real-time data, but certain stakeholders and leaders are wedded to the traditional idea of a weekly status report and being able go back and look at last week, last month, etc.

It would be great to have the 'Send as attachment' option for dashboards the way it exists for reports, and be able to schedule a weekly email with a PDF dashboard attached.

Monica Washington

This would be a great feature to help with weekly project updates.

andersonbr

This is a great idea! I would vote to have this added to the SmartSheet base functionality

Jamie Jae

Tom, this is a great idea and would definitely help make the information more availabile.

TomG

Thanks for the vote @Jamie Jae ! I really hope this gets traction as it would really help execs have a positive perspective on Smartsheet and save PMs loads of time.

jasonp

What if we were able to schedule a dashboard. So that it would arrive to inboxes. Just like and update request or any other automation. This would save my organization great time. Especially with the use of MS Teams. Then I could schedule dashboards on the template to a Project Update Teams, and they would all post when I schedule them. Keeping inboxes limited to just a reminder to check in.

harshaD

Upvoted! The option to send reports as a scheduled attachment is great, but the limited formatting options available in reports is a drawback. Sending a nicely formatted dashboard in the same way as reports is the straightforward solution.

TomG

Thanks @harshaD !

Rick Olsen

Currently we use Tableau to send out a copy of the dashboard, but we can't do that with out Smartsheet Dashboards.

TomG

Absolutely thrilled to see this has been added to the roadmap, thanks for the update!!!

This topic came up earlier today and I shared that I hoped this would be carried forward and come sometime in the near future. I know there is no timetable yet, but hopefully this is a quick and easy win for both Smartsheet Dev Teams and the user community!

AnaLia

As a project manager it is crucial to deliver key information to the project stakeholders. We actually use a Project Dashboard with widgets that include Project Health Status, Key accomplishments, Resource Hours per role, KPIs, etc. It is a manual process to push an email with the link to the dashboard for the stakeholders to review on a weekly basis. I would like to have the capability to set an automated email that include the dashboard report on either a PDF or HTML format... a link will help but will be less than ideal.

Reports are able to schedule automated email delivery, why can dashboards do the same?

Thoughts?

dashboard.GIF

TomG

Thanks AnaLia! I appreciate you adding to the thread. My current understanding is this feature has been added to the Smartsheet roadmap, so hopefully this is something that is delivered soon. Smartsheet did reach out to me for some clarification on requirements and we had a great working session.

Hopefully more folks will see this thread and continue to vote it up so Smartsheet sees this is desired by a lot of us.

Have a great day! 🙂

KRUTIKA SAMANT

Just like reports, we should have a feature for dashboard to share as a pdf to the different stakeholders. The purpose of sharing the dashboard as a PDF is to capture the data and visualizations at a specific moment in time, allowing stakeholders to have a snapshot of the information for documentation and future reference.

TomG

Thanks Krutika, I really appreciate the additional support.

A PDF option would be great, I also like the idea of it being HTML and in the body of the email. This allows users to read or quickly interact with the data as fast as possible. But PDFs would definitely print better for those looking for a paper copy.

Have a Great Day,

Tom

Kimberly Slavsky

This would be a fantastic idea. We are getting more and more into dashboards (newer to Smartsheet) and it would be a great feature to have.