Alternative to control centre - using automations & copy rows

Shaun M

Hi all, wondering if anyone has thoughts on my proposed solution for a client.

They have repeatable, similar projects which they want to manage. They don't want to use the basic project management templates and 'save as' for every new project (10+ per week) but also don't want to spend money on Control Centre. Permissions and access to information is not a concern.

I'm thinking i create #1 an intake sheet, #2 a 'latest project approved' helper sheet, #3 a project task template sheet, #4 a 'master' tasks sheet.

Process: Once intake sheet item approved, automation to copy row to #2. #3 task template sheet auto pulls data from #2 into its top helper row. All subsequent rows have a lookup formula from the top helper row. This allows an automation to copy all rows to #4 the master task sheet.

End result: All tasks would be in the one giant master task sheet, but this would be viewed and updated through a report with associated grouping etc.

This feels like an acceptable solution for their non complex needs. Am i missing anything - eg possible performance issues etc?

Thanks,

Shaun

Shaun M

Ah - i've disovered that you cannot trigger automations via a move row, copy row or cell lookup.

I'm not trying to work out if i could achieve the tirggering of automations with zapier or something.

Dan Cliff

@Shaun M I've done something similar for our project management sheets - each project has its own Folder with reports and a sheets however I wanted all this rolled up into a common sheet for project status reporting.

I ended up using Make (formerly Integromat) to manage this process without using Control Centre and as a bonus this also allowed me to fully automate the process from deal closure in our CRM. Now, deal closures will automatically create the project folio from a custom template and add the relevant information to an Active Projects sheet (as well as a few internal project steps) I was also able to include error handling logic so an error at any stage of the automation will send me a DM. The benefit of this approach instead of using a common report is that we can also make local changes to the Active Projects sheet as opposed to making all changes on individual source sheet (i.e. the assignment of the PM or internal project comments we don't want to share with clients).