gathering data off a spreadsheet template

Razetto

Hi SS community,

We've been using a spreadsheet to gather information from external parties; the questions are listed under column a, they're to add a score (column b) and possibly a comment (column c); the questionnaire has 100 rows of questions. I have created a grid with the 200 columns and an intake form. The problem of using an intake form is that the person filling it out has to do in one sitting and I have to assume that sometimes he/she might not have all the answers readily available. I wish there was a version of the Document Builder but for uploading from a pdf into a grid, where I can define what fields link to a specific column. Data shuttle would work if I was to change the spreadsheet template to have the questions as row 1 (header) instead of column a, which will then match the grid column headers; but it's not visually friendly. Are there any other options?

Thanks!

Ryan Sides

@Razetto

Hi Razetto, the structure of your data (top to bottom) isn't aligned with Smartsheet's standard functionality. For instance, running reports, formulas etc. would be a bit of a nightmare if you were wanting to slice and dice your data in the future.

If you need users to complete the form and not submit until they have all of the data, you have some options:

1) Keep using the excel sheet, and build an excel "transpose" sheet that would take your columnized data and make it a single row when it's ready. Then, you could use Data shuttle to import that excel sheet into Smartsheet. Your Smartsheet sheet would need to be 200 columns long though as you mentioned. At least this way, you could use Smartsheet's functionality (reports, formulas, etc. on your columns)

2) Build a custom portal where your external parties would login to complete the form. this way, it would capture their data as they enter it. Then, when the form is complete, the portal could send it over to Smartsheet so you can use reports, formulas, etc.

Does that help any? I'm sorry there's not a more straightforward way of accomplishing this.

I'm interested to see if anyone else has an approach to this.

Razetto

@Ryan Sides Thanks for your feedback. Option 1 is something that I've tested and works out fine but ideally we want to stay clear from using excel if at all possible. I think that option 2 would be ideal but I'm not familiar with building a custom portal, where can I research that? Thanks again!

Ryan Sides

@Razetto You bet! You can do this on no-code tools like Bubble and others. For research, try googling "no code customer portal". I've built a couple of these in the last few years for clients. Not for your exact use case, but similar. We were collecting budget data and purchasing data from users. They wanted to see the status of their requests along the way and we needed to keep each entry separate from the others. I don't have access to that system any longer or I'd demo it for you.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Razetto

I hope you're well and safe!

To add to Ryans's excellent advice/answer.

Here are two other options.

• Premium App, Dynamic View
• Premium App, WorkApps

Would any of those options work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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