Dashboard not updating after Sheet changes

Richard Heath

For a number of years, our team has been reliant on a PDF Dashboard to issue to our clients.

Recently, we have noticed that after new data is input into a Sheet, the Dashboard no longer reflects these changes automatically.

Our system is programmed to work in the following manner. (A three-step process - INPUT/FORMATTING/OUTPUT

1. A user makes their changes to a Sheet (called the Payment Register) and selects "YES" in a specific column/row to alert Smartsheet to which set of data needs to be displayed on the Dashboard.
2. A separate (backend) Sheet collects the specific row of data using INDEX/MATCH formulas and reformats these (called the Payment Certificate Metrics)
3. The Dashboard (called Payment Certificate) pulls specific cells from the Payment Certificate Metrics Sheet and presents them in a usable, clean format.

In the past, our team would only undertake Step 1 and proceed directly to Step 3 because Step 2 was automated in the background. Today we realized that Step 2 no longer occurs unless a user physically loads the Metric Sheet enabling a refresh to occur. This is not part of our planned Workflow.

Has anyone experienced this, or knows how to fix?

Andrée Starå

Hi @Richard Heath

I hope you're well and safe!

Try adding this, and see if that work.

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!

Richard Heath

Hi @Andrée Starå ,

Unfortunately, the nature of the Sheet dictates that our team could be using it multiple times a day, with the subsequent INDEX/MATCH formula returning different results.

Simply refreshing the sheet daily will not provide a satisfactory outcome.

The major question I have is, why does Smartsheet now perform a function differently from how it used to? My issue is repeated across 100+ Workspaces - I'm not in a position to roll out new automation to all of them.....nor should I have to. It worked well in the past, but not now.

LisaS

I am having the same issue. My dashboard metrics will not update or even worse, default to 0 unless I go into the underlying metrics sheet and save it. This never used to happen.

Richard Heath

Hello @LisaS

My Sheets/Dashboards appear to have now reverted to how they used to perform which is good news.

Can you confirm your Sheets are too?

LisaS

Yes!! They are working correctly. Thank you :)

Swetha

@LisaS/ @Richard Heath : I am having same issues. My dashboard is taking longer time than before to update the values. Once after, i refresh or save the underlying metric interface sheet then values will be updated in dashboard. This was not happening before.

Earlier, data was updated on dashboard without refresh or saving the interface sheet.

Could you both @LisaS/ @Richard Heath help me understand was there any steps performed to resolve this issue?

Richard Heath

Hello @Swetha

I didn't have the opportunity to resolve the issue - I attempted to set up an Automation that would run the Metrics Sheet automatically, but it appeared that Smartsheet resolved itself.

I'll be frustrated if it has reverted back to not updating all linked sheets automatically.