Mass ticking a column, for users who have Dynamic View

Omer Ulger

Dears,

Background :

I have a question regarding a Smartsheet tool that I am operating. Essentially, we are using Smartsheet to create, collect and align on data, which then creates reports for the higher level stakeholders.

However, since the data is highly confidential, we have to manage access and authority very closely. We have 40 users, and managing access and authority on a person level. For example, one group of users can only see a filter, and within the group there are editors and admins, and once admins approve the items, editing is locked for the editors.

This is why, except for the full admins, we cannot share the sheet with any users. Therefore we are operating with 13 unique Dynamic views, and in total, we have 20 different user profiles in the system.

Question :

Admins are having to approve each item one by one, through Dynamic view. This means that they have to open each line, press a checkbox, save, and repeat. Sometimes there are 100 items for the admins to approve each month, which creates a lot of time spent, just by approving items. I would like to create a smarter and easier way to have them mass approve items.

• They can inform me or other admins, and we can mass approve their items quickly, using the underlying sheet
• I distribute a form, where they specify what they would like to approve, and system automatically matches each row with this information, and mass approves items.
• Reports : Would be a great way, as they can check the full column like excel, however I cannot share the underlying document due to confidentiality.

I spent a few hours with the 2nd solution, however could not find a solution that works:

• There are no time columns in Smartsheet which could check is a row was updated before the admin has "approved"
• Tricky to do this with functions, as functions work continuously, and that could also lead to system automatically approving items after the admin's input

Could you offer any solutions to fix such a problem? Where we would have an easy way of mass ticking a checkbox when our users are using Dynamic view?

Any input would be highly appreciated :)..

Thank you for your time

Best Regards,

Ömer

Andrée Starå

Hi @Omer Ulger

I hope you're well and safe!

Have you explored using the Premium App, WorkApps? You don't need to share the underlying sheet(s) with it.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Omer Ulger

Hey Andree,

Thank you for your reply. I had checked it once, but decided not to use it due to other constraints.

For example, for many of the information, the input column and frontend output are different then each other (one takes the input and other one does calculations and outputs the correct information. And depending on selections, we are making certain columns hidden and others mandatory & read only. All of this we are able to do with Dynamic view.

I will still explore the work apps further, although I think this will probably require a UI change for all users. Is there another solution you could propose which is possible with the current setup?

Andrée Starå

@Omer Ulger

Happy to help!

You could use it only for the Approval Process, was my thinking. Would that work?

I wouldn't change the process if it works otherwise in Dynamic View.

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