Automated way of counting number of cell changes?

JLC · 01/23/19

Hi all, we'd like to track the number of times a cell was edited in order to capture how many times we've moved out a date on any given project. I'm thinking this isn't possible with a formula, but has anyone found a solution with automation/integration or something else? We'd love to avoid updating this manually and the human error this can create.

Andrée Starå · 01/23/19

Hi Jaye,

A possible workaround could be to use a third-party tool like Zapier or similar and copy the row when that specific cell changes.

Would that work?

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

JLC · 01/30/19

Hi Andree, I could see that working and then pulling a countif range for the number of times that row appears! In effect it would should the number of times the cell was changed. Thanks, will try that.

Andrée Starå · 01/31/19

Happy to help!

Let me know how it goes!

Best,

Andrée

JLC · 01/31/19

Hey there Andree, this doesn't seem to work for us. Are you super familiar with Zapier? I'm not, so unsure if I've just missed something. I'm only seeing the following trigger options:

- Updated Row

- New Row

- New Attachment

- New Comment

What would really help is "Updated Column" but that doesn't seem to be an issue. We have hundreds of in-flight projects and need a blanket way of saying, if any project's end date changes, copy that row to the sheet (at least if we're going the Zapier route). Thoughts? Thanks so much for your help - your name does not go unnoticed on these forums that's for sure!

Andrée Starå · 02/05/19

Hey Jaye,

Thanks for your kind words! I'm always happy to help!

You would select Updated Row and then add a filter to choose what Zapier should continue with and then add an action to copy that row to another sheet.

Unfortunately, there isn't a function in Zapier that would trigger if the date is changed, but we could set it up so that if the date is after the original end date, it would trigger. We would probably need a way to keep the original end date in a helper column.

What do you think?

Best,

Andrée

Andrée Starå · 03/12/19

Hi Jaye,

How did it go? Did you get something set up?

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

JLC · 03/12/19

Thanks Andrée for checking in! I haven't had the opportunity to make this work yet but the way you've described it I think it will work well - we do have "planned end date" and "actual end date" columns so it could likely trigger of "actual" is after "planned". Thanks so much and will report back when I have time to work on this again!

Automated way of counting number of cell changes?

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