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Allow automation to populate cells with formulas.

Album
Album ✭✭✭
edited 05/16/24 in Smartsheet Product Feedback & Ideas

For some reason the devs have blocked using =formula() and they populate cells with '=formula() when you try to use the features in conjunction. This makes your formulas inert and is quite frustrating. This seems like such a easy way to increase efficiency in the program and should be implemented immediately. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

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  • Adrian Mandile CHESS
    Adrian Mandile CHESS ✭✭✭✭✭

    It would be great if in the Automation Actions section, we could Calculate a Value. This new feature could be achieved with an option under the existing 'Change a Value' action or in a separate action that would allow the user to enter a formula to calculate the value. In this way we could then paste that calculated value into the nominated column. This could be especially useful for Service Level Agreements that require responses to a request within a pre-set number of days, or by the end of the next week/month/quarter, based on an input start date.

    Adrian Mandile
    CHESS Consulting Australia - Smartsheet Solution Provider Gold Partner
    Collaborative | Holistic | Effective | Systems | Solutions

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  • SteyJ
    SteyJ ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    edited 08/16/23

    As the name suggest, formulas in automation -- specifically for change cell value.

    This would be incredibly powerful, as it would reduce the number of helper columns needed for tasks such as checking for blank cells, and filling them with a formula if data doesn't exist. Not only would it provide great variability, but it would essentially allow text columns to become column formulas without the restrictions a column formula has.

    I use a helper column with the new EAP TIME function to generate time created (in military time) for new activity events, and having a cell which can take user input and also automatically fill if blank for functions like this, would be game changing!

    =SUBSTITUTE(IF([Time:]@row = "", TIME(MID(Created@row, 9, 9), 1), RIGHT("0000" + [Time:]@row, 4)), ":", "")

    Sincerely,

    Jacob Stey

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  • bkw1962
    bkw1962 ✭✭✭

    And the hits just keep on coming….Smartsheet still comes up short in so many ways. No real answers and even ghosting paying enterprise customers on critically needed functionality - for YEARS in some cases. Classic. The kids who built this mess should have stayed in their mommy's basement.

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  • kcollins
    kcollins ✭✭✭✭

    Yes this would be such a huge win especially when it comes to hierarchies.

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  • ACSEH
    ACSEH ✭

    Please consider adding this functionality. I am banging my head against the wall trying to copy cells into another column without putting the formula directly into the whole column. I need to be able to easily edit any of the cells if needed so I tried to use an automation to =[other cell]@row in certain instances instead of putting the formula on the whole column. That would populate my cells with what is in another cell but also allow me to change the value to whatever I want if updates are needed.

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  • Another Guillaume
    Another Guillaume ✭
    https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/436067#Comment_436067

    I won't comment on the last sentence that must be the result of massive frustration.Yet, I must say that after a few weeks of usage, I feel like Smartsheets is an aging piece of software… I am very new to the tool and I do appreciate that it is powerfull. It is still relevant…

    But when comparing it with Miro or Airtable ease of use, and their very regular push communications on version updates, I am a bit sad for / disappointed by Smartsheets… at that pace, Smartsheets will be lagging behind in no time.

    If I wasn't a project manager and I just wanted to track tasks as a marketer like in the training scenarios, I would definitely not bother with Smartsheets "helper column" (this concept alone is a hint of how limited the tool is… and you can't even show / hide these columns with a simple click… damn).

    I am amazed by the lack of some simple use case.Not being able to copy info from a field into another field in the automation is puzzling.So the work around would be to use formulas.But you can't even use formulas in automations ! … That's sad.

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  • Whitechri
    Whitechri ✭✭

    I agree this is a very necessary enhancement. I tire of the answer to just add a Helper Column, which just continues to expand my project sheets every time I hit a roadblock. Please find a way to enable this ability to update a cell with a function from the sheet Automation. In a practical example, I need a single column to track Direct Costs. I'd like to sub-total at the various top level phases of the project based on the same column, but I have to create a separate column just for the sub-totals using a column formula or manually add the formula just to each parent phase Direct Costs cell. This doesn't scale well with multiple people managing their own projects.

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