Sheet Summary

Eddie Abasta · 08/07/19

Has anyone started using this new feature? It's unclear to me what it is this summarizes. How are other using this, any examples?

Andrée Starå · 08/08/19

Hi Eddie,

Yes.

Here are two examples.

Collect sheet/project KPI's.
Add project information like Project Name, Goals, Stakeholder, Budget, Expenses, Overall status, Project Manager, Dates, and more.

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

Garmon D · 08/08/19

Hi Andree,

Any thoughts on how to do the KPIs you mentioned? this seems to be a tool with a lot of potential, but like the OP I'm a bit non-plussed as to how to go about putting it all together

Garmon

Andrée Starå · 08/08/19

Hi Garmon,

You'd add the fields in the Sheet Summary as needed for your KPI's.

Then you can input formulas and reference/calculate data from the sheet or other fields in the Summary Sheet section.

Examples.

Count all tasks, count all overdue tasks.
Input total budget and show the current value.
Add the people involved in a project.
Show overall RYG status
Add a start date and end date for the project
Add progress pictures
Link to collateral material
Link to other sheets, dashboards, and reports

Hope that helps!

Let me know if you have questions!

Best,

Andrée

Shaine Greenwood · 08/08/19

Hi everyone—

I wanted to pass this learning track along to you all to get up to speed on sheet summary. Getting toward the tail end of that learning track, there's content on sheet summary formulas to aggregate data into a portfolio, summary reports, and other tips: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/sheet-summary

Andrée Starå · 08/08/19

Thanks, Shaine!

I also see now that Sheet Summary Reports are official.

Paul Newcome · 08/08/19

You can also reference the Summary fields in the sheet itself. If your summary field is titled "Example", and you wanted a box on the sheet itself to be checked if that field is populated, you would enter the field name followed by a #, and it would look something like this...

=IF(NOT(ISBLANK(Example#)), 1)

.

To reference the sheet in formulas within a Summary field, you would write it out exactly as you would if the formula was in a cell on the sheet itself.

.

You can also use cross sheet references in formulas within a Summary field, but you cannot access the Summary fields through cross sheet references.

Eli Chuang · 08/10/19

Paul,

can you share how can I reference another sheet summary sheet?

Thanks!

Eli

Andrée Starå · 08/11/19

Hi Eli,

Unfortunately, it's not possible at the moment to reference another Sheet Summary, but it's a great idea! (You can reference another sheet through Cross-sheet reference but not the Sheet Summary)

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

Paul Newcome · 08/12/19

What would be REALLY nice is if we could reference reports in cross sheet references, but I digress... Haha

Joseph · 08/12/19

How is Sheet Summary different from using the Report function?

Thanks.

Paul Newcome · 08/12/19

Reports and Sheet Summaries are vastly different.

Here is some documentation on reports: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/reports

And sheet summaries: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/smartsheet-intermediate/sheet-summary

Mike Wilday · 08/12/19

New fields in a sheet summary can include formulas. So in that side-panel you could mission-critical things like COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, etc. It provides you a space that isn't in the sheet itself to store some of the sheet-specific data. As the summary data isn't readable by cross-sheet references this would be ideal for self-contained sheets that aren't being calculated elsewhere. If you are working within a fiscal year, or with data that is ongoing in a single sheet. You could summarize your data there.

Paul Newcome · 08/12/19

I am working on a "sort of but not quite" Summary Report that will pull data semi-efficiently from Sheet Summaries into a report type format that can then be accessed via cross sheet references for metrics.

Basically I have a template that gets used many times. Each of these templates has a Charter built in that data is cell linked from into a Rollup Sheet. The issue here is that the Charter has the data vertically in a column, but the Rollup has that same data from every charter listed out a cross a row.

This becomes tedious because the ranges are not the same shape. This means that each cell from the Charter has to be linked one at a time across a row in the Rollup.

The workaround I created for this particular issue was to use the helper columns I already had in place for various automations and essentially cell link the data from the Charter into a horizontal layout.

We could then select the appropriate number of columns across a row in the Rollup, access the option to link from another sheet, then select the horizontal layout of the Charter to allow us to link them all at one time.

.

I took this same concept and applied it to the Sheet Summary.

The Summary looks like this...

[Field 1]

[Field 2]

[Field 3]

.

But then I have a row hidden from immediate view that looks like this...

=[Field 1]# =[Field 2]# =[Field 3]

.

I can quickly link the horizontal to the Rollup with built in filters which essentially works as a report that can also be accessed by cross sheet references for metrics reporting.

.

This has allowed me to essentially combine my Project Charter and my Project Plan into one sheet, hide the Charter by using the Sheet Summary for it, and run metrics on Workspace wide reporting by not using actual reports.