There is, however, a couple of methods to do that using addons. In general I highly recommend looking at Advance packages for addons, they open a world of automation and customization beyond the core application.

Below are various mechanisms for managing multiple-contact data in Smartsheet.

Note that by "multiple-contact" I mean a Contact type column with the "Allow multiple contacts per cell" switch turned on in the column properties.

Final note: thank you to @Samuel Mueller for telling me about same-sheet Data Mesh, being great with Bridge, and other general awesomeness. Thanks to @Paul Newcome for being amazing on community and suggesting this post. And my other fellow Overachievers for making Smartsheet fun on the daily!

CORE APPLICATION

The bad news is that there's no way to "build" multiple contacts into a multi-contact column with a formula.

The only thing you can do is hand-type contacts, separated with comma, semicolon, or tab.

You cannot use Automations or Formulas to build a list of contacts.

SHEET SETUP

All the methods below leverage a single sheet with three columns.

• Column 1 is a text/number column. This can be any number of formulas that produce a series of emails, separated by comma or semicolon.
  • For example, if you need to merge multiple columns of emails into one, you'd do something like = JOIN ([Manager]:[VP], ";" ) resulting in "manager@somewhere.com; director@somewhere.com; vp@somewhere.com" in your cell
  • Alternatively, you may be pulling emails together from another sheet with a formula like =JOIN(COLLECT({Email}, {Name}, HAS(Names@row, @cell)), ";") - this formula looks at a second sheet that lists names and emails, and matches the names selected on the first sheet to the names on the second sheet to combine a list of emails. The {} items are cross-sheet references to columns on the second sheet.
  • Note that you need to combine emails, not names. Smartsheet has no way of mapping names like "Brian Richardson" or "Richardson, Brian" to an email address, and therefore will not convert a name to a contact
• Column 2 is a Contact column set to Allow multiple contacts. There's no formula in this column.
• Column 3 is an Autonumber column. If you already have one, you can use that instead of setting up a new one. Or if you have another means to setup a unique identifier for your rows, use that instead. You need a unique identifier on each row.

DATA MESH METHOD

Data Mesh to the rescue! Data Mesh is a paid addon tool for Smartsheet that is very powerful. It is definitely one of the top tools to take your Smartsheet automations to the next level.

Using Data Mesh, you can copy/sync data between two sheets, or between columns in a single sheet. Which is what we'll do here.

Key Value: Data Mesh triggers on changes, so your contacts will update almost immediately. It's also pretty easy to setup.

Key Drawback: not as flexible as Bridge, but pretty close.

1. Open Data Mesh and click New Config
2. For Source: find the sheet with your three columns, select it, and click next
3. For Target: find the same sheet, select it, and click next
4. For Mapping:
   1. Lookup Values: the Autonumber / Unique ID column
   2. Data Field 1 (Source Sheet): the Text/Number column that has your emails in it
   3. Data Field 1 (Target Sheet): the Multiple-Contact column
5. For Options: set Overwrite Existing Data to Yes. Set Execution Frequency to Update Immediately. Other settings can remain as-is.
6. Give your workflow a name and hit Next, then Add

That is all the setup you need. Now, whenever your formula creates or updates a series of email addresses, separated by semicolon/comma in the Text column, Data Mesh will fire and quickly post those emails into the Contact column as separate contacts, one for each email!

BRIDGE METHOD

You can also accomplish this using Bridge. Although somewhat complex to learn, the actual Bridge workflow for this is quite simple.

Key Value: fast and flexible - this workflow can be adjusted to do many more complex things, like looking up your contacts, manipulating the data, integrating contacts with other tools, or even running Javascript to match/map the emails to additional information.

Key Drawback: Bridge doesn't alert you if there's problems (yet), so you'll have to notice if the contacts aren't getting populated as expected.

Here's the setup:

1. You will likely want to Trigger the Bridge workflow when a list of emails is changed, or something similar. You'll need to setup a quick placeholder blank workflow first, then in Triggers under Smartsheet setup a trigger for Column Values changed or maybe Row Updated, depending on your needs. Point the trigger at your new blank workflow.
2. Add the Smartsheet: Get Row step to your workflow with the following settings:
   1. Sheet: {{runtime.sheetID}}
   2. Row: if you used the Row Update trigger, use {{runtime.event.id}}. If you used the Column Values trigger, use {{runtime.event.rowId}}
3. Add the String Tools: Split Text step to your workflow.
   1. Text: {{states.startstate.smartsheet.get_row.row.cells.name of the Text column with emails.value}}
   2. Delimeter: ; or , (whatever you used in the column to separate your email addresses)
4. Add the Smartsheet: Update Row step to your workflow
   1. Sheet: {{runtime.sheetID}}
   2. Row ID: if you used the Row Update trigger, use {{runtime.event.id}}. If you used the Column Values trigger, use {{runtime.event.rowId}}
   3. Cells: Key 1 = name of the Contact column in your sheet set to multiple contacts. Value #1 = {{states.startstate.stringtools.split_text}}

That's it! Now, whenever your comma/semicolon list of emails changes on the sheet, Bridge will read the list, split it back up, and post it into the multiple-contact column.

DATA SHUTTLE METHOD

If you don't have Data Mesh (get it!) or Bridge then you can also use Data Shuttle to accomplish the combination of emails into a multiple-contact column. It's a little more involved.

Key Drawback: Data Shuttle has to run on a schedule, with 15 minute intervals as the minimum. You cannot trigger Data Shuttle to run when your contacts change. And this relies on constant posting of attachments which fills up the attachments panel pretty quickly.

Key Value: it's relatively easy to use the UI for setup, and it alerts you if there's problems.

You will setup 2 workflows… the first will output the emails to a CSV attachment, the second will import that same attachment as contacts.

Workflow 1

1. Open Data Shuttle and click the + sign to start a new workflow
2. Select Offload workflow
3. For Source: select the sheet that you setup in Pre-Setup
4. For Target, select CSV or XLSX format and Attachment. Attachment should be pointed to the same sheet. (note - you can put it elsewhere, it's just cleaner to keep it all in the same sheet. if you put it elsewhere then just note that location, you'll need it for the second workflow). Check the "Add headers" checkbox.
5. Skip to the Mapping screen. Select the Autonumber column and the Text column with the email addresses and hit Next
6. Select Run on schedule and set to every 15 mins or whatever schedule you like
7. Click Next, give the workflow a name, then Save
8. Now Run the workflow that you just created. After a minute or so you should have an attachment on your sheet. You need to do this before doing Workflow 2 setup.

Workflow 2

1. Click the + sign in Data Shuttle to start a new workflow
2. Select Upload workflow
3. For Source: select Attachment, then browse to the sheet that Workflow 1 saved to. Select Most Recent. Data Shuttle should find the attachment from running workflow 1 in step 8 above. Select "This file has column headers".
4. For Target: select the same sheet
5. For Options: select Merge, and check only the Update checkbox
6. For Mapping: select the Autonumber column as the Unique Identifier. The mapping should already have mapped the Text column (with the emails) to itself, remove that mapping by changing to Not Mapped. Add a mapping to set the Source Text column (with the emails) to the Target Contact column.
7. On the next screen select Run on Attachment

That should do it! Now, every 15 minutes, Data Shuttle will grab all the email addresses from the Text column, dump them to a CSV attachment, then import that same attachment to post the email addresses into the contact column and create the multiple-contacts.

The format in the source file is: 04/16/2024 21:17

What I get in Smart Sheet upon Import: 45371.83695601851851851851851851852

I have tried leaving the destination column as text/number, I have tried setting it to Date - no dice.

The default settings for the timestamp formatting in the excel file is (this is how the system that generates the file sets it):

I found that if I manually change the format to Date on these columns in the excel file before import, it works. This is a pain as I am trying to fully automate this process. Is there a way around this?

I see other timestamp questions on here, but cannot find guidance on this particular issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Derek

When building a chart widget from a Report, Smartsheet currently only supports a basic bar chart. If I try to create a stacked bar chart from a Report (to split the bar by a second field like Status, CoC, Portfolio, etc.), it does not work as expected.

This limits dashboard reporting because Reports are the cleanest way to roll up data across many sheets, but the visualization options are reduced compared to charts built from a single sheet.

It would be very helpful to support stacked bar charts directly from Reports, including:

• Stack by a second field (dropdown, symbol, contact, etc.)
• Preserve grouping and filters defined in the Report
• Support 100+ source sheets without requiring a consolidated “master sheet” workaround

• Increased Navigation: Moving the edit button to the opposite side of the screen from the edit interface creates unnecessary swiping. This breaks established muscle memory and adds friction to frequent administrative tasks.
• Edit Resizing: The auto resizing of the dashboard widgets when the edit interface opens is jarring and nauseating. It makes it difficult to maintain focus when making iterative changes.
• Formatting Regression: Since the update, the rendering of existing text and links had shifted, and not in a good way. It's forcing me to manually reformat dashboards that were previously stable. This is a significant time sink for those of us managing complex, high-level reporting.

I would strongly urge the product team to reconsider these UI functions or, at the very least, provide an option to revert to the previous layout functionality. Efficiency and stability are most critical for those of us relying on Smartsheet to manage scaling operational workflows. New features or layouts must be incremental and seemless to the user experience. Not throw it into chaos.

It should be known that the "Senior RVP" contact card is doing a vlookup off a seperate reference sheet, so the "Senior RVP" column is a return vlookup result.

The formula I am using in the Sheet Summary field is:

=COUNTIFS(Priority:Priority,"Up", [Senior RVP]:[Senior RVP], "NAME")

Result = #NO MATCH

I’m very new to Smartsheet and am keen to explore its features with the goal of eventually rolling it out in my work area. I have an enterprise license assigned through the Government.

In our area—Media and Corporate Communications—we receive many tasks through Microsoft Outlook. These often include requests for speech notes, talking points, briefing notes, event documents and similar tasks. These requests come down through Ministerial Services, progress to Corporate Services (which our area reports to), and finally reach us. Theoretically, this process involves two separate Outlook tasks before reaching us. Additionally, lateral tasks are sent out to other areas to request briefing notes (or simply information) so that we can write the necessary content. While the tasking mechanism itself (BN specific) is out of scope, one of the things I want to improve is the tracking of briefing notes.

Here’s some context around briefing notes (BNs): In many instances, BNs are tasked to other commands to draft and get approved. Once drafted, they are sent up the chain, approved and then provided to Ministerial Services. For us to write speech notes, these BNs then come down again through email to Corporate Services and finally to us. The challenge with BNs and event-related tasks is that they are heavily dictated by the Minister's Office, meaning that information frequently changes—dates, attendees and so on. I find it almost impossible to keep up with the numerous tasks and BNs that flow through my email daily.

Hence, I’m seeking assistance with the following:

1. I require a tasking system that can either, at the Corporate Services level, assign tasks (through a form or direct entry into a sheet).
2. I need the ability to attach BNs and provide commentary on each task, which should be possible at the Corporate Services level.
3. I need the ability to send documents, once completed, for approval and attach them to the relevant tasks, either through forms or direct entry into a sheet.
4. I need to be able to attach email commentary to each task as a record.
5. I require the ability to assign relevant tags to tasks (e.g., "for the Minister," "for the CEO").
6. I need to track and display data, such as the time taken from task assignment to draft completion and submission for approval.

I’ve reviewed some of the templates available in Smartsheet, and I can see there are task tracking templates. Are these the best option, or should I create my own?

I have a weird scenario I can't find the answer to. I have a sheet where, for some reason, the permissions are set at the Workspace level and not the sheet level. I've never seen this before, and I can't find any documentation. My issue is that some of these users are external and should no longer have access. They're not part of the workspace, but they are still listed in the sheet share list, so I'm not sure if they have access or not. Has anyone seen this before?

It works great, other than it repeats the subject line I enter in the automation three times before inserting the body of the message. For example my subject line in the automation is "Please complete". When I receive the automation its showing up as:

"(Please complete) Please complete Please complete"

Then the body

The automation is an Alert, Sent to Contacts in a cell with my contact column selected with a custom subject and body with it including the message only, no links to the sheet or fields.

Can anyone provide guidance on how to get it to stop repeating the subject line 3 times? I've tried just using a space, then it just displays "(no subject)". I've tried using a * but that displays as (*) * *.

Any help would be appreciated!

When I first created a user and invited them to a shared sheet, I misspelled their name and email addy. I've tried editing their user but cannot. I deleted their user and recreated it with the correct spellings and it defaults back to the wrong one. We're stuck. What to do?