I am looking for advice on the best way to architect a cross-team project tracking system.

My current setup:

• I have multiple teams, each maintaining their own individual project sheet.
• Each sheet contains a list of projects specific to that team.

The Goal:

1. Cross-team Dependencies: I want to add a dropdown column to each team's sheet that allows users to select a "Primary Project" from a different team's sheet if thier project is a dependency/support task for that primary project.
2. Consolidated Reporting: I want to create a single report that aggregates all these "supporting" projects into one master view to show how work is interconnected.

My Questions:

• What is the most efficient way to keep these dropdown lists updated as projects are added/removed across different sheets? (is there a way to automate this, or is manual maintenance required?)
• Are Data Shuttle or Dynamic View the right tools for this, or is there a simpler way to handle these cross-sheet dependencies?
• Are there any "gotchas" regarding report performance or lookup limitations I should be aware of when scaling this across many teams?

Any advice, templates, or architectural suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Note: I am on an enterprise plan with no additional premium features. So any solution must be manually programmed.

Creating a workaround of utilizing DataMesh to pull in multiple Project Plans into a combined sheet is tedious when I feel Timeline View should support displaying fields.

I was inspired by this Community post to formally request an enhancement.

Users can now choose to view their reports in timeline view. 

Please note:

1. Timeline reports will reflect the source sheet(s), columns, filters, and groupings applied to the rest of the report. To change any of these, simply switch the report back to grid view.
2. If you want to edit the Start Date or End Date used by the timeline report, you can configure these settings in the report’s Gantt view project settings menu (accessed by clicking the gear icon on the toolbar).
3. Unlike in grid and Gantt view reports, the “summarize” and “sort” options will not apply to timeline reports.

To use timeline reports, simply select “timeline” from the view switcher dropdown in the report toolbar. Learn More 

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Steps of build:

• Created a cloned environment for build and testing.
• Once build was complete, I Created as new to each of the live environments giving each sheet the same name and Templated environment added test data for portfolio roll-up to each sheet.
• Deleted the Test environment
• Created a new environment from the template to force the new sheet to show as an option when creating a portfolio report.
• Created a row report, Report Scope: Portfolio, checked my new sheet.
• The only sheet that shows is the new one created to force the connection.

Can anyone help me identify where I went wrong? I have followed these steps before, with one difference. I did not Create as New from a none portfolio workspace. But I don't know why that would be an issue. Is there a backdoor way to force the connection? I do not have access to a control center.

It would be nice if there was a connect button that would allow you to connect sheets across active Portfolio workspaces.

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Tamara

Any suggestions?

The workaround is tedious. I had to add a helper column to every single plan that links to the PM (Assignee) field from the Project Summary Sheet. Then I had to create a report that sorts by that new column and uses the "current user" filter. That then feeds the Dashboard. With a system this mature, the process should be more intuitive.

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

1. Marketing Program Portfolio (MPP) in which each row is a different program code.
2. Marketing Campaign Management (MCM) in which each row is a different campaign code.

A campaign can include one program or multiple programs. Each campaign has a status (e.g., Not Started, In Process, On Hold, At Risk, Completed, Canceled).

I set up a column in the MPP sheet with a cell reference formula that returns the campaign code(s) and an abbreviation of the status in MCM that pertains to the program code in the row.

EXAMPLE 1:

[Program Code] = "5004"

[Campaign Codes (Active)] = "0001 (NS)", meaning campaign code 0001 and "NS" referring to a "Not Started" status

EXAMPLE 2:

[Program Code] = "5010"

[Campaign Codes (Active)] = "0001 (IP), 0003 (AR)", meaning campaign code 0002 and "IP" referring to a "In Process" status and campaign code 0003 and "AR" referring to a "At Risk"

The MCM sheet is set up so each row is a campaign code, with a column for status, and a column that lists the program code(s) included in the campaign:

EXAMPLE 1:

[Campaign Code] = "0001"

[Program Code(s)] = "5004,5010"

[Status] = "In Process"

EXAMPLE 2:

[Campaign Code] = "0002"

[Program Code(s)] = "5008"

[Status] = "Completed"

EXAMPLE 3:

[Campaign Code] = "0003", current status is "At Risk"

[Program Code(s)] = "5010"

[Status] = "At Risk"

The Director of Marketing would ideally like a report, grouped by Program Code, that lists each campaign underneath, with the campaign status, owner, started date, etc.

I understand the relation between program codes and campaign codes/status is not set up in the sheet to accommodate this kind of report. I was thinking of two options:

1. Using hidden columns in MCM sheet to "parse" the campaign codes and statuses, and then somehow using these hidden columns in the report, since they are still in the row with the program code.
2. Create a new sheet that sets up the relationship better, with each row being a program code (even if there is more than one row for a program code) with the campaign code and status. However, I don't want to manually create this sheet, I wonder if there is a way to "dynamically" generate it with a formula that looks at the [Program Code] and [Campaign Codes (Active)] columns and adds this to separate rows in this sheet.

This new sheet would look something like this:

5004 0001 In Process Patty Smith 7/25/2026

5008 0002 Completed Hua Lin 7/1/2026

5010 0001 In Process Justin Owens 7/15/2026

5010 0003 At Risk John Doe 8/1/2026

I don't have any third-party tool or Bridge. This must be done completely just using Smartsheet.

Any suggestions on how to come up with a report that looks like this (grouped by Program Code, filtered if [Campaign Codes (Active)] is not blank, sorted chronologically and includes the campaign code, status, owner, and start date:

5004

— 0001 In Process Patty Smith 7/25/2026

5010

— 0001 In Process Justin Owens 7/15/2026

— 0003 At Risk John Doe 8/1/2026