Hi Kandis! Thank you for the excellent tutorial. If I want to add more categories than the three included, what sheets need to be adjusted/linked so the new categories are represented on the portfolio roundup?
Hi Kandis thank you for a great video on PMO template I have one question who can I add more columns with formulas portfolio metrics sheet, and is there any videos on the automation and notification on smartsheets
Hi Kandis, this is amazing and so easy to follow along but I am very frustrated with it comes to changing the date of the project. I can't find anywhere to change the project date from what was originally made in the template.
In my experience, importing a project plan into Smartsheet isn’t straightforward because it requires setting up the data in a new grid. This means that formatting from the original plan (like dependencies, start/end dates, or durations) may not transfer seamlessly. The most reliable way I’ve found is to use copy/paste from your existing project plan directly into the Smartsheet template, which I know isn’t ideal. This method ensures that essential details are retained, though it still may require some manual adjustments afterward to align everything correctly. Cheers!
Hi Kandis--I love your videos-thanks so much! I noticed since I'm running the free trail version of Smartsheet it would not allow me to copy the Form link to the Dashboard.
Hi Jack! The free version does limit Dashboard widgets to 10. Could you have already had 10 widgets on your Dashboard when trying to add the Form link? Would love to know if you were able to get it added. Hope your projects are great! The 'complete feature list' is a side-by-side comparison with the different plan and can be found at this link: www.smartsheet.com/pricing
24:55 I'm trying to find instructions on adding the logo to the PMO Template Portfolio dashboard - there is no option to upload from your computer . It says 'embed web content' but a standard URL link to the logo doesn't work in that widget. Searched everywhere and used A.I. but no success. A consultant I engaged couldn't figure it out either. Has anybody done this successfully. (I've been trying for a week)
Thank you so much for sharing these information! 🙂 I would badly need to have an overview of all employees and their assigned tasks for resources planning. This template would not offer something like this; am I right?
Hello Mark! It may be worth exploring creating a portfolio ‘report’ that includes tasks from all projects and is grouped by the ‘assigned to’ column and filters out anything that is marked 100% complete. You could include as many columns from the project plans that are desired for resource assignment. I have created similar reports for clients that have proven effective!
In the first video you mentioned we would worry about the yellow columns in the second video, but I am not finding that info in this one. Are you able to help identify how to update the information in the yellow columns? Specifically the target dates.
Hello Veronica! The target dates are updated once you customize the Project Level. We cover this in Part 3 of the video. Please let me know if it works for you. Here are the instructions, covered in Part 3. Thanks and best of luck! Customize Project Level: Modify the Project Plan Sheet Use the Project Plan sheet to track and maintain critical data about a project. Project sheets in Smartsheet have dependencies enabled and includes columns such as Duration, Predecessors, and % Complete. The project plan will automate your project timeline from the start date and will provide an estimated end date based on project tasks. It’s best to enable dependencies for projects with deadlines to ensure every milestone in your project is tracked, on time, and ultimately meets your deadline. A. In the Task Name column, name the project phases in the parent (gray) rows. B. Use the indented grandchild (white) rows in your hierarchy, to enter tasks in the Task Name column. C. Starting on row 3, enter dates in the Start Date and End Date, Target Start Date, and Target End Date columns. This template uses the difference between the Actual End date and the Target End date along with Duration to determine the health of the schedule. At the beginning of your project they should be the same for each row. D. The other data on your ancestor and parent rows, including Start Date, End Date, % Complete, and Duration are auto calculated by the tasks below the parent row. E. Attach documents or links to webpages to the row in the Attachment (paperclip icon) column to keep all of your project information and resources in one place. F. Track the progress of your project by viewing the interactive Gantt timeline to see which tasks are complete (green), which are late (red), which are in progress (blue), and which are on hold (orange). Conditional formatting rules apply formatting automatically to rows or cells based on the values they contain.
Great videos - I have a question - we want to move our projects under Project Management Office and the existing project plan sheets do not match the project plan template given when you create PMO. Do we have to recreate all our plans using this template to have it be in sync with reports and dashboard roll up? Can you help? Theresa
Hi Theresa! Congrats on wanting to move your projects into more of a PMO/PPM structure. It definitely take effort up front, although it will surely payoff! To use the ‘off the shelf’ PMO from Smartsheet, you would need it have your projects in the exact format to link everything together. Maybe you could explore creating a similar structure using your existing project plans and the off-the-shelf PMO templates as a guide? I know it may feel like a huge lift if you have to update all your projects. Cheers!
Hi @KandisPorter, what is you have more than 3 categories for your Project intake sheet? Only 3 of the 4 I set up are feeding into the Portfolio Metrics sheet.
Step 1: Go to the Project Intake Sheet - create your new Project Category(s) Step 2: Go to the Portfolio Metrics Sheet - right-click your last existing Project column at the top and select Insert Column to the Left Step 3: When the ‘New Column’ menu pops up, name the column your new Project Category (exactly how you entered it in Step 1) and select Text/Number column type. Step 4: In Row 1 of your new column enter the name of your new Project Category again (exactly how you entered in Step 1). Step 5: Select rows 2 - 15 in the existing project column then right-click and copy those cells. Step 6: Select Row 2 in your new column and select paste. The formulas should now work for your new column because the formula is constructed to pull the category type from the information in Row 1. Therefore, you don’t have to write out any new formula for each new category, just make sure the column and Row 1 are labeled correctly.
I'm really struggling to understand the 'Project Category' column of the 'Project Intake Sheet'. Frankly, I don't know what I should call the categories because department names as suggested in the video doesn't make sense in my instance. Will these categories impact the project/portfolio dashboard in some way? Perhaps, if I understood the impact on the dashboard or impact elsewhere, then maybe I could determine what categories I should use...can anybody help?
Hi... by mistake I deleted the Project Medata Data (I mean some columns in yellow) is it feasible to refresh or correct it? Currently the link just retrieve empty fields.
If your plan has access to the Activity Log in a sheet, you can find a specific change that happened in the sheet and download a Snapshot from this point in time. It won't change your current Smartsheet sheet, but the owner of the sheet will receive an Excel file emailed to them with the contents of the sheet from that point in time. Please see this article for more information: Track the History of Changes…help.smartsheet.com/articles/2476206-track-sheet-changes-with-activity-log?_ga=2.238138176.1357685741.1677793888-646113980.1677216140&_gl=1*bhuqby*_ga*NjQ2MTEzOTgwLjE2NzcyMTYxNDA.*_ga_ZYH7XNXMZK*MTY3Nzc5Mzg4OC4yLjEuMTY3Nzc5NDA5MS42MC4wLjA.#toc-request-a-snapshot-of-the-sheet
Hi Michelle! As much as I would like to recommend importing from Excel into a project plan in Smartsheet, I haven’t found it very useful. I find a targeted copy/paste to be easier. Otherwise, I spend more time cleaning it up. Please advise if I didn’t directly answer your question...I’d just need a bit more context, to provide further recommendations. Cheers!
I have more than 3 designated 'Project Categories,' I added the additional columns to the portfolio metrics but it's only counting first 3-any suggestion on how to adjust?
You can't copy columns. The portfolio metrics sheet has formulas in the cells. You have to copy a formula, paste into the cell in the new column in the corresponding row, and change the column name in the formula to the new column name. It's a bit laborious. Hope that was helpful.
Hi, I deleted what looked like a redundant header in my project intake sheet. Now I am getting #REF errors when I copy/paste my project ID to the Project Level Metadata sheet. It is saying the issue is a the "Portfolio Summary Header Row" is broken. Please help!!
Oh my gosh another excellent video. You are so good at explaining things in an easy to follow manner.
Hi Kandis! Thank you for the excellent tutorial. If I want to add more categories than the three included, what sheets need to be adjusted/linked so the new categories are represented on the portfolio roundup?
Another great tutorial. On to Part 3
Thanks again!
Hi Kandis thank you for a great video on PMO template I have one question who can I add more columns with formulas portfolio metrics sheet, and is there any videos on the automation and notification on smartsheets
Thanks again! I'm just catching up! amazing vids!
Thanks for watching, @kashmoney1! 👍🏻
Hi Kandis, this is amazing and so easy to follow along but I am very frustrated with it comes to changing the date of the project. I can't find anywhere to change the project date from what was originally made in the template.
Hello, thanks for the tutorial! Question --- Is it possible to import existing project plans ?
In my experience, importing a project plan into Smartsheet isn’t straightforward because it requires setting up the data in a new grid. This means that formatting from the original plan (like dependencies, start/end dates, or durations) may not transfer seamlessly. The most reliable way I’ve found is to use copy/paste from your existing project plan directly into the Smartsheet template, which I know isn’t ideal. This method ensures that essential details are retained, though it still may require some manual adjustments afterward to align everything correctly. Cheers!
Hi Kandis--I love your videos-thanks so much! I noticed since I'm running the free trail version of Smartsheet it would not allow me to copy the Form link to the Dashboard.
Hi Jack! The free version does limit Dashboard widgets to 10. Could you have already had 10 widgets on your Dashboard when trying to add the Form link? Would love to know if you were able to get it added. Hope your projects are great! The 'complete feature list' is a side-by-side comparison with the different plan and can be found at this link: www.smartsheet.com/pricing
24:55 I'm trying to find instructions on adding the logo to the PMO Template Portfolio dashboard - there is no option to upload from your computer . It says 'embed web content' but a standard URL link to the logo doesn't work in that widget. Searched everywhere and used A.I. but no success. A consultant I engaged couldn't figure it out either. Has anybody done this successfully. (I've been trying for a week)
Thank you so much for sharing these information! 🙂 I would badly need to have an overview of all employees and their assigned tasks for resources planning. This template would not offer something like this; am I right?
Hello Mark! It may be worth exploring creating a portfolio ‘report’ that includes tasks from all projects and is grouped by the ‘assigned to’ column and filters out anything that is marked 100% complete. You could include as many columns from the project plans that are desired for resource assignment. I have created similar reports for clients that have proven effective!
In the first video you mentioned we would worry about the yellow columns in the second video, but I am not finding that info in this one. Are you able to help identify how to update the information in the yellow columns? Specifically the target dates.
Hello Veronica! The target dates are updated once you customize the Project Level. We cover this in Part 3 of the video. Please let me know if it works for you. Here are the instructions, covered in Part 3. Thanks and best of luck!
Customize Project Level: Modify the Project Plan Sheet
Use the Project Plan sheet to track and maintain critical data about a project. Project sheets in Smartsheet have dependencies enabled and includes columns such as Duration, Predecessors, and % Complete. The project plan will automate your project timeline from the start date and will provide an estimated end date based on project tasks. It’s best to enable dependencies for projects with deadlines to ensure every milestone in your project is tracked, on time, and ultimately meets your deadline.
A. In the Task Name column, name the project phases in the parent (gray) rows.
B. Use the indented grandchild (white) rows in your hierarchy, to enter tasks in the Task Name column.
C. Starting on row 3, enter dates in the Start Date and End Date, Target Start Date, and Target End Date columns. This template uses the difference between the Actual End date and the Target End date along with Duration to determine the health of the schedule. At the beginning of your project they should be the same for each row.
D. The other data on your ancestor and parent rows, including Start Date, End Date, % Complete, and Duration are auto calculated by the tasks below the parent row.
E. Attach documents or links to webpages to the row in the Attachment (paperclip icon) column to keep all of your project information and resources in one place.
F. Track the progress of your project by viewing the interactive Gantt timeline to see which tasks are complete (green), which are late (red), which are in progress (blue), and which are on hold (orange). Conditional formatting rules apply formatting automatically to rows or cells based on the values they contain.
Great videos - I have a question - we want to move our projects under Project Management Office and the existing project plan sheets do not match the project plan template given when you create PMO. Do we have to recreate all our plans using this template to have it be in sync with reports and dashboard roll up? Can you help? Theresa
Hi Theresa! Congrats on wanting to move your projects into more of a PMO/PPM structure. It definitely take effort up front, although it will surely payoff!
To use the ‘off the shelf’ PMO from Smartsheet, you would need it have your projects in the exact format to link everything together. Maybe you could explore creating a similar structure using your existing project plans and the off-the-shelf PMO templates as a guide? I know it may feel like a huge lift if you have to update all your projects. Cheers!
@@PMPexpert Thank you, Kandis!
Hi @KandisPorter, what is you have more than 3 categories for your Project intake sheet? Only 3 of the 4 I set up are feeding into the Portfolio Metrics sheet.
Step 1: Go to the Project Intake Sheet - create your new Project Category(s)
Step 2: Go to the Portfolio Metrics Sheet - right-click your last existing Project column at the top and select Insert Column to the Left
Step 3: When the ‘New Column’ menu pops up, name the column your new Project Category (exactly how you entered it in Step 1) and select Text/Number column type.
Step 4: In Row 1 of your new column enter the name of your new Project Category again (exactly how you entered in Step 1).
Step 5: Select rows 2 - 15 in the existing project column then right-click and copy those cells.
Step 6: Select Row 2 in your new column and select paste.
The formulas should now work for your new column because the formula is constructed to pull the category type from the information in Row 1. Therefore, you don’t have to write out any new formula for each new category, just make sure the column and Row 1 are labeled correctly.
I'm really struggling to understand the 'Project Category' column of the 'Project Intake Sheet'. Frankly, I don't know what I should call the categories because department names as suggested in the video doesn't make sense in my instance. Will these categories impact the project/portfolio dashboard in some way? Perhaps, if I understood the impact on the dashboard or impact elsewhere, then maybe I could determine what categories I should use...can anybody help?
Hi... by mistake I deleted the Project Medata Data (I mean some columns in yellow) is it feasible to refresh or correct it? Currently the link just retrieve empty fields.
If your plan has access to the Activity Log in a sheet, you can find a specific change that happened in the sheet and download a Snapshot from this point in time. It won't change your current Smartsheet sheet, but the owner of the sheet will receive an Excel file emailed to them with the contents of the sheet from that point in time.
Please see this article for more information: Track the History of Changes…help.smartsheet.com/articles/2476206-track-sheet-changes-with-activity-log?_ga=2.238138176.1357685741.1677793888-646113980.1677216140&_gl=1*bhuqby*_ga*NjQ2MTEzOTgwLjE2NzcyMTYxNDA.*_ga_ZYH7XNXMZK*MTY3Nzc5Mzg4OC4yLjEuMTY3Nzc5NDA5MS42MC4wLjA.#toc-request-a-snapshot-of-the-sheet
Is there a way to import from an excel sheet into your Project Intake Sheet?
Hi Michelle! As much as I would like to recommend importing from Excel into a project plan in Smartsheet, I haven’t found it very useful. I find a targeted copy/paste to be easier. Otherwise, I spend more time cleaning it up. Please advise if I didn’t directly answer your question...I’d just need a bit more context, to provide further recommendations. Cheers!
I have more than 3 designated 'Project Categories,' I added the additional columns to the portfolio metrics but it's only counting first 3-any suggestion on how to adjust?
You can't copy columns. The portfolio metrics sheet has formulas in the cells. You have to copy a formula, paste into the cell in the new column in the corresponding row, and change the column name in the formula to the new column name. It's a bit laborious. Hope that was helpful.
@@dankirk6096 how do you do that?
Hi, I deleted what looked like a redundant header in my project intake sheet. Now I am getting #REF errors when I copy/paste my project ID to the Project Level Metadata sheet. It is saying the issue is a the "Portfolio Summary Header Row" is broken. Please help!!
Hi Vanessa! Do you recall the name of the header? And did you delete a full column?