Business Process
Automation Consultants
Smarter Row Copy
Control your data with Smarter Row Copy
No more muddling through with indiscriminate copying of unnecessary data – or even worse: manual copying!
Smarter Row Copy allows you to control which data you copy between sheets and when. Copy specified cells from one sheet to another, either to a new row on the destination sheet or to update one or more existing rows.
You can choose which columns on your source sheet to monitor for changes in order to trigger a copy. You can also use changes within the destination sheet to trigger an update if you want. You can even choose to copy attachments from the source to the destination.
With full transparency showing which rules have triggered and when, Smarter Row Copy gives you the ability to own the flow of data between your Smartsheets.
Doesn’t Smartsheet have a row copy automation already?
Yes, Smartsheet has an automation that can allow you to copy rows. However, this automation has limitations. You can only copy the entire row from the source to the destination, meaning that Smartsheet will create columns on your destination sheet if they don’t currently exist. Also, you cannot get Smartsheet’s copy row automation to overwrite specific data on an existing row on a destination sheet. Plus, with Smartsheet’s copy row automation, you cannot choose to copy attachments or embedded images. Smarter Row Copy does all these things, so if you want a more targeted approach, Smarter Row Copy is for you.
Product Comparison Table
Smarter Row Copy Lite vs Advanced
| Smarter Row Copy Features | Lite | Advanced |
| Copy partial rows i.e. copy a row to a new destination without the requirement to have ALL the columns in the destination | YES | YES |
| Use a checkbox trigger on the source sheet to activate the copy | YES | YES |
| Use a copy new rows trigger from the admin sheet to activate the copy | YES | YES |
| Update a complete column and last run status on the admin sheet to monitor progress | YES | YES |
| Update existing rows (either all or selected columns rather than whole row) | Source to Destination only | Two way sync for updating |
| Allow multiple triggers to activate the copy i.e. set the admin sheet to watch multiple columns, updated via logic to activate the process | – | YES |
| Include row attachments when copying the row | – | YES |
| Automatically update sheet names in the admin sheet. i.e. if a sheet name changes, the new name is automatically propagated to the admin sheet | – | YES |
| Do not overwrite – a setting that will update only blank cells in the destination sheet. Existing data will be preserved | – | YES |
| New line if no match – a setting that will create a new row in the destination sheet on an update row trigger if a matching row is not found | – | YES |
What about DataMesh?
Smartsheet’s premium app DataMesh is an excellent tool for controlling data flow within your Smartsheet environment. However, Smarter Row Copy has all the main functionality of DataMesh, plus the ability to copy attachments and embedded images between sheets. It is also significantly cheaper than DataMesh.
What can you do with Smarter Row Copy
1. Smarter Row Copy can
- Copy specified columns between a source and destination sheet
- Decide to create new rows on the destination sheet or update existing rows
- Define whether to create a new row on the destination sheet if there is no destination row to update
- Define whether to update destination cells if they already contain data
2. Smarter Row Copy can
- Copy images that are embedded in Smartsheet cells
- Copy attachments from source to destination
- Copy data when the source and destination columns have different column types
- Keep track of all copy events
- Daisychain several copy rules, one after the other
3. Smarter Row Copy can
- Trigger based on a checkbox, and have the checkbox unchecked afterwards, if you want
- Trigger either from changes within the source sheet or the destination sheet if required
- Trigger even when a cell link or a cross-sheet formula changes a specified column
USE CASE
Smarter Row Copy is used by clients to copy relevant data from project sheets to quote, invoice or purchase order sheets.
The New Line If No Match feature can be used to create a new row in the target sheet when one does not exist. Subsequent edits to the source row then result in updates to the newly-created row on the target sheet.
USE CASE
Smarter Row Copy is used by a client to copy relevant rows of data from a range of feeder sheets into a central sheet, triggering when the data in any of three specified columns changes.
All attachments on the source row are copied to the destination row, along with some embedded images.
USE CASE
Smarter Row Copy is used by a client to ensure that certain cells within a set of sheets are kept in sync with a master sheet.
If the data in these cells is changed by a user, a target sheet triggered update occurs from the master sheet to overwrite the values within the cells to ensure that they are correct, whilst retaining any other changes on the sheet.