Smartsheet Control Center: Define and track your project with project profile data

Use project profile data to do the following:

• Define the project with values such as Project Name, Description, Owner, Budget, Due Date
• Create status tracking metrics or KPIs with values such as % Complete, Forecast End Date, Project Health 

How to structure project profile data

• Be specific and consistent when you name profile data elements.
• A profile data element must appear in at least one sheet in the blueprint, but it can appear in multiple sheets.
• Profile data is organized under a top-level row (ideally the first row in the sheet) with the word Summary in the Primary column.
• Each profile data element is on a separate row indented under the Summary row.
• Rows indented more than one level aren't recognized as profile data.

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• The names of the profile data are in the Primary column and indicate the type of data.
• The value of the profile data is in the column to the right of the name.

You can customize where the value of the profile data appears. By default, it appears in the column to the right of the name under a Text/Number column. However, when creating the blueprint, under the Customize Profile Data > Show advanced toggle, you can select a specific target column for your value.

Additional columns may contain one of the following:

• Data entered directly in the cell: You may enter data when you create or edit a project or when a collaborator updates it after you’ve created a project.
• Inbound cell link: The value is pulled from a cell on another sheet in the project folder or from the intake sheet (if the blueprint is configured for this).
• Formula: A formula uses data in the sheet or across multiple sheets to calculate the value.

Avoid using column formulas as profile data columns.

You can customize how columns appear ordered in the Customize Profile Data page of the blueprint builder. Select and drag a column row to set its new order.

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Profile data summary guidelines and best practices

If you’re wondering whether you should include an element in a profile data summary, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Does the element provide useful context?
  When collaborators are working on multiple projects, a distinctive Project Name or Description can help differentiate each sheet.
• Is the element used to calculate a formula elsewhere in the sheet?
  For example, you might track the remaining budget for a project using the budget provided in the Summary section.
• Does the element provide high-level insight into the state of the project?
  Project Health and Forecasted End Date can show your status at a glance. 

Best practices

• Be specific and consistent when you name profile data elements.
• Lock any profile data rows that no one should update. For example, lock inbound cell links or formulas.

Only the sheet Owner and people shared with Admin-level permissions can lock and unlock rows.

• Because profile data may appear in multiple sheets, changing one sheet doesn't guarantee changes in other sheets. Set up one location where collaborators can update information and have the profile data reference it using a formula or cell link. For example, use the intake sheet as the source of truth for profile data.

If you want others to provide information on an intake sheet, generate a report and share it with the users instead of sharing it directly. This way, the data syncs back to the sheet. If you use a column formula or cell formula instead, it might break the solution if it's a profile data field mapped in Control Center or used for the Resource Management Integration. If the column isn’t used for profile data, you can use a column or cell formula.

• Provide a place outside the Summary section for updates, such as project status verbiage or RYG project health status, and use a formula in the profile data to reference it.

Manage profile data

Profile data fields must be present in source template sheets to appear in a project.

If the value is filled in when the project is created, it's identified as Intake profile data in the blueprint builder.

The intake profile data is configured with rules on where the data comes from, either manually entered by the Project Creator in the Create Project wizard or automatically filled in with data or a cell link from an intake sheet.

Enter placeholder data in the Intake profile data values, such as <<$100>>, so you can easily identify errors.

Update profile data

To update the intake profile data for a single project:

1. Open the intake and summary sheets connected to the project and update the Summary section.
2. In Control Center, open the program that contains the corresponding blueprint.
3. Open the blueprint and navigate to Customize Profile Data to update the fields.
4. In Control Center, find the project you want to update and select the pencil icon.
5. Select Edit Project Information at the bottom of the screen.
6. Complete your updates and select Update.
7. Find the project again and select the pencil icon.
8. Select Update Reporting at the bottom of the screen and wait for the system to update.

You must edit fields that are unavailable (greyed out) directly on the intake sheet. Editing the Project Name only changes the value in the profile data and doesn’t change the names of associated sheets, reports, or dashboards.

Add profile data fields

You can add profile data fields to source template sheets, change row order, and apply formatting.

If the new data fields are Intake profile data or are linked to a summary sheet, you must also update the associated blueprint.

When you add profile data in the blueprint builder, it appears in your sheets at the end of the Summary section. When you update the source template through the blueprint builder, only new projects have the additional profile data and current projects don't change.

To add new profile data to current projects, not just new projects, see Global Updates: Add profile data.