Tips from Support: Using Column Symbols

Last week, we gave some advice about how to use one of our newest features, secure sheet links.  This week, we’ve got plenty of ideas for how to use one of our most commonly used features: Column Symbols.

Column Symbols are a powerful way to quickly surface important information about the work you’re tracking in your sheets, and visually indicate something about it for yourself and others.  Depending on the work your teams are tracking in Smartsheet, Column Symbols can be pretty straightforward, or as creative as you’d like.  

To add this type of column into your sheet, click the drop-down arrow underneath any column header and select ‘Insert 1 Right’ or ‘Insert 1 Left’ to determine the placement of the column.  Click ‘Symbols’ under the column type options to see all of the available symbols: red-yellow-green lights, Harvey balls, priority, star, and flag.

While the possibilities for using these symbols are endless, we want to help get your wheels turning.  So, we’ve put together a list of some common use cases we hear from customers about how they are using Column Symbols to organize their work.

Red-Yellow-Green (RYG) Lights are great for displaying:

• Task progress Use RYG lights to quickly update your team as you move tasks towards completion.  Red = not started, Yellow = in progress, and Green = completed.
• Priority of a task  Red = Low, Yellow = Medium, and Green = High (or the other way around, whichever makes sense in the context of your team and workflow). 
• Tracking goals Are your sales goals “on track” for the month?  RYG lights make it easy to quickly check-in.  Red = overdue, Yellow = at risk, and Green = on track.  Want to see it in action?  Our Simple Sales Pipeline template is built with these Column Symbols.
• Stock items Looking for an extra tool to track inventory?  RYG lights are a handy tool.  Red = out of stock, Yellow = order more, and Green = available.
• Unique legends Setup your own legend for RYG lights.  For example, Red = Client A, Yellow = Client B, and Green = Client C.

Try these approaches to utilizing Harvey Balls:

• Task progress  Similar to RYG lights, Harvey Balls are great for tracking task progress with a quick, easy to check visual status symbol.  For example, Harvey Balls can be helpful with articles in an editorial calendar: Empty = not started, One Quarter = drafting, Half = inreview, Three Quarters = approved, and Full = published.  Harvey Balls are also helpful for tracking task progress in event planning – to see this concept in action, try out our Event Plan and Budget template.
• Show % complete value Quickly share how close you are to completing a part of the project.  Empty = not started, One Quarter = 25% complete, Half = 50% complete, Three Quarters = 75% complete, Full = completed. Our post about building a nested IF statement has some tips for automating Harvey Balls in your sheets.
• Display time of day Use Harvey Balls to indicate the time of day a task is due.  For example Empty = due by noon, One Quarter = due by three, Half = due by six, Three Quarters = due by nine, and Full = due by midnight.
• Indicate meeting length When you’re using Smartsheet to track your meeting schedule, Harvey Balls are handy for quickly letting everyone know how long each agenda item may be.  Empty = informal check-in, One Quarter = 15 minutes, Half = 30 minutes, Three Quarters = 45 minutes, and Full = 60 minutes.

Stars can be useful for:

• Team leads In a project list, use stars to indicate the person in charge of a team or project.
• Primary contacts  Within contact lists, use stars to indicate primary contacts.
• Identifying top performers Stars can be a great way to boost morale – they’re gold for a reason!  Use them to identify your top sales rep for the month.
• Approval  “The gold star of approval” can make it’s way into your sheets – use stars to indicate a task or an item that has received the go-ahead from management.
• Organizing RSVPs Use stars to help organize the event planning process – you can use them to indicate when an attendee’s event payment has cleared or if the attendee has been approved.
• Invoice status Tracking all of your invoices in Smartsheet?  Use stars to denote when a customer has paid their invoice.

Flags can be used to quickly draw attention to:

• At risk tasks  Flag problem tasks, or issues that are significantly at risk of falling short ofgoals or expectations.
• Unapproved items Use flags to denote an item that has been “disapproved” by management.
• Failing machinery Smartsheet can be handy for keeping track of company inventory.  In an inventory list like this, flags are helpful for denoting if machinery is failing and needs attention.
• Overdue customer invoices 

Some other ideas for Flags or Stars:

• Item has been reviewed
• Task has been assigned
• Client has been contacted

The Priority column symbols, a red exclamation point and a blue downward facing arrow, are most commonly used to denote a task as “high” or “low” priority.  

If you need to leave a note for your team to kick-start a new system with visual column icons, leave notes for them either in a Discussion or as a comment in a text/number column.

Are you using any of these visual symbols in a different way?  Share your ideas with us here!

Til next week, dig in and explore!

- Support Team