The Cost Tracking template set allows you to track and manage incoming requests for business reimbursements so that you can stay organized, even when faced with unexpected expenditures.
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Plan Requirements: This template set has been designed to utilize the full suite of functionality available in Smartsheet. If you are on a limited plan you can still use the template set however not all premium functionality will be available. Click here to see a list of discontinued plans and identify your plan and user type here.
Capabilities, Benefits, and Overview
Use this template set for:
- Use a single form to track all incoming expenses and reimbursement requests
- Automatically notify the appropriate department head when a submitted request requires approval
- Reimbursement request dashboard visualizes expenditure data by cost category and department
Read on for a step by step guide on how to get started, and navigate to the Learning Center if you have questions along the way!
How Does It Work?
What's Included?
Setup & Customize
1. Create a New Workspace
A. Open Browse. From the browse tab, hover over Workspaces with your cursor, right click, and press Create New Workspace. In the menu that appears, name your Workspace and press OK.
B. Select the template set folder in your Sheets folder. Drag and drop the folder in to the workspace you just created.
Note: Using a workspace is a best practice when building a collaborative process. Workspaces allow you to centralize your work and control sharing with different stakeholders.
2. Assign a Primary Contact to Each Department
In this template set, incoming reimbursement requests are routed to the appropriate Department Head for approval. In order to ensure that requests are appropriately managed, the first thing to do is to ensure that someone on your team is accountable to each sector.
A. From your workspace, click Department Head Contact List.
B. Assign each row in the department column to someone who will be accountable for overseeing requests from that sector. It’s important that there is an email address associated with the contact you choose.
C. Click save when you’re done. We’ll use this information to trigger automated emails when submissions are received (Step 5).
Note: If you change, add, or remove any of the cells on this sheet, you must make the identical changes in the Department column of the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet and in the Cost Metrics (Do Not Edit) sheet. (More information on that in Step 3, below).
Learn More: Assign People to a Task
3. Ensure that Department, Cost Category, and Vendor (if applicable) are Accurate
There are certain fields that you may want to customize in this template set. To ensure that the metrics shown on the dashboard (Step Seven) are accurate, there are several steps to follow to ensure you don’t break the way information is pulled.
A. Navigate to the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet.
B. Double click the “Department” column. In the window that appears, you can see the list of default departments we’ve included in this template set. You’re welcome to add or remove departments, but please make note of your changes on a separate piece of paper (which you’ll reference shortly).
C. Double click the “Cost Category” column. In the window that appears, you can see the list of default cost categories we’ve included in this template set. You’re welcome to add or remove departments, but please make note of your changes on a separate piece of paper (which you’ll reference shortly).
D. Double click the “Vendor (if applicable)” column. In the window that appears, you can see the list of default vendors we’ve included in this template set. If you work with vendors, replace these generic vendor names with the correct ones. Please make note of your changes on a separate piece of paper (which you’ll reference shortly).
E. Now that you have all changes listed on a piece of paper, you must be sure to replicate those changes (verbatim) in the Cost Metrics (Do Not Edit) sheet, found in the Reports folder.
F. As a reminder, you should have already reflected any changes you made (verbatim) to the Department column to the Department Head Contact List sheet.
4. Build the “Cost Tracking” Form
The Cost Tracking form allows you to gather information from across your organization about what costs are being incurred. With these in one place, it’s much easier to manage costs and submit costs for government reimbursement.
A. To find the form from your workspace, click the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet. This will take you to a blank sheet with various column headers. When people fill out the Cost Tracking form, this is where all the information will be tracked.
B. Once you’re in this sheet, click Forms >> Manage Forms on the top left panel. You’ll see the existing form built to populate this sheet. Click the tile to see what this form looks like as it's currently built.
C. To edit the form, simply click the section of the form you want to change. You can make your changes on the right-hand side of the screen. The changes will be reflected in the preview.
D. Column headers on the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet that are not a part of your form (meaning they don’t require the submitter to fill out) are listed on the left side of your screen.
E. The Cost Category field uses Smartsheet Conditional Logic. This means that the fields that appear to the submitter will change based on how he/she fills out this field. If the submitter responds that their cost category was “Personnel” or "contracted services" additional fields will appear that are related to additional headcount.
F. If you’d like to add additional fields to your form, you must exit the form builder and add a new column to your sheet. To do this, right click on any column header and then click Insert Column Left or Insert Column Right.
G. Once you’ve added your new column header, navigate back to the form builder (Forms >> Manage Forms). On the left side of the form builder, under the Fields header, you’ll see the new column you just added. Click and drag that field into the form preview in the middle, positioned where you want it within the form itself.
H. When you’re ready, be sure to click the Save button on the top right.
5. Understand the Cost Tracking - Submitted Sheet
As noted in Step Two, this sheet is what houses the information submitted to your form. You’ll notice that the Cost Tracking - Submitted sheet is divided into several color blocks. These don’t have a purpose other than to help you categorize information:
The purple sections are related to department requesting the cost; the blue sections are related to description of the cost and cost category; and the brown section reflects the hours and cost totals.
The top two rows include cells that say "Do Not Delete." This is because Smartsheet requires at least two rows of data if those rows include formulas that will applied throughout the sheet. You can leave these rows as-is. Or you can delete them, but ONLY AFTER you've received two form submissions that populate two additional rows on the sheet.
Learn More: Formula Basics
6. Understand Automated Workflows
A key functionality of Smartsheet is the ability to set up automated workflows triggered by incoming data. In this template set, we’ve preconfigured several automated workflows that will notify the appropriate department head of incoming requests as well as organize these requests into three separate sheets, depending on whether they’re submitted (i.e. in progress), approved, and declined.
As noted in Step One, the appropriate department head will only be notified if you fill out the Department Head Contact List sheet.
A. To review the approval request messaging, click Automation >> Manage Workflows. To the right of the workflow titled Approval Request – New Expense Submitted, you’ll see a small gray down arrow. Click the arrow and click Edit.
B. You’ll see that a notification workflow has been created to notify the Department Head, and then to the submitter of the request depending on whether the request has been approved or declined. Click the copy to make any edits. Then click Save.
C. To ensure that the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet stays manageable, this template set utilizes Smartsheet's 'Move Row' automation to automatically move a submitted request to an Approved or Declined sheet once the department head has taken action. If you ever need to revisit a request, you’ll be able to find it in one of these sheets. Both sheets are visible from the workspace.
7. Train your Department Heads on How to Manage Incoming Inquiries
To ensure each request receives a response, it’ll be important to train your Department Heads on how to approve or decline a request upon submission.
A. First, be sure to give all your Department Heads "Editor" access to the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet. Do this by clicking the Share button on the top right of your sheet.
B. Once the request is submitted, the appropriate manager will receive an automated email (Step 5). This email will include a "View Request" button, pictured to the right, that makes it easy to approve or decline the request without going into Smartsheet. This will be reflected in the sheet.
Learn more: Workspace Sharing
8. Set up the Tracking Dashboard
The Costs Tracking Dashboard is a one-stop-shop for leadership to quickly monitor the number and amount of incoming reimbursement requests. Below we review what each section of the dashboard represents. You’ll note that the dashboard is currently reflecting dummy data to help illustrate how each section works.
A. To make any changes, you'll first need to click the Edit button on the top left.
B. Use this section to insert the logo of your organization.
C. The Key Metrics section shows real-time information regarding how many of your incoming inquiries have been addressed by your team, and the dollar amounts associated with those requests. This metric, as well as all the charts displayed throughout the dashboard, is pulled from the Cost Metrics (Do Not Edit) sheet within your workspace. More information on these formulas in Step Seven.
D. Helpful Links provides a few shortcuts to resources you’ll likely reference regularly, including the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet as well as the Smartsheet Learning Center.
9. Understanding Reports >> Cost Metrics (Do Not Edit)
The content of the Cost Metrics (Do Not Edit) sheet, found in the Reports folder, sheet is what powers the Tracking Dashboard, explained above. As the name suggests, please do not edit this sheet, as it has the potential to break the formulas used throughout this template set. The only caveat to that rule is if you’ve added/removed departments, vendors, or cost categories in the Cost Tracking – Submitted sheet (Step 3).
This sheet pulls information from across the workspace about the reimbursement requests being submitted. If you hover over any of the cells, you’ll see that the number in that cell is the result of various Smartsheet functions including Cell Linking and formulas. Click the links below to learn more about what those mean.
Learn more: Cell linking, Formulas
10. Share Your New Solution
Sharing is the best way to collaborate with others involved in your projects. You can share your entire workspace with members of your department, or share individual items within the workspace.
Learn more: Workspace Sharing
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Helpful Resources
We have lots of resources to help you get started and become even more productive in Smartsheet. We also love hearing from our customers, please use the form at the bottom to submit feedback about this template set!
Last Updated: 06/2/21
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