How to Send a Row Update Request in Smartsheet

Opening a row's own menu and choosing Request Update sends a scoped request to a specific person asking them to fill in or confirm data on that one particular row, without granting them broader access to view or edit the rest of the sheet — one of Smartsheet's more distinctly project-management-oriented features, with no real equivalent in a plain spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets. **What the recipient actually sees**: rather than being given full sheet access, the recipient receives a focused, scoped-down view or form containing only the specific row (and typically only the specific columns you choose to include) that needs their input — they fill in or confirm that data and submit it back, without ever seeing the sheet's other rows, other project data, or broader structure at all. **Why this matters for external collaboration**: many project sheets need input from people who genuinely shouldn't have full editing access to the entire tracker — an external vendor confirming a delivery date, a client approving a specific deliverable, a stakeholder outside the core team providing a status update on just their own piece of the work. Request Update solves this specific access-control problem directly, rather than requiring a broader (and less appropriate) full-sheet sharing decision just to collect one piece of scoped information. **Choosing which columns the recipient sees and can edit**: when setting up a row update request, you typically choose specifically which columns to include in what the recipient sees, and which of those they can actually edit versus only view — letting you show relevant context (like the task's due date or description) as read-only reference while restricting actual editing to just the specific field you need them to fill in or confirm, like a status or completion checkbox. **What happens once the recipient responds**: their submitted update populates directly back into the corresponding cells on the actual sheet, visible to everyone with normal sheet access, without the recipient needing any ongoing account or access to Smartsheet itself beyond completing that one specific request. **Scheduling recurring update requests**: for a row that needs periodic check-ins (a weekly status update from a specific team member, for instance), Smartsheet supports configuring a recurring schedule for the same update request rather than needing to manually trigger a fresh request each time the same information is needed again. **Related to automated workflows**: this manual, per-row Request Update action is worth distinguishing from an automated workflow rule (covered on the formulas-editing category page) that might also send notifications — Request Update is a deliberate, one-off (or manually scheduled recurring) action targeting a specific row and person, while automation rules are condition-triggered and apply based on data changes across the sheet more broadly, without needing you to manually select a specific row and trigger the request yourself each time. **Mistake to avoid**: requesting an update without carefully considering which columns to expose can inadvertently show an external recipient more of the row's context than intended — reviewing exactly which columns are included in the request before sending it is worth the extra moment, particularly for a row that might contain internal notes or figures not meant for an external vendor or client's eyes. **Related shortcuts**: Attach File (covered on the row-management category page) pairs naturally with update requests — a recipient responding to a request can often attach supporting documentation (a signed approval, a delivery confirmation) directly as part of their scoped response, keeping that evidence tied to the exact row it relates to from the moment it's provided.