Custom Project Report: Reference projects related through custom data

[LukaszMatyszewski]

It might be a long shot, but it's something I want to solve.

Our projects are product based. We create a project every time we develop new, manufacture or simply reorder one of our products. Each project product custom form includes product SKU reference which is a text field we maintain with through attention. In result we have a large product database where many projects are associated with each other by common custom data.

I wonder if it is possible to somehow list all related projects (e.g: reference numbers) based of common custom data either by custom field or column?

[RowvillBh1]

You could create a project report, add reference number and the other field you think may have common values in the projects. Then you can use groupings to group projects by that other field. Once you save the report, you will have a summary tab where projects with common values in this field will be clubbed together.

[Sven-iX]

@LukaszMatyszewski I'm not clear what this means: 

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list all related projects (e.g: reference numbers) based of common custom data either by custom field or column?

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As Rowvill says, a project report sorted and grouped by SKU gets you a list of projects related to each SKU. Or, you can add a report prompt where the user selects/enters the SKU and sees only the projects related to that SKU.

One note: If possible, I would avoid manually entering a SKU - if you have Fusion, you can create a datastore and use an eternal lookup. Otherwise, you can create eg a dummy program and add a dummy project for each SKU (where the name is the SKU) - then a user can search for it, and you avoid typos.

[LukaszMatyszewski]

I understand the limitations of grouping and its capabilities. While I'm not a big fan of it aside from its use in charts, I was hoping there might be a way to return its results into a field or column within a report.