Explore More Ways to Use Smartsheet
Introducing your team to a new tool can be daunting. You don’t know how long it will take for your colleagues to learn it, you may be hesitant to migrate a complex, important process, or you don’t know how the new tool will fit into your other workflows.
With Smartsheet, it isn’t daunting at all. From a dedicated, knowledgeable support team to free training webinars to a user-powered community forum, we ensure your team can adopt Smartsheet quickly, use it on any important process or project without worry, and fit it right into your existing workflows.
And to show you how easy it is to get your team up and running with Smartsheet, we’ve put together a simple five-day crash course. Each day you and your colleagues will complete one task in Smartsheet and after just one work week, you’ll see an increase in productivity, collaboration, and communication.
Here are five simple steps to get started in Smartsheet:
Day 1: Recreate Your To-Do List in Smartsheet
A to-do list should make your life easier, not harder. But, if you’re tracking tasks in various places or sticking Post-it notes all over your desk, you’ll spend more time finding and organizing your to-dos than actually completing them.
For your first task in our five-day crash course, move your to-do list to Smartsheet. You can set due dates and automatic reminders, and experience the joy of clicking the “Done” check-box when you’re done with a task.
Here’s how to recreate your to-do list in Smartsheet:
- Go to Smartsheet.com and login to your account.
- Click the blue Create New button and select Task List. You’ll see a blank template with the column names already populated.
- Itemize your current to-do list and type each task under the Task Name column.
- Enter due dates and comments if appropriate.
- If you’re delegating tasks, enter the name of the person the task is assigned to in the Assigned To column.
- You can always add, delete or rename columns.
Bonus features:
- Set reminders for important tasks to receive automatic emails so you don’t forget a thing.
- Attach drafts to corresponding tasks to track progress and status.
- Switch to calendar view and see your due dates on a calendar.
Day 2: Make a Centralized Team Contact List
What do you do if you’re at an off-site event and something goes wrong? Or, you’re running late to a client meeting? Who do you call and do you even have your colleague’s contact information?
Instead of wasting valuable time searching your inbox for a phone number, create a sheet with everyone’s name, title, department, and phone number, and share it with the whole company. Anyone can access this list at any time, at the office or on the go.
Create an always up-to-date team contact list:
- In Smartsheet, click Home, Create New > Blank Sheet.
- Rename the columns to show Contact Name, Title, Department, Desk Phone, Mobile Phone, Email, Birthday and Reports To.
- Share the sheet with your team or company, or publish the sheet to an internal website, like an intranet, wiki, or Google Site.
- Bookmark it to your smartphone so it’s always just one click away.
Bonus features:
- Control who can view, access, and edit the contact list (we recommend making the sheet View Only so the information remains accurate).
- Attach headshots of each employee to the corresponding rows.
- Send Update Requests to new employees so they can fill in their information as part of their onboarding.
- Set reminders before each employee’s birthday so you never have to plan a celebration at the last minute again.
Day 3: Streamline Meetings
We all want productive meetings. We schedule stand-ups to reduce time, create an agenda to stick to a schedule, and take notes to track action items. But, how productive are we if six people are replicating the same work, with each person taking their own set of notes? And how much time do you spend organizing all these notes into one master document?
Hold truly productive meetings by centralizing information and creating one go-to spot for all meeting notes, action items, and ownership.
Here’s how to hold more productive meetings:
- Use our template.
- Share the sheet with everyone who will attend the meeting.
- Enter your meeting details and meeting agenda, description, and schedule.
- During the meeting, enter action items and assign the tasks to people on your team under the Owner column.
- Keep track of who did and didn’t attend by entering the names of attendees under the Attendees column.
Bonus Features:
- Attach any external meeting notes for everyone to access.
- Send Update Requests to have team members update the status of their action items.
- Use symbols to quickly convey priority.
Day 4: Import an Excel File and Improve a Workflow
Before:Excel
After: Smartsheet
How much time do you spend emailing around the same Excel file for edits? Everyone makes their own changes and emails you back a new version, that you then need to compile into one master, updated file. And, to make matters worse, if one person forgets to email out some changes, your whole team could be out of sync.
For your day 4 task, it’s time to take an existing process or workflow you currently have in Excel and make it better in Smartsheet. No more emailing files back and forth, and no more version control issues.
Here’s how to import an Excel file into Smartsheet:
- In Smartsheet, click Home, Import > Import Excel File.
- Select the Excel file you’d like to upload, click on the row that contains your column headers, and click Import.
- Your Excel file will be uploaded into Smartsheet. You can now insert, delete or rename columns and change font size and color.
Bonus features:
- Add hierarchy to create relationships between rows and organize your sheet.
- Attach drafts to corresponding tasks that everyone can access and edit in real time.
- Have discussions directly in the sheet to unclog your inbox.
- Set a notification to receive an automatic email when changes are made by other collaborators.
Day 5: Organize a Team Lunch or Company Event
It’s your last task of the week! Hopefully, many members of your team have been exposed to Smartsheet and the various ways this single tool can change the way work gets done. For day 5, we suggest organizing a team lunch to discuss your current processes and choosing one or two workflows to migrate next to Smartsheet.
Smartsheet makes it easy to coordinate any type of event, from a group meal to a holiday party. The secret is to use web forms, which quickly gather information and feed it into one master sheet. This sheet and web form combination give people a quick way to RSVP and/or submit meal requests, and let you keep all the information in one place.
Here’s how to coordinate a team lunch in Smartsheet:
- In Smartsheet, click Home, Create New > Blank Sheet.
- Rename the columns to show Name, RSVP (select a column type of Dropdown list and enter Yes, No), Restaurant Choice (you could also choose a column type of Dropdown list if you have a set number of restaurants to choose from), date choice, and any other information you’d like to gather.
- At the bottom of the sheet, click Web Forms. You can then add, delete, or rename fields (for more information on customizing your web form, click here).
- Once you’ve created the web form, a URL will be generated that you can send out to team members. All their responses to the web form will be auto-populated in the sheet (note: during the 30-day free, trial, you cannot send a web form URL to external collaborators not shared to the sheet. This ability is enabled once you have a paid plan).
If you’re planning a large event, like a company party, check out our Event Management solution for pre-built event templates.
Bonus features:
- Have discussions directly in the sheet to centralize all communication.
Challenge: Migrate a Complex Workflow
Congratulations! You’ve successfully onboarded your team in five short days. You know how to create sheets, add or edit columns, send Update Requests, set notifications, collect data in web forms, and more.
Now you’re ready to migrate your day-to-day work processes into Smartsheet to boost collaboration, productivity, and efficiency.
And, we’re here to help along the way. If you need assistance with sheet layout and design, workflow configuration, automation, or API integrations, read about our Smartsheet Services. You can spend one-on-one time with a Smartsheet expert, schedule onsite consulting, or attend interactive product training sessions.
To jumpstart a new project or help migrate your workflows to Smartsheet, visit our Solution Center for dozens of pre-built templates based on industry best practices. You can find templates for everything from website management to a sales pipeline to department budgets.
Not a Smartsheet user? Click here to sign up for a free, 30-day trial.
FAQs
What is the best way to learn Smartsheet? ›
Smartsheet instructor-led training offers the same insights around work management fundamentals and best practices in a dynamic classroom environment with hands-on exercises. This option is best if you want to: Learn a lot in a short amount of time. Ask questions and connect with your instructor and peers in real time.
Is Smartsheet hard to learn? ›It's relatively easy to use, and with the ability to create automations and import data from web forms, there's so much you can do with it. For an app with a lot of potential power that's simultaneously flexible and highly customizable, you'll have a hard time finding something better than Smartsheet.
Where can I learn Smartsheet? ›Smartsheet University is a dedicated page to for users (registration required) to learn about the software either with self-paced e-learning or with live instruction. In doing so, participants can earn credentials and verify their expertise.
Is Smartsheet like Excel? ›Smartsheet is an online work execution platform in a familiar spreadsheet format, that is better than Excel in work management, collaboration, visibility, accessibility, and integrations.
How long does it take to complete the Smartsheet certification? ›It is expected to take two to four hours to complete. The exam is open book, meaning users can access the Help Center and Community while taking the test for additional information. Solution Certification is a four-hour timed exam where a user will create a solution from given base sheets that we provide.
What are the disadvantages of Smartsheet? ›- Steep learning curve.
- Add-ons required for time tracking and resource management.
- Pages do not update in real-time.
The main difference between Google Sheets and Smartsheet is that Google Sheets is a free, web-based spreadsheet application that is part of the Google Suite of productivity tools, while Smartsheet is a paid, web-based project management and collaboration tool.
What are the limitations of Smartsheet? ›Rate limits per hour will apply. You can have up to 66,000 portfolio users (rolled up from users in various projects in the Portfolio WorkApps). If you are planning a Portfolio with more than 20,000 projects or more than 2000 projects per blueprint, Portfolio WorkApps may not be the best fit.
How much is Smartsheet certification cost? ›How much does it cost to become Smartsheet Certified? Each attempt at a Smartsheet Certified Associate exam costs $149, and each attempt at a Solution exam costs $199. If you fail an Associate exam once and pass it on your second try, the total cost will be $298.
What is the Microsoft equivalent to Smartsheet? ›Microsoft Project
MS Project is a strong Smartsheet alternative thanks to its project planning capabilities. But these features are general, and the tool doesn't offer many industry-specific solutions. That means a construction team or software team might find it lacking in their specific planning and reporting needs.
Why do people use Smartsheet? ›
Smartsheet is the only platform that can scale from a single project to end-to-end work management, connecting business on a no-code, cloud-based platform where anyone can create the solution they need — backed by the control and security IT requires.
Why Excel is better than Smartsheet? ›Excel outperforms Smartsheet when analyzing large amounts of data, using complex formulas, filtering, or running macros. Smartsheet, on the other hand, is the clear winner when it comes to project management capabilities. However, it's now possible to export data from Smartsheet to Excel and back again.
What programming language does Smartsheet use? ›In regards to languages, you can use C#, Java, Node. js, Python, and Ruby with the Smartsheet API. Here's the Smartsheet API 2.0 Documentation, and the Developers Portal.
Can Smartsheet do math? ›Find out if this capability is included in Smartsheet Regions or Smartsheet Gov. Use formulas to calculate numeric values or automate aspects of your sheet. You can create formulas, for example, to sum a range of expenses, or to check a box when a specific value is entered in a field.
Does Microsoft use Smartsheet? ›The partnership between Smartsheet and Microsoft is built on the drive to create a seamless collaboration across tools and platforms.
Who uses Smartsheets? ›Companies using SmartSheet for Collaboration include: AmerisourceBergen Corp., a United States based Distribution organisation with 39000 employees and revenues of $238.59 billion, Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a Netherlands based Automotive organisation with 281595 employees and revenues of $169.95 ...
Is Microsoft Smartsheet free? ›Smartsheet is the platform for dynamic work, allowing teams to collaborate together in real-time from a single source of truth. As a free user, you can view, edit, and update work that has been shared with you. However, you cannot create new work in Smartsheet without a license.
What does a Smartsheet license give you? ›A licensed user is a paid user who can create new items in Smartsheet including sheets, reports, and dashboards, and share them with others.
How many records can Smartsheet handle? ›Rows: 20,000. Columns: 400. Cells: 500,000. Characters in a cell: 4,000.
What can you do without a Smartsheet license? ›Free users can view, edit, and update sheets and reports within the platform. Creating, owning, administering, or driving a process, program, or project in Smartsheet requires a paid license.
How does Smartsheet make money? ›
The company makes the bulk of its money from subscriptions, which involves individuals or enterprise customers playing annual fees to access the service. "Subscription revenue primarily consists of fees from customers for access to our cloud-based platform.
What are the strengths of Smartsheet? ›Smartsheet lets you plan, track, automate, and report on projects, with everything you need in one place. Everyone involved can see exactly what needs to be done to keep a project on track. And with an overview of all projects, you can instantly see the health of your business and reliably predict results.
Is Smartsheet better than Google Sheets? ›Smartsheet is a project management and collaboration tool at its core, while Google Sheets is a spreadsheet app much like Microsoft Excel. The answer is yes, Smartsheet is better — but only if you're looking for a project/task management and collaboration tool.
How many workflows can you have in Smartsheet? ›Each sheet can have up to 150 workflows. Each workflow can have up to 100 blocks. This includes the Trigger, Condition, and Action blocks.
Can Smartsheet pull data from database? ›Smartsheet Data Shuttle allows you to automatically import data from enterprise software systems like CRM, ERP, databases etc., directly into Smartsheet. Any system that can download to a CSV, Excel, or Google sheet can be uploaded into Smartsheet.
Can two people work in Smartsheet at the same time? ›When multiple people are working on the same sheet, you'll always be aware. Here's what you'll see in Smartsheet so that you know who you're working with and whether they've made changes: Active Faces (next to the Sharing button).
How long is Smartsheet free? ›Before purchasing a subscription to Smartsheet, you can start a free 30-day trial to see if the application is a good fit for you.
Is Smartsheet part of Microsoft Office? ›Smartsheet seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office 365. This is a great example of how (the) interoperability of ... Smartsheet and Microsoft reduces complexity and helps our joint customers work smarter.
Is there a Google version of Smartsheet? ›Smartsheet allows you to collaboratively collect and track lists, names, addresses, and other information.
Is Smartsheet better than SharePoint? ›Reviewers felt that Smartsheet meets the needs of their business better than Microsoft SharePoint. When comparing quality of ongoing product support, reviewers felt that Smartsheet is the preferred option. For feature updates and roadmaps, our reviewers preferred the direction of Smartsheet over Microsoft SharePoint.
Who is Smartsheet competition? ›
Other important factors to consider when researching alternatives to Smartsheet include user interface and task management. We have compiled a list of solutions that reviewers voted as the best overall alternatives and competitors to Smartsheet, including ClickUp, Asana, Wrike, and monday.com.
Can you link Smartsheet to excel? ›The Smartsheet Live Data Connector provides industry-standard connectivity via ODBC to the third-party apps you use most, such as Tableau, Excel, QlikView / Qlik Sense, Tibco Spotfire, and more. This allows you to deliver powerful data visibility and insights with your Smartsheet data via the tools you already use.
What are the best use cases for Smartsheet? ›- Project Management. Use Smartsheet to plan, track, schedule, and report on your project from conception to completion.
- IT & OPs. ...
- Marketing. ...
- Construction. ...
- Content Management. ...
- Healthcare. ...
- Financial Management. ...
- Sales Teams.
Smartsheet Inc (NYSE:SMAR)
The company was founded by W. Eric Browne, Maria Colacurcio, John D. Creason, and Brent R.
Are Jira and Smartsheet the same thing? No, they are two different platforms. Jira is a software development tool and Smartsheet is designed for work management. However, they're both leading solutions that come highly recommended by their users.
Does Smartsheet pay well? ›The average Smartsheet salary ranges from approximately $46,998 per year for Technical Support Specialist to $196,995 per year for Principal Software Engineer. Average Smartsheet hourly pay ranges from approximately $8.87 per hour for Contractor to $58.23 per hour for User Experience Researcher.
How many companies use Smartsheets? ›...
Who uses Smartsheet?
| Company | The North Face, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Revenue | >1000M |
| Company Size | >10000 |
Today, we launched Smartsheet Advance, an all-new enterprise offering with robust, no-code tools to automate workflows across systems, align global teams, and build countless scalable configurations and solutions that advance your business.
Can Smartsheet do formulas? ›In Smartsheet, you can use formulas to perform calculations on data stored in a single sheet....
Can you code in Smartsheet? ›Yes, you can use the API, with C# or Python or a number of other languages to work within Smartsheet.
Can you enter a formula in Smartsheet? ›
The Owner, Admins, and Editors can create and edit formulas in unlocked fields. Find out if this capability is included in Smartsheet Regions or Smartsheet Gov. Use formulas to calculate numeric values or automate aspects of your sheet.
Is Smartsheet easy to use? ›Smartsheet Ease of Use
Every project or work that you start in Smartsheet begins with a sheet. This is quite different from other project management apps that start with a list or board view. But if you have used a spreadsheet in the past, it can feel very intuitive.
Smartsheet Inc. is an American publicly-listed company that develops and markets the Smartsheet application. As of 2022, it had over 2,600 employees, and is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington The company was founded in the summer of 2005, shortly after co-founder Brent Frei sold his prior company, Onyx Software.
How many rows of data can Smartsheet handle? ›Sheet maximums:
Rows: 20,000. Columns: 400. Cells: 500,000. Characters in a cell: 4,000.
Answers. There is an unlimited number of sheets per user.
How do people use Smartsheet? ›The Smartsheet platform allows you to collaborate, manage, and report on work in real time, automate workflows, and deploy new processes at scale. Smartsheet is more than a productivity or task app, it's the end-to-end work execution platform with the proven power to help your organization achieve more.
Is Smartsheet for free? ›Smartsheet is the platform for dynamic work, allowing teams to collaborate together in real-time from a single source of truth. As a free user, you can view, edit, and update work that has been shared with you. However, you cannot create new work in Smartsheet without a license.
How do I use Smartsheet in Excel? ›- In Excel, open the Data tab and choose From Other Sources -> From Microsoft Query.
- Choose the Smartsheet DSN. ...
- In the Query Wizard, expand the node for the table you would like to import into your spreadsheet. ...
- The Filter Data page allows you to specify criteria.
What is Smartsheet — and why is it different? Smartsheet is the only platform that can scale from a single project to end-to-end work management, connecting business on a no-code, cloud-based platform where anyone can create the solution they need — backed by the control and security IT requires.
What is Smartsheet known for? ›Smartsheet is a software as a service (SaaS) offering for collaboration and work management, developed and marketed by Smartsheet Inc. It is used to assign tasks, track project progress, manage calendars, share documents, and manage other work, using a tabular user interface. Smartsheet Inc.