Online project management & collaboration
4.3/5 (677 reviews)Smartsheet is a SaaS, enterprise-ready cloud app for work management and collaboration, trusted by more than 80,000 businesses and millions of users in over 175 countries.
Regarded for its online project management, collaboration, and file sharing features, Smartsheet's intuitive spreadsheet-like app is used broadly to track and manage diverse types of work including: team projects and task lists, customer information, sales pipelines, event schedules, and business processes.
Customers can access their accounts online or through integrations with leading web services. Smartsheet is a top-rated online project management solution for Google Apps and Salesforce, and is also integrated with leading web apps such as Box, Dropbox and Zapier.
Since 2006, Smartsheet has established a proven track record for ease of use, security, and system availability. Customers include small and medium businesses, Fortune 500 companies, and academic institutions, as well as local and federal government agencies.
The management team is composed of experienced business leaders with a track record of building innovative, easy-to-use business software. The company’s headquarters are located in Bellevue, Washington. Investors include Sutter Hill Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, and Madrona Venture Group.
Pros
Smartsheet helps me do my work more easier and faster. I really appreciate how Smartsheet helps and understand what company needs. Best Application Ever! It's very easy to configure and display what you want to search even if the data storage is so large, it can still be on the right track that you looking for. For my project that have a lot of campaigns, I can easily group all my tasks on what ever priority level, and the corresponding deadline for the task. It's one of the basics that is bigger plus to every business man out there. Moreover, each row may display emails stored within it, files attached to it, with a discussion board connected to the task. I'm always excited and thankful every time it resolves any updates, notifies interested staff, and tracks of document versions, sending alerts for approaching deadlines.
Cons
People out there might say other App is better but I assure you Smartsheet is the best. You just need to gain your skills by the help of Smartsheet, your business will be successful in the future.
Pros
Not as complicated and cumbersome as MS Project, which tries too hard to apply complicated logic to your project plans. Smartsheet simply gives you the ability to create plans of any level of complexity. Conditional formatting allows easy review of start/finish dates and who is assigned what.
Collaboration is easy and effective as you can share with different levels of permission, and export only those elements you want others to see and work with. Having the product in the cloud makes access simple and reliable. Only once in 3 years have I not been able to access my project plan immediately, and even then it was up within 5 minutes.
Easy to learn and train others on, so you can bring collaborators in quickly. Easy to edit as it uses all the intuitive elements of cut/paste and drag/drop.
Vendor has been helpful when needed, but mostly in the background which is what I want. I just need functioning software and a place to go for help, not endless tips and promotions.
Cons
Creating a backup is a challenge. It's not intuitive and involves way too many menus and steps. There should be a simple way to create a backup offline for audit or versioning purposes.
There needs to be an auto-save feature. I've had new collaborators lose their work because they forgot to manually save. For a product that operates with the ease of Google Docs in the cloud, the expectation is that there is an auto save feature. The 10-minute reminder message is not sufficient.
Pros
Smartsheet is fantastic if you are a project manager or anyone that tracks things collaboratively.
I use it daily to keep track of projects. It is like google sheets but has much more functionality with a unique blend of project management flavors. It is easy and intuitive once you get the hang of it, and doubly so if you are accustomed to using google sheets. Even if your teammates don't have licenses, you can invite them to look at and collaborate with your project, add comments, attachments, and even alerts.
As an applicant tracker, I use it to keep track of new hires. We attach their new hire paperwork to the smartsheet (instead of emailing sensitive documents) and other HR members can go in and look and progress, check off when they do their part (benefits orientation, enter into payroll etc) so i can keep track of where the employee is in the process.
Cons
There is a bit of a learning curve. When you first use it, you think that there isn't much difference to google sheets, but once you go through the training, see examples and use it for awhile, it is hard to go back to google sheets because it just doesn't have the functionality you need.
Some of the formula functionality of say, excel is missing, but they are making improvements to the platform all the time.
Smartsheet allowed me to personally increase the project management aspect of my role. It also allowed me to quickly and efficiently manage and update campaigns, content calendars and other key pieces of our marketing organization to keep projects moving forward.
Pros
Smartsheet is my all time favorite marketing software! Not only can you include and integrate project management, sales and other departmental functions but for marketing alone Smartsheet allows you to easily manage campaigns, events, content calendars, website and allows for initiative tracking (i.e. - results). Within each of these functions, you can assign users who are in charge of projects, enhance the internal communications by parties seeing where one is in the process and collaborate amongst many different departments. It truly allows for multiple business functions to be able to come together in one place for a strong marketing, sales and project management platform.
Cons
Smartsheet can operate very slowly when there is a large amount of data in a certain sheet. It decreases the strong user experience and also can make the process more cumbersome at times. The sheets can also be deleted with one click of a button and never be recovered again so you have to be mindful of your actions on the sheet and know all users who are using the platforms have been properly onboarded.
One of my team members was able to create a content calendar for a broad editorial group within the platform and it worked great and had excellent adoption from a cross-functional team. Vet it carefully for your particular needs before making an investment -- SS has a lot to offer for the right projects.
Pros
SmartSheet provides a lot of great features: easy-to-use "card view", quick Gantt charts and easy entry of tasks. I really like the simplicity of the tool as it feels very much like Excel at first blush. The two levels of access -- one for power users and one for light editors -- helps keep the tool in a very affordable price range. I absolutely love the ability to create a web intake form within minutes that can be published live for use without a login to the system. The form is highly configurable and is a great way to grab structured feedback or details from individuals.
Cons
SmartSheet is not a fantastic project management tool for software development. While the web-based intake form is decent for reporting bugs and it is a relatively simplistic tool, tracking items from beginning to end and creating validation loops should be easy but is not. Granted, we were using the tool for something it wasn't technically designed for, but much of the functionality is available within the platform for "light" development teams. Unfortunately, the implementation of specific task-driven items simply wasn't where it needed to be.
Plans start at $14.00/mo. (*Users create sheets and decide who and how others can collaborate on them. Collaborators are invited to sheets with edit or view permissions. A user requires a Smartsheet license, collaborators have free access.) Nonprofit, schools, gov't agency receive additional discounts on annual plans.
Seamless integration with Google Apps:
- Sign in with your Google account info
- Sync with Google Calendar
- Works with Google Drive: attach Drive files to any row in Smartsheet
- Update project info from Gmail
- Import/Export between Google Spreadsheet and Smartsheet
- Import Google Contacts
- Open attached Microsoft Project and Excel files in Google Drive
Salesforce integration:
Smartsheet and Salesforce work together for ultimate productivity. Link project sheets to Salesforce accounts, contacts, opportunities or cases for real-time collaboration on project status, files, and discussions. Other perks include:
- Single sign-on from Salesforce
- Create new project sheets from Salesforce
- Link to existing project sheets
- Access key project sheets from any Salesforce account, contact, opportunity or case.
Box integration:
Collaboration takes on new meaning with the Smartsheet and Box integration. The cloud apps are easy to use together and offer instant value. Teams can quickly share and collaborate on files related to specific projects with internal staff as well as external teams, including vendors clients and contractors. Some other benefits include:
- Perfect for the Small Teams or Large Enterprise: Smartsheet and Box are easy to use, don't require IT to install or manage, and immediately deliver value to users
- Add Structure, Save Time: Access files from Box in the context of your project or task
- No Need to Upload New Versions: All changes made to documents in Box are instantly available in Smartsheet
- Share Files with Teams Near and Far: Smartsheet's project sharing and row sending capabilities allow you to share files in Box with other team members with a click of the mouse
- A Little or A Lot: Link a specific document - or an entire folder of documents - to your Smartsheet project
A cloud-based project management solution, Smartsheet is an integrated platform combining essential tools for work management, file sharing, and collaboration. Using a familiar spreadsheet interface that requires zero to minimal learning curve, it enables businesses of all sizes to organize and coordinate work of any kind, from organizing a product launch to structuring budgets or deal pipelines.
Flexible and customizable, you can set it up to your liking, instead of you adapting to it. With all your tasks, files, documents, and processes in one centralized place that your team and collaborators can access anytime, anywhere, running your day-to-day operations doesn’t have to involve numerous phone calls, email or SMS exchanges to get things done.
Smartsheet’s core features include Gantt charts, file sharing, collaboration, alerts and reminders, and reporting.
With the simplicity of a spreadsheet but the power of a project management, database, and collaboration solution in one, Smartsheet is used by more than 5 million users and 60,000+ businesses in 175+ countries. The mobile app enables on-the-go project management and task completion, and automated push notifications alert pertinent people of changes in real time.
Workspaces can be created to share sheets, folders, and reports, and a sheet can be published as an interactive sheet or read-only HTML page that you can embed on your website or link in an email. Smartsheet’s cell linking functionality enables you to link data across multiple sheets, such as when you’re aggregating departmental budgets in a single sheet or creating cross-project dependencies. Linked cells automatically update when information in the source sheet changes.
Gantt charts are a visual way to plan and schedule projects, assess timelines, analyze resource assignments, and understand task prioritization and dependencies. Smartsheet’s interactive Gantt charts allow teams to stay up to date on the progress of a project through color-coded task status levels that can be set up via a simple rule called conditional formatting. This way, even at a glance, those involved in the project are immediately aware of what’s going on.
Smartsheet’s user-friendly drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for you – even when you’re new to Gantt charts – to update a project, adjust a date, or reassign a task.
At the heart of every team-based project are files that take on various forms – PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, images, videos, and more. And then there are threaded discussions and free-form notes to keep everyone in the loop and apprised of the project’s progress. Smartsheet enables team members and other stakeholders to collaborate on various pieces of a project through file sharing.
Files and attachments are in one central location, and available to you anytime. To attach an item to a row on your sheet, simply click on the plus sign in the paperclip column or go to the row menu and select Row Attachments from the options. You’re then ready to drag and drop files to the attachment window. You can also click on the Attach button to navigate to the locations of the files you want attached. Attachments can be from your computer or sites such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and Box.
For teams to effectively collaborate on tasks, Smartsheet allows you to share your sheets, send row attachments, or publish sheets as a webpage. Multiple people can simultaneously work on a sheet, and the latest version of a shared sheet is available to collaborators anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
Smartsheet’s Highlight Changes feature is a handy tool to visually keep track of recent changes to a shared sheet. Alerts can be set up to notify collaborators of any changes. There’s also a lock feature you can use for rows or columns you don’t want changed. Update requests to rows or columns can be requested, and individual rows can be shared even with others without a Smartsheet account.
An entire sheet can be sent as an email attachment or published as a webpage, which can be accessed by anyone with a link. The published sheet can be made editable or read-only.
The Smartsheet Alerts and Reminders feature enables you and your team to keep track of changes to a sheet and remember important dates, such as upcoming deadlines, meetings, and board room presentations, among others.
To create an alert for changes made to a sheet, go to the Alerts tab and click on New Notification. Specify who receives the notification, how often, and under which circumstances or conditions. For new reminders, from the Alerts tab, click on the New Reminder button. Identify who gets the reminder and the date it should be sent. Alerts and notifications are received via email.
For a view into the status of your tasks and projects, Smartsheet’s reporting functionality provides high-level insight into tasks that are behind schedule, those that are becoming due, aren’t assigned yet, assigned to a specific person, and so on. Just like sheets, reports can be shared or sent as an attachment. They can also be saved as Excel or PDF files, or sent out on a recurring basis.
To create a report, click on the Add New (+) button and select Blank Report. The Report Builder then lets you select the sheets you want included in the report. Depending on the type of report you need, you can choose a single or multiple sheets. The columns you include in your reports are totally up to you.
Aside from an open API that allows you to build your own integrations, Smartsheet readily integrates with third-party apps such as Microsoft Outlook, Evernote, DocuSign, Box, Dropbox, Google Apps, iCal, Harvest, MailChimp, Marketo, Salesforce, JIRA, Office Timeline, OneLogin, Tableau, Zapier, and many more.
When your free 30-day trial expires, you can upgrade to any of Smartsheet’s subscription options: Basic, Team, or Enterprise. Basic is for individuals and is priced at $14 per month, if billed annually. It can accommodate an unlimited number of collaborators, has a total storage capacity of 3 GB, and supports Gantt charts, web forms, mobile, customization, and a total of 10 sheets.
Team is priced at $39 per month, if billed annually, for three creators and unlimited collaborators. Storage space is 45+ GB. The app accommodates 150+ sheets and carries all Basic features plus reporting, user management, groups, and resource management. Each additional creator costs $9 per month.
Pricing for the Enterprise account can be requested from Smartsheet’s sales team. Aside from all the features available in the Team plan, the Enterprise subscription covers unlimited sheets, unlimited file storage, dedicated support, single sign-on, and automated provisioning.
Discounts are available for schools and nonprofits.
Below are some frequently asked questions for Smartsheet.
Smartsheet offers the following pricing plans:
Starting from: $14/month
Pricing model: Subscription
Free Trial: Available
Plans start at $14.00/mo. (*Users create sheets and decide who and how others can collaborate on them. Collaborators are invited to sheets with edit or view permissions. A user requires a Smartsheet license, collaborators have free access.) Nonprofit, schools, gov't agency receive additional discounts on annual plans.
Smartsheet offers the following features:
Smartsheet has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Non Profits, Public Administrations, Small Business
Smartsheet supports the following languages:
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
Smartsheet has the following pricing plans:
Subscription
Smartsheet supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
Smartsheet integrates with the following applications:
Azuqua, Bitium, ClicData, Dropbox, Evernote, Klipfolio, Meisterplan, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Slemma, Zapier
Smartsheet offers the following support options:
Knowledge Base, Online Support, Phone Support, Video Tutorials
Smartsheet is portable tool - downloadable Smartsheet App. I can access it anywhere and any device I like, most especially when I'm in a call and I need to access my Smartsheet I just use my phone. The best way to put your records either old records or new is to use the Smartsheet, it will keeps tracks and give you relevant results that make your business successful. I can say Smartsheet is my partner in life he give me what I want like to plan, capture, track, automate, and report on work at scale, it's very helpful for our team to analyse and realize things that needs for improvement in terms of work.