Smartsheet Reviews

Pros

- Ease of Use - No need to involve programmers to create custom solutions
- Versatility - customizable sheets and dashboards for different departments and needs
- Support - AMAZING user forum, help pages, support department

Cons

Row and cell link limitations - I bump up against the cell link limitations often, although I can work around them by saving my metrics into multiple sheets.

Pros

Using Smartsheets is the best way for me to keep track of my progress, interact with my clients, and make my work visible to my boss. Tracking progress and keeping track of projects and todos has been a big help to me with the aid of Smartsheet. Increasing the level of transparency for the company's top brass as well as its customers.

Cons

There isn't anything I don't like about Smartsheet at this stage in our journey. We've only scratched the surface of what Smartsheet can achieve for our teams, but the value and efficiency it's provided us go well beyond what a shared spreadsheet or file could ever provide.

Pros

SmartSheets is an incredibly powerful tool that offers much more features than Excel. Once you get the hang of it, you'll find that the possibilities are endless. The best part is that there are plenty of online tutorials available to help you learn and become proficient in using SmartSheets. With just a little patience and practice, you'll be a pro in no time!

Cons

One area where SmartSheets could improve is in providing more consistent and reliable customer support. While there are many online tutorials available, when users encounter issues that require more complex solutions, having responsive and helpful customer support can make all the difference in their experience with the software.

Pros

Smartsheet is a collaborative work management tool that allows users to manage projects, tasks, and workflows online. It also offers automation features that can help users streamline their workflows and save time. For example, users can automate repetitive tasks, such as sending reminders or updating project status. Integration is made easy with a variety of other tools, such as Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and Salesforce, which makes it easy to incorporate the tool into existing workflows.

Cons

As a cloud-based tool, Smartsheet is dependent on internet connectivity. If there is an outage or poor connectivity, users may not be able to access their projects and tasks.

Pros

Smartsheet is a powerful, easy-to-use project management tool that helps me keep track of tasks, deadlines, and progress. It has a wide range of features that make it easy to customize my workflow, and the user interface is intuitive and simple to use.

Cons

Smartsheet can be a bit slow at times, and occasionally I have experienced some glitches and bugs. Additionally, the pricing structure can be a bit confusing and expensive for smaller teams.

Pros

I find the automation features extremely helpful for streamlining repetitive tasks. I also appreciate the seamless integration with popular apps like Google Drive and Slack, which has made my work life even more efficient.

Cons

While I am a huge fan of Smartsheet, I have encountered a few drawbacks that are worth mentioning. Firstly, I believe the learning curve can be steep for some users, particularly those who are not familiar with spreadsheet applications.

Pros

The platform is easy to use, even for staff without IT knowledge. Filter items can be freely configured, making searching convenient even if the amount of data is enormous. The platform has report templates that make it easy to create reports. Smartsheet is the perfect tool for WBS, with intuitive operations for adding jobs, setting hierarchies, setting owners, and entering progress rates. Files can be easily attached to tasks, making it convenient to share information. Quality control sheets can be easily created with Smartsheet, helping to avoid careless mistakes in work.

Cons

No particular enhancements, but if there is an online chat system, I think it will be even more convenient. I would like you to create a system that connects you to the other party at the click of a button, even if it is an external Skype.

Pros

I enjoy the appearance and feel of Smartsheet; it appears to be an updated version of Excel. Everything in the software is quite simple to use; after I became acquainted with it, it seemed really natural to use. The most helpful feature of Smartsheet is the automation; you can do a lot with it, but I usually use it for notification rules; it's also fantastic that I can attach a file to a row or the entire sheet. Smartsheet is particularly beneficial for working on various projects. Finally, there are other views that are quite useful, such as the kanban and Gantt views.

Cons

I feel like Smartsheet should do distant better; a much better; a higher; a stronger; an improved">an improved work of documentation, there have been a few occasions where I or a colleague had to examine what the item may or couldn't do. Of course, the computer program is available sufficient that playing around with it for a conventional sum of time will grant you a great idea of whether or not it can do something. I do not like that there isn't a local spell checker inside the app, that being said, your browser's spell checker can suit this require (note: only the dynamic cell is checked). You cannot consolidate cells, although Smartsheet at first looks like a spreadsheet, it may be a extend administration device and you cannot combine cells. There's no auto spare include, you may be inquired to spare each 10 minutes, but it is up to you to tap the button.

Pros

It's easy to use and allows work teams to collaborate on tasks and projects, assign tasks, and track progress. I like that Smartsheet offers a wide variety of templates and tools for creating custom spreadsheets and projects, which has significantly improved the efficiency of my team.

Cons

Pricing plans can be steep, especially for smaller businesses. Also, while the platform is easy to use, it can take time to learn how to use all the available features and tools.

Pros

There are several things that I like about the tool. One of the features that I enjoy the most is the ability to collaborate in real-time with other team members in a single centralized location. This means we can work together on a project without the need to send separate emails, spreadsheets, files, and other documents.Another important feature in SmartSheet is the ability to create custom spreadsheets and forms to collect information more effectively. This allows all team members to have access to the same updated information in real-time and avoids duplicated efforts.I also find the task tracking and calendar functions useful, as they allow me to have a quick view of deadlines and tasks that need to be completed in the project. In addition, SmartSheet's process automation helps simplify repetitive tasks and saves time in project management.

Cons

The interface, while intuitive, can be overwhelming for new users who are not familiar with project management or spreadsheet software.While SmartSheet offers a wide range of templates and tools, some of them may not be customizable enough to meet specific needs. This can be frustrating at times, especially when trying to create more complex spreadsheets or workflows.Certain features like reporting and charting could be improved to provide more flexibility and customization options.

Pros

The thing I like the most is the transparency or the collaboration. To be able to easily see what others are doing and manage them together, set reminders and send update requests is what makes our company run well.

Cons

I think there have been a few times that we have maxed out on number of lines. I don't know why that there is a throttle there, but that's probably my only complaint is that some of our sheets get large and max out!

Pros

Easy to get in, set up, and maintain small-medium size projects. Quick to learn, easy to use.

Cons

I would like more intelligence around the columns: 1) more specific formatting choices, like setting the duration to hours, separating effort and duration; 2) Predecessor columns that intelligently follow the task, not only the row number.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Project and Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Smartsheet

Salesforce functionality relies on two (negative) criteria: 1) you track everything related to the project within Salesforce; 2) to track everything, you have to purchase access to modules that would otherwise be unnecessary.

Switched From

Salesforce Platform

Reasons for Switching to Smartsheet

The ROI was greater with Smartsheet.

Pros

This is the tool we use every day, every hour, to track all of our enrollments and clients. Our team monitors enrollments and other CRM tools don't give us the flexibility to track multiple events and data points. It's Excel but on steroids with multiple functions and features. We're using it more and more every day for reporting up to our management team on progress for our client events.

Cons

I'm not so good at the formulaic side of things and making sheets talk to each other, or building a dashboard, is not an intuitive process. There are not step by step instructions or visuals which is something I need personally. It's a lot of trial and error in getting things set up. When I first started, it was very expensive to work with someone who helped build the infrastructure base and looking back there are many things I'd have done differently if I'd understood it a little better. A lot of the consultation time was wasted in trying to get the person to understand what we were trying to achieve.

Pros

Easy to integrate, just log in and go. It's so easy that anyone can use the system - not much training is required. SmartSheet's online community of job aids, training items, etc. is fantastic and robust - and gets you through every issue from small to advanced, if needed - and if not, you can reach out to a wonderful support team. This product brings together all your team members, especially in this remote Covid-19 world. You'll love using SmartSheet - it's SO much better than desktop-based PM solutions.

Cons

There is a learning curve due to the fact there are slight differences in using SmartSheet vs. what you might be used to already. But, that's really it - there are some things it just can't do - and other things that require a lot of setup and tweaking - but they're worth it - if you have the right project for it!

Pros

My favorite tool in Smartsheet would have to be a combination use of automated reminders, overdue milestone reports, assigning staff to tasks, and running detailed reports to check on my team's current progress. Paired with cross sheet cell linking, index/match where needed, and Datamesh when running large scale reporting when conditional formatting may be needed is a bundle of brilliance. Simply a great batch of tools for the job.

Cons

No file renaming option. Limited sheet summary report functionality. Limited batch update tools to revise and align current project sheets. Lack of permission settings without additional purchased feature packages.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Project

Reasons for Choosing Smartsheet

After reviewing the functionality of Smartsheet and the tools it had to offer, we quickly realized that we were missing out on this toolset and Smartsheet could automate the repetitive tasks that our humans were completing. Now we have freed up the extra time needed to allow our current staff to problem solve, rather than spending the day stuck in repetitional tasks.

Reasons for Switching to Smartsheet

MS Project simply does not have all of the tools needed for success. Smartsheet captures all of the vital points that MSP has to offer and pairs it with real time linking and much more.

Pros

I love how easy it is to collaborate and share information with Smartsheet. With the different permission levels and how easy it was to get our whole company set up with Smartsheet, it has made so much of our project work so much easier and has enabled us to keep all relevant teams, and even just interested parties, up to speed on all that we have going on.

Cons

The one feature that I do wish would be added would be a visual timeline feature like MSP has. A lot of times our executive management team would like to see a simplified timeline with key milestones, but in order to do that with Smartsheet, we have to transfer things into PPT Timeline, which isn't impossible, it's just an added step that is a little inconvenient.

Pros

My favorite thing about this software is the simplicity of creating a very complex set of sheets, automation and forms. I work as a business person within the IT department and it is a tough limbo to exist in. You aren't really IT's customer, but you are not as skilled as an IT professional. I am often left to my own devices and de-prioritized so they can concentrate on our true customers. Smartsheet provided me a system that I did not need my IT department help. I was able to create a set of products (on a very base level, my own small Enterprise Resource Program) entirely alone that has improved my efficiency, quality of work and accuracy! I needed nothing more than my own skills and occasionally Smartsheet's Solution Center.

Cons

I am unfond of a few of the tiny limitations. I wish that reports weren't limited to 500 rows per page, and if that limit must exist, I wish there was a function to skip to a specific page. I reference a report that has 400+ lines of data multiple times throughout the day and it's mildly annoying to have to skip through 9 pages on the report to get to what I'm looking for.

I have also had very lukewarm success with Data Uploader. It does not work as expected about 50% of the time. I would honestly give up on it entirely if it wasn't SO useful the other 50% of the time. I waste a lot of time saving and resaving documents and deleting and recreating configurations just to get data to upload.

Pros

I absolutely love how quick and easy it is to use Smartsheet. The formulas have great documentation and it helps tremendously when trying to learn and accomplish new tasks. You can pull off amazing things if you sit down and build it. I was able to build a completely automated revenue and labor estimator that shows me how profitable each member of my team is.

Many of the applications we built, the community was clueless how to build it. We were able to accomplish some very unique dashboards & spreadsheets that make our lives easier. I can now make business decisions on a whim, without having to spend hours of research about the effect of one decision on our numbers.

Cons

I dislike how many features such as the dynamic view or the workspace deployment feature is locked behind an expensive addon. And when inquiring about customer service we were told it "isn't" a fit for us. But yet, Smartsheet cannot give us a demo to experiment or test them out?

Smartsheet is nickle and diming things a lot. Smartsheet is >not< small business friendly. It is really a shame because these tools are absolutely 100% amazing.

It also surprises me how little the community interactions are. There are many great suggestions for features that are standard in Excel and Google Sheets, that Smartsheet blandly ignored for years, and sometimes says "coming soon" and years later we still don't have it.

Alternatives Considered

Airtable

Reasons for Choosing Smartsheet

We also used AirTable, Google Sheets, and Excel. We made the switch because the sales team convinced our CEO it was a good move.

Reasons for Switching to Smartsheet

Our CEO made the choice, and it felt like smartsheet was going places.

Pros

I can confidently say that it is one of the best project management and collaboration tools available in the market. What I liked most about this software is its user-friendly interface and robust features that make it easy to use and navigate.The software offers a variety of templates that help in creating different types of projects quickly and efficiently. Additionally, the platform is customizable, so I can tailor it to my specific needs and preferences. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to move tasks and deadlines around, which helps me stay on top of my work.The real-time collaboration feature is another significant advantage of Smartsheet. This allows me to work together with my team members seamlessly, share documents, and give feedback in real-time. The software also provides automated notifications, which keep me updated about any changes made by my team members.Furthermore, the software's reporting and visualization capabilities are impressive. I can create custom charts, graphs, and dashboards that help me track progress, identify areas of improvement, and make data-driven decisions.Overall, Smartsheet is an excellent software that has helped me improve my productivity and streamline my workflow. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful project management and collaboration tool.

Cons

While Smartsheet is undoubtedly a great project management and collaboration tool, there are a few things that I didn't like about the software. The first thing that comes to mind is the pricing. While the software offers a lot of features, it can be quite expensive, especially for small businesses or individual users.Another thing that I found slightly inconvenient is the lack of integration with other third-party tools. Although the software does offer integration with some popular apps like Google Drive and Dropbox, there are still some essential tools that are not yet supported. This can make it difficult to manage everything in one place, which can be time-consuming.The software can also be overwhelming for new users. While the platform is user-friendly and intuitive, there are so many features that it can take some time to get used to all of them. Although the software provides various tutorials and resources, it can still be a bit daunting for those who are not tech-savvy.

Pros

easy to set-up processes, ongoing product improvements and additions, great team capabilities, quick and easy adoption due to familiarity of tool to MS Project/Excel style, many different uses outside of projects timelines, very cost effective

Cons

interface feels dated (although they're continuously working on this) and not created for non-project team members, dashboard tool and capabilities could use some improvements, sometimes creating cross-functional sheets can be clunky and unnecessarily complex.

Pros

--You can easily switch between different views of the same data, e.g. grid vs. Kanban
--Dashboards and reporting are both powerful
--Growing number of integrations
--Commenting per-row is excellent
--Can be used as a simple spreadsheet
--Security/permissions are robust and intuitive
--Excellent training and certs available
--Forms feature is pretty complete for basic stuff
--Very extensive formula capabilities, almost like Excel
--The "business" pricing tier would actually be quite adequate for my group's needs, vs. the enterprise plan
--Nesting/hierarchy of rows can be useful

Cons

--No in-cell formatting
--Awkward multi-user editing, no auto-save, other users keep resetting views
--Reporting is difficult, meaning that you have to create separate complex reports instead of just saved views
--Not a true database or app builder
--Notifications system is wonky, delayed, and hard for new users to tame
--Very easy to abuse and misuse, even worse than Excel because you can add in the nesting/hierarchy (we have one user in particular that makes the most gawdawful sheets you've ever seen, partly because of the inherent Smartsheet interface)
--Attachments are pretty rough, not easily visible or visual, and no desktop app integrations (e.g. save a file from Word to SmartSheet)
--No concept of a "document" or app, only the spreadsheet motif; can't do notes or instructions very easily, for example, so people overload rows for this and that makes reporting even harder when you have to manually select rows
--Forms feature not embeddable or graphically complete with formatting to make it look nice
--Not clear how you combine formulas and forms without overwriting formulas at the bottom--I haven't figured this out yet even after years of using it
--Enterprise pricing is now forcing us to consider alternatives, including lower tiers of Smartsheet

Pros

Cloud based - available everywhere to everyone
Flexibility - it's not only a project management tool, it can do most things that Excel can do, but often better. Specifically column formulae are a fantastic recent addition that enables sheets to become almost unbreakable

Cons

Nothing major. There are some minor gripes:
- Slack integration doesn't allow tagging of individuals, and cannot allow a variable to determine which channel to send the message to
- Cannot yet control heirarchy with formulae, I hope this function will come eventually

Pros

·Being able to share a spreadsheet with other users in real-time.
· Like that users can complete a form to populate a spreadsheet to include uploading documents and that update requests could be sent to that user if a correction needs to be made or additional info is needed. The user then make the change(s) to the cell requested.

Cons

·Recently a change was made whereas a non-licensed user can no longer send update requests. We use Smartsheet to have student teachers complete some info pursuant to state law. When the student makes an error, we used to send an update request to have them correct a cell. Now only a licensed user can send those notifications, so we most likely will utilize regular emails for these changes or not use Smartsheet for this work.
·As of Monday (9.30.19), how the system used "comments" changed from a pop-up box that let you enter into a field, save that info and now click anywhere and that pop-up box disappeared. Now it opens "Conversations" which now blocks the right side of the spreadsheet and you must now click on the X to close it out. It also holds all of the comments made to the entire sheet which is more info that I need. Typically if a comment is added to a row, I just click on the comment bubble to that row instead of viewing all of the comments to the sheet.
·When an update request is sent and the person makes the correction, this information is not clearly discernible when viewing the sheet. Turning on notifications turns on too many notifications so this was not an option. The workaround is, I add a "note sent"column that I check when an update request is sent. I then review the sheet and look for rows that have "note sent" checked and now no longer have the pending update icon to look for corrections.
·Need better form controls (field limits, date fields, etc.).

Pros

Smartsheet has been a lifesaver for group collaboration. My team runs multiple projects simultaneously, and the scopes of these projects are constantly changing. Smartsheet allows for the team to update their pieces of the puzzle and send alerts about changes in one environment. We've actually replaced endless back and forth emails with the comments function in the comment section so that all pertinent information about an issue exists in the platform itself for easy reference.

We can track our gantt chart, program data, and group communications in one place. I=

We're also utilizing Smartsheet for people outside of our organization. Smartsheet allows us to select the type of visibility that clients have to data (through settings or via dashboards) so we can control the story that we're sharing with our clients. This has been a big time saver as it eliminates the need for extra reporting on data that is already avilailable online. Our clients have shared positive feedback about Smartsheet forms which we've been using to collect survey data and for event registration. The forms have allowed us to cancel our account for SurveyMonkey (which we used for several years previous to Smartsheet).

Cons

The main pain point I have with Smartsheet is the fact that not all of my favorite Excel formulas work in Smartsheet. The formulas also don't always work the same way as they do in Excel so there's a bit of a learning curve.

Smartsheet needs to allow a Time function. We use Smartsheet to register individuals for events, and right now we're having to program Time as a text. This means we can't use formulas to change times based on Timezones.

I also still miss when the recent sheets appeared as tabs at the top of the webpage. The new recent tabs menu works well, but I found the tab view easier to navigate.

Pros

I use Smartsheet for a wide variety of projects that are so different in nature it's stunning it can all be done on one platform. I have one sheet for a list of plants I want to buy for my garden, complete with growing conditions and pictures. It does miracles as I stand in a gardening store wondering about the right varieties. I have another for managing my freelance work, budgets, timelines, tasks. Another sheet is a massive collection of ideas for my video channel and blog posts. Then there is the sheet with information about art prints and products I sell - sizes, prices, thumnails. I also organized my husband's secret Birthday party using a contact-based Smartsheet shared with accomplices. We went to our favorite town for "a trip" just to keep meeting over twenty friends from 4 countries who secretly arrived as well. Oh, and did I say that I'm writing a book using a Smartsheet? An unlikely use, given that it's not a text editor, but my chapter segments are short and the key is in organizing them into the right sequence, so, they ended up as cells in a spreadsheet too. The way Smartsheet allows me to attach files, images, notes and comments but still keep it all on the same line is fantastic. It helps me think. The was a mind map opens our brain to possibilities and ideas, Smartsheet nails them down. I use it every time I need to get a sense of structure and organization. It's become my go-to tool for making stuff happen.

Cons

I don't like the fact that I can't easily copy and paste cells from Excel. I don't like to import entire files. Sometimes I just need a section of a sheet to be added. Even if the paste wouldn't be perfect, it should be possible to paste from an Excel sheet or a simple text document where each line would appear in the next row.