Smartsheet at a Glance
Best for: Small-medium businesses
Key use: Project planning and management, workflows, budget tracking, task planning
Price: From $9 per month
Storage: 100GB for Business accounts
Free trial: 30 days
How Smartsheet Works
Smartsheet works off of the premise that businesses are already familiar with spreadsheets. Using this basic tool, Smartsheet launches an entire project management suite that has proven to be unusually good at what it does. This platform takes you from start to finish, helping you maximize efficiency and power up every aspect of your team’s functionality for optimal results. Here are some of the features that we found most helpful for businesses:
Project planning
Smartsheet is obviously extremely useful for project planning and management. From automation to scalability and projections, these sheets really help you get a big-picture view of the entire project, so you can easily break it down into manageable tasks for each team or team member.
Task tracking
Smartsheet starts out like a simple Trello-type assignment board, but then it goes into hyperdrive. You can apply hierarchical commands and group tasks under parent rows. We really love the easy drag-and-drop adjustability of the cells, rows, and columns. You can also switch views to see your tasks in a different light. Customizing with conditional formatting is another feature that Smartsheet has done really well.
Budget tracking
This is an important feature that lets you keep track of your spending. You can easily link your projected budget with how much you are really spending on a project to see if you’re going over budget and need to cut back. It’s also a helpful tool for project quotes using realistic parameters.
Program rollups
Like to tie things up with a neat bow? Smartsheet pretty much hands you the ribbon with its rich reporting features that come with real-time metrics, project summaries, progress reports, and more. It's also an excellent way to maintain a professional appearance with customers, even when things are falling apart on the ground floor!
And there is a lot more to love like resource management, strategic planning, forms, integrations, and even premium add-ons that really turbocharge your organization.
Collaboration Tools
Smartsheet has collaboration tools like alerts and reminders that go out to the entire team, reports, and team-wide dashboards. You can also annotate tasks, hold conversations, and assign proof-readers to tasks or projects. Team members can update versions and auto-lock to avoid confusion or duplicate work as well.
Data Privacy
Smartsheet platform is really on top of security. It has to pass a rigorous security test each year to stay afloat, along with SOC2 Type II assessments. It is HIPA, FERPA, and GDPR compliant. Smartsheet also uses physical, technological, and administrative safeguards to protect your information.
Smartsheet Apps
The Smartsheet platform is cloud-based, which means that all of your information is readily available from any device - wherever you are. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. You start setup by using a blank sheet or templates that are organized according to categories like IT, sales, resources, Gantt, Agile projects, etc. What is really neat about this setup is that there are onscreen prompts explaining all of the features, possibilities, and next steps. So, while setup and getting to know the software is time-consuming, it’s not out of the range of difficulty for most people.
Setup isn’t a simple process with Smartsheet. Between the integrations, data migration, and setting up new sheets, and learning all the features, it can all be a bit overwhelming at first. Luckily, Smartsheet has great customer support that can help walk you through the process.
Plus, once you get to know the system, there are tons of automations you can set up. So, the learning curve is high, but once in motion, Smartsheet pretty much runs itself. And the way we see things, the more there is to learn, the more there is to work with. That means more features and tools for you and your team to take advantage of in the long run.
Smartsheet Customer Support
Smartsheet has a lot of support options. You can start out by asking the help center a question and getting directed to a list of relevant articles. If this doesn't help you, you can open a support ticket via the online contact form. Customers can also take advantage of the live chatbot on the screen or read through the numerous articles on the website to get answers.
The platform also has a Project Management Guide, which is basically a knowledge base with expert advice, tips, and insights on how you can make the most out of the software and enhance your team's productivity and output in general.
Phone: 1 (844) 324-2360
Email: N/A
Online Form: Yes
Live Chat: Yes
Pricing & Special Offers
There are 2 basic plans and 2 enterprise-level plans. We'll look at the 2 basic plans since the enterprise level ones are customized pricing structures anyways. Smartsheet also offers a 30-day free trial for anyone who wants to test out the software without a commitment.
Pricing plans are comparable to other mid-range project management software out there. But Smartsheet does include a lot within its plans to make it worthwhile. Here are the pricing details along with what’s included in each plan:
Pro
$19
Activity log
Connectors (deep insights and analytics)
X
Yes
Yes
All plans come with multiple views, including Gantt, grid, calendar, and card views. We like that Smartsheet gives you so many ways to view your work, so businesses can find the view that is most effective for their team. Collaboration features are also included in even the Pro Plan. And you can integrate most of your usual business applications and iOS or Android apps like G Suite, Office 365, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, and Egnyte. You can also integrate with more dedicated tools like Salesforce, Jira, Power BI, and more.
Smartsheet also offers the ability to turbocharge your platform with a suite of professional services, including consulting, support customization, and training sessions. So, there’s a lot to work with even beyond the traditional borders of this software.
Smartsheet Alternatives
How Smartsheet Compares to Other Project Managers
Smartsheet
On higher plans
✔
✔
Bottom Line
Smartsheet was founded in 2005 and has grown to employ over 1,500 employees in those 15 years. More than that, Smartsheet has become an industry-recognized leader for project planning and management for businesses of every type. With collaboration tools, automation, and easy customization, managers and teams can make the most out of every task and project with this smart and powerful management platform.
