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

-easy to use and costumize
-more than one user can modify simultaneously
-you can add your company's logo
-you can set group and individual reminders
- Cell history, which can tell who and when it was modified.
-different views: calendar, grid, card, and Gantt

Cons

- not all reminders can be set with time to remind
- can't add a conditional formatting based on time
- if your Smartsheet is big, formulas added can take forever to update the information, so you need to refresh it all times, even if you change settings to save automatically.

Pros

I love that the learning curve is so low. This helps the adoption rate within the company

Cons

Could be much easier to integrate with Microsoft Teams for example

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.

Pros

The software is so custom you can do about anything with it. We do everything from incoming employment applications, managing projects to company ledgers.

Cons

I would love for the ability to use a BCC to email the spreadsheet directly, or other features however the feature set that they provide works really well.

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.

Pros

I love this software. I love the pick up and go aspect where I can access it on all my devices. I love the automatic saves- because I am terrible at remembering to save, and I love the ability to attach files and tag people for projects. I used the software at my previous company for creative project management and now I'm using it like agile for product development builds. Its great for tracking and overall roadmapping. I wouldn't use anything else when I can do everything I want right here!

Cons

All the issues I've had have been solved in new releases but it would be wonderful if I could build graphic pages in the software- I'm hoping that comes soon. Like a mobile photoshop or powerpoint or image tool.

Pros

I use Smartsheet daily to track personnel processes, such as recruitment efforts, termination procedures, and the completion of development reviews. I have used other software before, but Smartsheet affords me with the opportunity to freely share the data with other coworkers and management easily and immediately. I also really appreciate the automatic save feature, and the prompt to update with other's changes. I tend to stay in my Smartsheets all day long so this is particularly helpful for updates. I like the ability to attach documents.

Cons

I found the Filter feature to be a bit clunky; That design needs some work. I'd like to be able to change fonts within fields, such as making individual words bold. Manipulating rows within the sheets could be streamlined. It's challenging when you want to move a series of rows to another location on the same sheet. It becomes a two-step process: Creating the space for the rows in the new location, and then cutting or copying and inserting them in the new space.

Pros

I use it mostly for project plans and it's great for that. I like that I can share via a link to anyone and they don' have to have a SmartSheet account, and they can even make edits if I allow them.

Cons

I'm the admin and when one of my users leaves, you can only migrate their project plans to a single user. I wish I could pick some plans to go to person A, some to person B, and so on.

Pros

It should be noted that I use this software for several reasons, the first is to manage projects in some departments. I also use it to have a reciprocal communication with the customer through the use or interest in the product. I am also using it to maintain an internal planning line based on file management and everything corresponding to Excel. That said, its integrations are also very good, there is the case of Excel I can address any important document and work based on that file.

Cons

I have no bad thing to say about Smartsheet, it is totally effective and the employees have adjusted to their tools, they work very comfortably and without errors arising during the process.

Pros

Collaboration
Action features
How to tutorials/onboarding is good
Webforms

Cons

Lack of a chat support system or ticketing system
The upsell on functions - have free collaborators now having to pay to do things they could of done prior even though they had been using the system for years. Understand if certain features are now paid to commercialise the product, however I think it is unfair to penalise historic users. If you looked at a micro level with us you will see a 200% growth in our subscription over its lifetime and I feel this short term and automated upsell could and has damaged perceptions of the overall product. 18 months ago I would of been a 10 regarding recommedations and now it is less.

Pros

I love the Smartsheet Community who will help you find ways to adapt Smartsheet to suit each individual need you may have. I've been using the software for years and every time I've wanted to use it for something new we've found a way! Sometimes there have been delays due to the capacity not being there YET, but it's easy to submit a Product Enhancement Request.

There are updates and innovations ALL THE TIME and while they're not shoved down your throat, there's plenty of support out there if you want it, not only from the Community but also videos and webinars (live or recorded). If you've got the motivation and imagination then I think the possibilities are unlimited, without needing to be a programmer or have any coding knowledge.

Cons

There's not much I can say that's bad about Smartsheet. I find it slightly difficult that it's very US based and I'm in the UK, but that's true of most comparable software.

I'm also not keen on the Learning Centre as it sometimes assumes a level of knowledge that is beyond me and I find it incomprehensible! It's not a problem though as I can easily turn to the Community!

Pros

Smartsheet provides a very robust collaboration tool among teams and teams from other companies. The ability to show timelines, comments, attachments, and dates - all in one place - make it very easy to stay on track with projects. This tool also provides a very nice mobile and app platform to work off of while out on the go. We utilize the professional (paid) version to encompass all of the features that we need and are no longer offered in the free version, such as the ability to email directly from the sheet, send for updates, and utilize the reminder functions. Emailing directly from the sheet is a great feature since it allows you to send the comments, attachments, and info from the line all in one easy-to-read email. You can also cc yourself on the email so that you know that it was sent.

Cons

One of the things about Smartsheet that could be updated is the ability to copy info from one sheet and create a new sheet. For example, my team utilizes this tool for registration for certain programs at our university. The ability to copy the entire sheet (with all of the info and attachments) onto a new sheet and update the dates, or minimal information, would be a great function to have. The other option would be to allow more functionality in the free version (which was previously there). The update to only allowing email sends from a single line in the professional (paid) version now is a bit challenging when we only budgeted for a certain amount of licenses for the academic year (and we all know how stingy higher ed budgets are right now)

Pros

Very easy to learn and get users onboard quickly. Works much like Excel yet with much more document sharing functionality and the notifications service is most beneficial to us. Very cost efficient in that our clients don't need to purchase a license so we use this to collaborate with them for our project work.

Cons

Very little not to like. Advanced functionality we need to not alwasys there, however, Smartsheet comes out with new features a few times a year and they always very helpful. Biggest complaint is that we have not yet figured out how to provide users edit access to a group and yet limit certain sheets within that group to viewer only. Would also like to see more options for backups and restores.

Pros

Simplicity of use. Minimal downtime. Customer support has been great, and very responsive. Communication when downtime will occur, or when issues are taking place.

Cons

I do not have any issues or complaints regarding the software.

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

Projects are easy to set up with the built in functionality. There are lots of built in templates that you can use. But we have found it most helpful to build our own templates. We really appreciate being able to add dependencies, working and non working days, and duration. Then the start and end dates fill in automatically. We have found that the learning curve is not nearly as steep for Smartsheet as it was for Microsoft Project.

Another really helpful feature is being able to use formulas in the Project Plan. Our team schedules our work using a points system. I was able to create formulas that take the number of points for that task and who is assigned to that task to create a point breakdown for each person or team assigned. We then use the linking feature to link the total points for the project, the points accomplished, and the status of the project to a master "Queue" sheet.

Smartsheet has special formula values available for children and ancestors of a task. So, we use a simple =Sum(Children()) formula to add up the points. Actually, the formulas end up being more complicated because we can test whether the row has children or not and do different things depending on the test. For instance, when summing the work completed if the task has no children, then the product of the percent complete and points gives us the number of points completed. If the row is a parent, then the formula sums the children.

Cons

For project planning the resources feature is not as helpful as it could be. The main reason is that if a staff is assigned to a row during a particular time, the resource function assumes that they are 100% allocated for that time. So, if you have three tasks that overlap, the resource allocations shows 300%. We have mitigated that by routinely filling in 30% allocation for each resource. This helps to take into account the fact that a task although it lasts a full week won't take up all the staff's time. One idea I have had recently--but haven't tried yet--is to make a formula that takes the number of points for the task and assigns an appropriate allocation number based on points per week.

The other feature that we haven't found useful is the "Critical Path." How the software determines what is on the critical path is a mystery. I'm not sure why it chooses some tasks that have dependencies filled in, but not others that seem to be just as important.

Pros

I love how accessible and customizable the product is. We're able to make it do so much to integrate various departments and help work flow across the organization.

Cons

Some of the features aren't carried from sheet to sheet when you save as a Template or save a project as "new", and having to reconfigure alert rules can be time consuming.

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

Smartsheet is much easier to use for Project Managemen than the classic Microsoft Project software I was originally trained on. It allows people to manage work with the intelligence of a project scheduling tool, but with an easy to understand and use spreadsheet interface. Since Smartsheet is a cloud product, each Smartsheet is available from any computer by just logging into the website, or even from their mobile app. Another great Project Management benefits is that the Project Manager can share a Smartsheet with their whole team to collaborate together.

We also use the Smartsheet for Jira Connector which allows us to sync information back and forth between the two systems. Jira can be complicated to navigate, and the dashboarding can be really frustrating. This connector allows us to keep track of individual tickets associated with a project, and even lets us import massive data sets for analysis.

Finally, we have ended up using Smartsheet as a dashboarding tool. It's actually surprisingly good as a Business Intelligence visualization tool for keeping track of our projects, and for displaying Jira dashboarding.

Cons

Like any software there are small quirks I'd like to see changed, or hotkeys added, but overall I'm impressed with the constant cadence of feature updates and enhancements.

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

SmartSheet is a good project management tool that has an interface similar to Excel.
Pros:

1. Multiple Project Views - Project managers will appreciate the multiple viewing options such as Gannt and Kanban, standard spreadsheet and even a calendar view. Many options for different managers.

2. If Spreadsheets are your thing, SmartSheet is worth a try - If you and your team use spreadsheets a lot, you may appreciate that SmartSheet is based off the concept of spreadsheets, you can adopt and add different sheets for a variety of projects. So whether basic or advanced, a host of users can easily adapt to Smartsheet if they know how to use a spreadsheet, even to the point of adding formulas and formatting of cells. This is a huge selling point which makes SmartSheet a good option.

3. As Good as Project Management tools get - As a project management tool Smartsheet covers the basics. You get milestones, task management, comments, collaboration and project management and as mentioned before the view options.

4. You can add collaborators to a project for free - A good thing is that you can add multiple “users” to access Smartsheets without paying extra. If you do need to give them more privileges, there are options to set them up.

5. Support for Smartsheet is stellar - There is a thriving community of users and help guides and videos if you ever find yourself stuck and not sure what to do.

6. Smartsheet also integrates well with Microsoft Office 365.

Cons

There is not a lot to gripe about SmartSheets other than on occasion, the app can lag or suffer an error and finding what error it is and how to fix it can be a little frustrating.

There is a limitation with exporting reports. If you want to display data in a visual way, you may need to manually extract the data and then add it into another application. If the reports feature could be improved and maybe export in a usable format it would be a solid winner.

Pros

SmartSheet is a cloud-based tool that helps Project Managers better align their resources, cost and time. Being a part of a virtual team responsible for collaborating whilst managing critical projects, Smartsheet has been indispensable in helping us track project timeline through interactive Gantt charts, establish critical paths, manage team resources, analyze budget and costs, in addition, to document sharing through OneDrive, Skype and even the app.
It is definitely reliable, has a simple user interface, flexibility in function, offers real-time data tracking through dashboards and training additional collaborators is uncomplicated. I love how SmartSheet offers a powerful conditional formatting feature, visualization of data that is editable and printable for presentations and has a spreadsheet-like interface (like Excel) yet is straightforward, unlike its counterparts.
Another thumbs up feature is that SmartSheet offers a 30-day trial wherein full functionality can be tested and project plans produced before actually investing in the software!

Cons

Our firm works from Sunday to Thursday (unlike the USA) and though they are advised well ahead, maintenance windows don't always align with our schedule, and we have to work around that. One attribute that can definitely be improved is the option of turning on auto-save, instead of manually saving the document. Often the development of a comprehensive project plan across several collaborators is quite intense and even if one of them fails to manually save the document, it is quite a hassle.

Pros

Smartsheet has so much going for it. It truly fits the new technological world that we live in by providing more than just the basics. Being a cloud-based application (SaaS), and compatible with mobile devices, makes it more functional across the board. It mostly touts itself as a project management tool, which is very true. Most project managers utilize certain applications that require the project to be saved down to a file, which is not easily shareable. Smartsheet can handle the same project management tools and live in cyberspace that can be utilized by numerous people, which different levels of access (viewing, editing, administering) and different views (tasks, gantt, kanban, etc.), and allow people to make comments, add attachments, and more. The most use I have made of Smartsheet within my organization is using it like a spreadsheet. I'm able to have numerous sheets for different departments where they have access to only their own sheets and update only what they need to update. Then I can create a new sheet that combines information from all of the sheets that will auto-update from the original sheets. I can also create reports and dashboards (with charts, metrics, etc.) based on information from all the different sheets. It's quite functional and utilizes much of the same fundamental logic that Excel provides. The Smartsheet website has an extremely detailed (and searchable) Help section and very active Community. Even includes videos to help guide!

Cons

Smartsheet does have some limitations. Most specifically, it isn't Excel and it isn't Project, so users shouldn't expect it to do everything those applications can do. However, there are times when it seems obvious that a particular functionality should be included that isn't. With that said, Smartsheet does a great job of listening to the Community and is constantly improving the application with enhancements to help the Community with its most voted on requests. Another thing that is frustrating is when an error pops up. More often than not, the error is written in a way that doesn't tell the user how to fix the error. Again, when this happens, I just reach out to the Community and get the answers I need.