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I was informed today that Smartsheet has recently updated its license and data access structure. I was certified in 2020, working for a global company, and constantly had to ward off rumors that Smartsheet was going away.

I joined a new company and became an advocate of Smartsheet, which has over 5,000 employees, an approximately 1,000-person salesforce, and more than 300 managers.

When I heard the news today, my initial reaction was that a structural change like this would be detrimental to revenue and profits, and ultimately, to Smartsheet's future. It simply couldn't be true! This makes being an advocate so much more challenging. I now need to reconsider publishing dashboards and relying on update requests when managers are making changes through SharePoint and a Smartsheet dashboard. The task feels daunting and not so collaborative. The company's stance is to seek a Microsoft solution.

Will this endeavor be reversed?

@Iris Xie @Caleb Thompson

I went through the same issue recently.

Just because a user has a license does not mean their account is "active". Active is when a user has logged into the account successfully going through authentication of that login.

I learned in order to transfer premium app items, the user has to be a licensed user and have logged into the premium app at least once. If the owner of the premium app had a license and it was then revoked, that user's account would need their license reinstated, log in to become "active" AND log into the premium app again. The new owner has to be a licensed user and have logged into the premium app at least once as well.

As a system admin, there are some premium apps you can transfer ownership of by going to the premium app and the Admin section (Dynamic View) or selecting the option to view all the Organization's items (Data Shuttle). I know for sure those 2 premium apps can be transferred to new owners. Dynamic View is a bit more finicky because the new owner has to already be added as an Admin have Admin/Owner permissions on the source and target sheets or you're SOL.

Core assets are automatically transferred to a new owner if a user is shared with Admin permissions for that asset, or can be accessed by any user with Plan Asset Admin permissions.

We are already looking at a new system to use as SS is no longer viable for us as and the cost makes this prohibitive. We have projects that last for 3 to 6 months, users who will now have have a licence after 30 days is a waste of money, yes they can be transferred, but if I have 20 people on one project = 20 licenses, then 10 people on another project = 10 licenses, so what happens to the 10 licenses I purchased earlier… It's a rubbish concept and does not work and I am sure will drive customers away at a time when the company needs to make money after just being taken over. As I said, we are already looking at alternatives and won't renew our current subscription.

Such a sad situation…it has taken the beauty that attracted so many of us to Smartsheet and decimated it. We're now between a rock and a hard place as a non-profit with over 100 users who will now be losing access, thus putting additional work back to those with a license - and we don't have the capacity.

It is likely that in the next year we may need to find alternates as this is a major hit to our budget, and being supported by those who sacrifice to give to our organization, we just can't justify this massive budget expenditure long-term.

I have been an internal advocate for Smartsheet for almost 14 years, and sadly, can no longer do so.

You’ve hit on a very real and widely shared frustration with Smartsheet’s new user-based licensing model — especially around auto-provisioning and viewer access.

Let’s unpack what’s going on, why it’s a challenge, and what options/workarounds you might explore to strike a better balance between control and visibility.

🔒 What Changed in the New Licensing Model

Under the previous model, you could:

• Add your entire company via an Active Directory (AD) group.
• Assign viewer-only access to sheets, reports, and dashboards.
• Users weren’t charged unless they edited content or were upgraded.

Under the new model (with auto-provisioning behavior):

• Anyone added (via AD group or manually) becomes a Provisional Member.
• Even viewer access can trigger license provisioning or user tracking.
• To prevent budget creep, many admins removed broad AD groups.

😩 Real-World Impact

You've experienced:

• A loss of visibility → users can no longer freely explore or view Smartsheet dashboards.
• A drop in engagement & advocacy → since most people are locked out unless licensed or shared individually.
• A maintenance nightmare → having to manually share each dashboard/report with specific people or manage viewer groups by hand.

This runs directly counter to how collaborative tools are supposed to scale.

✅ Options to Consider (and Recommended Workarounds)

1. Use Published Dashboards for View-Only Access

• You can publish dashboards as read-only web links (internal or public).
• No Smartsheet login needed.
• Users can view charts, summaries, and reports (but cannot interact).

How:

• Open Dashboard → File → Publish Dashboard
• Choose: Only available to users in your account (for semi-restricted access)

✅ Pros:

• Anyone can view without triggering licensing
• Zero risk of unauthorized editing
• Fast & scalable

❌ Cons:

• No row-level interactivity
• No secure access to sensitive data

2. Use a “Viewer Role” Shared Group, Not Linked to AD

• Instead of AD, create a manual group inside Smartsheet (e.g., Internal Viewers)
• Share sheets/reports/dashboards to this group with Viewer access
• Only add users who’ve requested access (opt-in basis)
• Avoids triggering Provisional licenses for everyone at once

✅ Pros:

• Gives you control over who can view without mass provisioning
• Can be managed monthly or quarterly

3. Train Stakeholders to Use “Request Access” Instead

• Use automation or buttons on intranet portals to let users ask for Smartsheet dashboard access
• Route them to a form or email that your team can review before provisioning access or adding to the viewer group
• Avoids blanket access while keeping engagement high

4. Raise It with Smartsheet (and Other Customers Are Too)

Smartsheet knows this change has caused frustration.

In Smartsheet Community, this is a known concern being raised by:

• Enterprise admins
• IT departments
• Champions who’ve lost visibility and usage stats

You’re not alone. The more structured feedback they get — especially from large orgs — the more likely adjustments will come.

🚨 Bottom Line

You’re 100% right:

Locking everything behind rigid provisioning kills organic adoption and advocacy.

Until Smartsheet reconsiders auto-provisioning behaviors (or licenses for viewers), your best options are:

• Published dashboards for read-only access
• Manual viewer groups
• Request-based access models
• Clear documentation/intranet integration to help internal users find the dashboards and know how to request access.

Barry - I was unaware that SS had been bought out by these other entities…sad day, for sure, if they are out for nothing than a money grab instead of providing the current product to their loyal base.

@Naeem Ejaz Thanks for your response.

Until the new licensing model we had everyone in our company added to an 'ALL Active Directory' group. This group had viewer access to all reporting and dashboard content (unless we intentionally removed their access for confidentiality reasons). With the new licensing model, we had to DELETE that group because it forced every new user to be added as a 'Provisional Member'. The maintenance nightmare of this can't be overstated!

We went from everyone being able to see how great the Smartsheet platform (and our content) was, to very few seeing it. Clearly, this does nothing to increase user interest in Smartsheet. We had so many people who started advocating for Smartsheet simply because they were able to see the cool things it could do. Now it is locked away to prevent unbudgeted spending by unauthorized people adding new users.