suggestions about how to put features of Smartsheets to use

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: NEW: Get Help page in the Community.

Linda Crane

I feel like a recent subscriber to Smartsheet, but I actually paid for the full year last November. Unfortunately, I and my stsff have never been adequately on-boarded nor able to learn how to use it on my own. I don’t know if it’s due to my own failure but I’m starting to feel like I’ve just wasted my money. I am starting to feel like I’ve just wasted my money

I would welcome suggestions from the community about how to put even the most basic features of Smartsheets to use in my estate planning practice. As I write this, I’m not planning to renew my subscription for another year, but I would be happy to do so if it doesn’t turn out to be a complete waste of time and resources.

Linda R. Crane

Crane Law Group, P.C.

Chicago

Matt Johnson

Hi @Linda Crane

Learning Smartsheet on your own can be challenging, learning with YouTube videos and help articles is a lot better, and lots of people partner with companies that specialize in virtual shoulder-to-shoulder guidance.

Sometimes it easier to learn a new tool using familiar data. I would suggest importing an excel file that you and your team is familiar with and start from there. Maybe play around with the automations and see how Smartsheet can alert someone if they are assigned to a task that's coming up in 3 days or that is due for completion in 1 day.

Also try clicking on the "+" sign on the far left and checking out the Templates. They can be overwhelming but the template sets with Dashboards can really inspire great ideas for your data.

I hope that helps and keep the questions coming. The community is here to help.

Matt

Paul Newcome

I completely understand your concern. Smartsheet is so flexible that it proves to have quite a bit of a learning curve.

The help articles will definitely offer a lot of guidance, and the people here in the Community are pretty great.

The other option is to reach out to someone who has the experience you are looking for. Some perks to contracting out the complicated work...

You don't have to invest the time to train to get to the level of some of the professional consultants. Most of them have already completed a lot of training, so you are gaining access to that experience and knowledge much faster.

It can be more cost effective for the company to pay for a consultant "as needed" as opposed to paying a full time salary for an in house Smartsheet person.

Some consultants offer full solution builds as well as generalized support to help fit your needs.

Some consultants can provide consultation as well. Instead of just building out to your specs and walking away, some companies are able to provide advice on best practices or things that maybe you haven't thought of because you were unaware of a certain feature.

Please don't take that last part as me trying to pressure you into reaching out. I am a full time Smartsheet consultant, but I also understand that shopping around is a great idea. That's also assuming an outside consultant is the best fit for your situation to begin with.

If you do decide to explore that route, I would certainly be happy to have your consideration, but you can also explore the new Job Board here in the Community, the Smartsheet Partner portal, and/or good old Google.

Community Job board:

https://community.smartsheet.com/categories/community-job-board

Smartsheet Partner Portal:

https://www.smartsheet.com/marketplace/partners#sort=relevancy&numberOfResults=25&f:@type=%5Bdeveloper%5D&f:@language=%5BEnglish%5D

rshelnutt

Definitely start with the onboarding videos if you haven't already. You might find it helpful to schedule a space and time where several of you can work on it together. That was you can talk about what you might not understand and help each other through the process. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Smartsheet has so much to offer. Please don't throw it away until you have fully given it a try. You'll be glad you did.

Here is a link to the onboarding videos in case you need it. Onboarding Videos (smartsheet.com)

Take care,

Regina

Linda Crane

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement.