Access to All workspaces, sheets, dashboards and reports

It would be helpful if a System Admin or new role had access to all workspaces, sheets, dashboards and reports. Currently, we don't have a way to see how the organization is using Smartsheet. I can run a Sheet Access report, but, I don't have the ability to see how Smartsheet is being used.

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JessicaHall

This has been suggested for years now. I have no idea what the hesitation is with this. All of the other platforms we use have this capability as Sys Admin. It is hindering our use and understanding of Smartsheet. I have been asking for this since Engage 2019. :) Can we PLEASE get any forward movement with this?

Kathryn Houck

I would like both what is described above as well as a "view only, view all" Currently our CEO is able to look at anything they want in any folder on our file share. Since they are in charge of it all they can see it all. They would like to have that same ability in Smartsheet so nothing is 'hidden' from them. But that only works if the person who build the sheets remembers to share it to them.

Carol-Anne Cerbone

Definitely need to have this functionality as a system admin. Need to know what people are putting out in their workspaces so that it complies with out IT standards.

Stu Benoff

I am sorry, but, I do not agree with this request, as written, so maybe it could be fine-tuned? We have many HR, research, financial and other very private data in some of our sheets and, as a System Admin, I do not want access to this data unless the owner or other authorized individual specifically grants it to me. Having it the way you suggest feels like a violation of audit and compliance regulations.

I think you could have a policy that "asks" your owners to grant view access to a CEO-READONLY account and give that to the CEO and, as a system admin, you could audit that these shares are/are not in place by using the Sheet Access report. Then, only the CEO, and NOT the system admin would be authorized to login using the CEO-READONLY account.

I feel like if I had this functionality then I could held accountable for any violations or misuse of the tool and that sounds to be above my pay grade.

I have been thinking about a similar need to what you're describing and contemplating the use of a survey to capture it. We could build a sheet from the sheet access report and send update requests to the owner of each sheet asking them to "check off/certify" the types of data contained in the sheet. This puts the responsibility on them. If they don't answer or answer honestly that's on them. I'm not risking my job over their misuse.

Know what I mean? Happy to discuss further.

Warren jenkins

I recently contacted support about this and was amazed to find that what I thought would be a simple function doesn't exist.

We have had staff leave recently and not so recently and have had requests from senior management to look for data that they may have stored in sheets that they may of owned or shared or transferred with someone else prior to leaving. I'm not a big user of Smartsheet, but was amazed to find that there is no way to perform a simple search for all sheets within our organization and be able to access them without them being shared. This is a basic administration function.

I was advised that a Sheet Access Report can be run, but this isn't really the same thing so maybe this can be a feature request?

Thanks,

WJ.

ker9

We have an Enterprise Plan and I am an Administrator. We run a sheet access report per user when someone terminates. It can also be run for the entire account. What we cannot see that we absolutely should have access to is any add-on integrations such as WorkAps, DataMesh, Pivot, etc. We can see Dynamic Views through the Transfer icon.

Visibility for add-on integrations is critical.

I disagree that Administrators should have access to sheets - there are confidentiality reasons not to give actual access, but you can still see that it exists and who owns it through the Sheet Access reports. Unfortunately, they just removed the ability to see the Owner in a separate column, making it more difficult to manage.

Warren jenkins

Systems Administrators have full access to everything so why should Smarsheets be considered differently? Anything contained within an organization's systems and licensed applications etc. are the intellectual property of that organization. Therefore, should the CEO request access to it, they are entitled to see it and therefore an administrator should have the ability to be able to search and provide the access, just the same as anything else stored within the system - it's basic systems administration.

Robbert

I don't need access to the content, but having a way retrieve a list of all sheets, reports, dashboards, etc. and some stats about them would making administrating Smartsheet much easier. Also being able to take or reassign ownership would be nice to have.

Kelly Ospina

I strongly support the ask that System Admins have access to all data in the system. I am also a Salesforce Administrator, and this is how it is in that system, and in fact seems to be pretty standard in other systems I'm familiar with. The data doesn't belong to the user, it belongs to the organization, so the data privacy argument doesn't make sense to me.

Samuel Mueller

Through the API, a System admin can get any information and update shares. I did upvote this though. I also believe that their admin changes that are upcoming will help resolve some of these issues.

Jesse Crandall

@Samuel Mueller by default do System admins have access to view all sheets through the API or do they have to utilize the "Assume-User" header? https://smartsheet.redoc.ly/#section/API-Basics/HTTP-Headers

Samuel Mueller

@Jesse Crandall they must use the Assume-User header. Also if a user has left the organization it is best practice to transfer their owned items to a new user, which can be done in User admin. If they transferred it prior to leaving you would have to know who it was transferred to unless their account still has access to it.

QuanT

Hi all, thanks for the suggestion!

As part of the Asset Ownership launch that's coming up, we are providing a mechanism for SysAdmins and the new Plan Asset Admin role to get access to content. This still requires the SsyAdmin or Plan Asset Admin to have a link to the asset and if they click on it, they need to request access. If the asset has an owner or admin(s), the request goes to the owner and admin(s) to review and grant access. This prevents someone from accessing potentially confidential data. If the owner is deactivated and there are no admins on the asset, the access request goes to the Plan Asset Admin. If no Plan Asset Admin is assigned, the request goes to the SysAdmin. In that situation, the Plan Asset Admin or SysAdmin can grant themselves permission and view the contents of the asset.

We are also evaluating building reports to get a list of all assets in your plan. This is still being designed and we'd love any feedback you have around that.

Will.Parente

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/410794#Comment_410794

This 100%. Give me the ability to view the file structure - not the data. Add the ability to reassign sheets without being shared to the sheet would be great.

Stu Benoff

Yes @Will.Parente - "Add the ability to reassign sheets without being shared to the sheet would be great."

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