How are users added to the User Management page of the Admin Center vs the user reports?

I have opened MULTIPLE Smartsheet support tickets (which have since been closed) and discussions with our account reps without success so I am hoping someone in the community can help me.

Since November 2024, I have been trying understand the logic around how a user is added and removed on 3 user reports

User Roles and Reports (i.e. the User Management page of the Admin Center - see screen shot)
User Type report
Sheet Access Report.

We want to understand why we have such discrepancies in the number of unique users between the 3 reports but more importantly we will be converting to the new USM soon so we are trying to audit our user list so we have a good estimate of Members and provisional Members. I also want to know when a control or restriction says "users on your plan" which report should I be referencing that correctly tells me the users on our plan.

I have users that appear on one or two of the reports and not the other(s). For example, there are users on our User Type report that do not appear on the User Management page in the Admin Center. I also have users on the User Type Report that do NOT appear on the Sheet Access Report and vice versa users on the Sheet Access Report but not on the User Type Report.

This includes both internal and external users, users that do not have a verified domain login, users who haven't logged in or with no documented activity for >365 days (sometimes days in the THOUSANDS).

What causes a user to be added to each of the 3 reports?
What would be the reason a user appears on one report but not the other 2?
Why are users with significant # days since their Last Activity remain on a report?
What does it mean if the Last Activity field (on the User Type report) and Last Login field (on the User Management page) are blank?

I am just trying to understand the criteria for when a user is added to the 3 reports and what actions removes a user from the 3 reports.

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Isaac A.

Hi @Trang Turtletraxx!

I understand how important clarity is when managing users and preparing for your transition to the new User and Subscription Management (USM) model. Here's an overview to help explain the differences between the User Management page in Admin Center, User Type reports, and Sheet Access reports:

1. User Management Page (Admin Center)

The User Management page in the Admin Center allows System Admins to view and manage users directly. Here, you can perform actions such as transferring ownership, adjusting permissions, and generating user reports. It displays licensed and unlicensed users who are part of your plan under the Legacy Collaborator model.

However, it does not include users from other Smartsheet plans who are shared to your sheets or assets, only those directly part of your plan will appear.

More details: Admin Center: User Management

2. User Type Report

The User Type report is a downloadable CSV that provides a comprehensive overview of all users associated with your plan who have signed in at least once. This includes internal and external users and helps identify who is licensed, unlicensed, or a guest.

It contains information such as:

Email and domain (to identify internal vs. external users)
User type (Licensed, Free, Guest)
Admin access (System, Group, Plan Asset Admin roles)
Permissions and recent activity

This is the report I would recommend reviewing when thinking about how many Members may be needed. It includes users currently licensed on your plan, unlicensed users (who may need to be Members or Viewers), and Guests who might also need to be considered as Members.

More details:

3. Sheet Access and Published Items Report

This report allows you to audit user access across your items, showing who can access what, and when they last accessed it. It includes all users shared to your sheets, regardless of whether they are licensed, part of your plan, or from an external organization.

There are two formats depending on the size of your data:

A standard version for small to medium datasets
An alternate version for larger datasets, which provides raw data and item URLs for deep review

More details: Sheet Access and Published Items Report

Why Users May Differ Across Reports

The User Management Page only shows users directly part of your plan.
The User Type Report includes users who have logged into Smartsheet at least once and have access to assets on your plan.
The Sheet Access Report includes anyone shared to your sheets, including external collaborators or users from other plans.

If a user has a blank "Last Activity" or "Last Login" field, it generally means they haven’t logged in or taken any action in Smartsheet.

I hope this helps clarify things! Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Cheers,
Isaac.

Trang Turtletraxx

@Isaac A. you are AMAZING and the first person to lay things out in a way that makes sense. THANK YOU for taking the time to explain this so clearly. I had a few clarifying questions related to your response.

I've been auditing to "clean up" the user management page, waiting a couple of days (since the reports are refreshed daily), rerun the reports and see the same thing - some users I REMOVED or Revoked Access from the User Management page still appear on the User Type and/or the Sheet Access reports while some no longer appear on any of the reports. There are also users that are NOT on the User Type or Sheet Access reports but are on the User Management page.

Is there a specific trigger or criteria that identifies when a user is added or removed from to one report, multiple reports vs the others?

User Management Page: these are "users who are part of your plan" or "directly part of our plan" and does NOT include users from other Smartsheet plans who are shared to your sheets or assets…"
1. How is a user identified as "part of our plan"?
2. How do external users that do NOT have a verified domain added to the User Management page?
User Type Report: this is "a comprehensive overview of all users associated with your plan who have signed in at least once."
1. Is there a difference between a user that is "associated" with our plan vs "(directly) part" of our plan (defined for the User management page)?
2. Is that an distinct different between the 2 reports? Or are those terms interchangeable?
3. This report is constantly referred to as "the source of truth" to help estimate the user population pre and post USM such as you did but there are users on the User Management page that do not appear on the User Type Report.
  1. We created a process we plan to use under USM to run the User Type report to identify the provisional Members we will manage at True-up. An automated workflow will send a notification with a link to a form where provisional Members choose the user type they want to be after their provisional period ends (upgrading to a Member, downgrade to a Viewer or deactivate their account).
  2. We run the risk of some users not receiving the notification if there are discrepancies between the 2 reports (i.e. if there are users on the User Management page that do not appear on the User Type report). Any suggestion how to mitigate this risk?
Sheet Access Report: this anyone "shared to your sheets, including external collaborators or users from other plans."
1. Can you expand on what you mean by these users includes users from other plans? It was my understanding that user access and capabilities are plan specific.

Thanks in advance for any additional insight!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Trang Turtletraxx

I'm just jumping in here to hopefully clarify one important thing:

Since you have not yet changed over to the User Subscription Model (USM), everything you're currently seeing in the Admin Center or the User Management Page is in relation to the Legacy Collaborator Model.

Previously, System Admins manually added users to the plan (part of the plan) and identified if they were licensed or unlicensed.

However the sheets owned by that plan may have been shared with others that were then not tracked in the Admin Center - these users were associated with your plan but not managed by your System Admin. They were on other plans, yet shared on your sheets.

You can find these shared users in the User Type Report and check what they're shared to in the Sheet Access Report.

After changing to USM your Admin Center will be aligned with the User Type Report!

Here's more information: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2483341-system-admin-guide-migration-user-subscription-model

If you have any other questions specific to transitioning your plan, I would advise working directly with your Account Manager in a private channel so you can share more detailed information.

Cheers,
Genevieve

Trang Turtletraxx

@Genevieve P. thank you for that clarification.

As a Legacy customer, the only users that can request a license are users with a verified domain. If the user already has account listed in the Admin Center, we just toggle the License to ON. If they don't, we manually invite them. I can figure out that Unlicensed Users with a verified domain are added to the Admin Center User Management page are added through our SSO, but can't figure out how the users that do NOT have a verified domain are added and how they are identified as Internal Users on the User Type report. Or why they would be listed in our Admin Center User Management page but NOT on the User Type and/or Sheet Access reports.

As for the sheets shared leading to associated with our plan - If I understand how you and @Isaac A. defined these users is the User Type report are associated users that have logged in at least once, while the Shared Asset report are ALL shared users whether they've logged in or not?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Trang Turtletraxx

The way users are added to your account on the Legacy version will be up to you + your System Admins. 🙂 It sounds like you may have Auto Provisioning enabled, but that some other users were manually added as well (the ones without domain verification). I cannot tell you how those were added, as that would have been a manual addition from a System Admin on your plan.

If these accounts are not in your other reports, then likely those users were added to the plan (potentially for tracking purposes, such as with Resource Management?) but have not used Smartsheet or logged in, which means they won't need to be Members when you switch to USM.

To your last question - yes!

Cheers,
Genevieve

Trang Turtletraxx

There are only 3 System Admins and our policy is free email domains are prohibited and the only time a user is added manually is if they request a license and do not already have an account listed in the User Management page. I have already confirmed there is no reason we would track external user resources.

To our point about Resource Management - when users are managed through the RM instance to track capacity and utilization but are not actively doing anything in the Smartsheet application or RM, are they still added to these reports as associated with our plan/shared users?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Trang Turtletraxx

If they appear in the Smartsheet Admin reports depends on what this user has done in Smartsheet!

If the RM resource has never logged into a Smartsheet account, they will not appear in the User Type report.
If the RM resource has never been shared to anything in Smartsheet, they will not appear in your Sheet Access report.

However

If the RM resource has been added as an unlicensed member of your plan on the Legacy Model, they will show in the Admin Center as being a part of your current plan.

With USM, you can still keep track of these accounts in your Admin Center by making them free Viewers.

For any specific questions about individual users and how they appear in current reports versus how they will appear in USM, I would still suggest working directly with your Account Manager as they'll be able to speak to your specific scenario and account set-up. 🙂

Trang Turtletraxx

@Genevieve P. Thank you for your time and patience in clarifying all this for me. I have been trying to work with our account reps and Smartsheet support and have never come close to being able to explain this as you and Isaac have. I think I understand the concept now - for the most part at least.

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