New seat management downgrade updates

Ryan Dougal · 2025-08-26T16:42:35+00:00

August, 26, 2025 * Retain group access: Downgraded Members will remain in their assigned groups to ensure continuity. * Maintain consistent permissions: Downgraded Members will retain access to their assets with permissions aligned with their Seat Type. If they become Members in the future, their original asset permissions…

Ryan Dougal

August, 26, 2025

Retain group access: Downgraded Members will remain in their assigned groups to ensure continuity.
Maintain consistent permissions: Downgraded Members will retain access to their assets with permissions aligned with their Seat Type. If they become Members in the future, their original asset permissions will be restored.
Reduce administrative burden: Users will be converted to a Provisional Member only a single time to eliminate repetitive downgrades.

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Comments

Julie Fortney

Thanks for the update, Ryan.

If I understand the changes around access levels for group members, this is good news. Could you confirm this scenario is correct?

I have a Smartsheet group called Engineers, and I add that group to a project workspace with Editor permissions. One of the group members is an intern, whom I do not want to be a paid member. The intern comments on a sheet in that workspace, which converts them to a provisional member. At the next true-up, I convert the intern to a free user. Before this recent change, the intern would have been automatically removed from the Engineers group. Instead, the intern will remain in the Engineers group, which means they will retain access to the project workspace. When the intern visits the workspace, they will have view-only sharing permissions in the workspace. Because a user will only be converted to a Provisional Member once, the intern will not be able to take a member-level action such as commenting again.

Let's say the intern is promoted to a full-time engineer, and I want them to have the same permissions as the other engineers. I can go into Admin Center and convert them to a paid member, which will give them the full sharing permissions granted to any groups they are in.

Please correct me if any of this scenario is inaccurate. Thanks!

David Tutwiler

Ryan,

My question is about a different point than Julie's. In the last bullet point you reference that "Users will be converted to a Provisional Member only a single time to eliminate repetitive downgrades."

Does that mean that you won't be able to downgrade Provisional Members more than once, or that once you downgrade a team member they will not be marked as a Provisional Member in the next True Up cycle? If it is the latter, how will that work if they are shared to a sheet or create an asset that would normally qualify them to be a Provisional Member?

Ryan Dougal

Confirmed! The scenario you have outlined is correct.

Ryan Dougal

They won't be marked as a Provisional Member in the next true-up cycle. The System Admin would need to upgrade that user to Member for them to have Commenter and above permissions, regardless of what they are shared to.

David Tutwiler

This sound like great news, but I want to be very specific here because the functionality of how this works could be important.

If I have a user A who is a Viewer on everything they have access to in Smartsheet, but then another user B shares them to a sheet as an Editor, they will show up as a Provisional Member during the next True Up Cycle. If, at the time, I (they sys admin) decide they don't need that and move them back to Viewer for everything, then they won't be marked as a Provisional Member again.

But what happens if user C shares another sheet to user A in the future that they do need to have Edit access to? Is user A unable to make edits to the sheet until they are made a member in the Admin Center?

Ryan Dougal

Correct, the System Admin would need to upgrade user A to Member.

Ryan Dougal

@David Tutwiler - User A would only be able to edit the asset after the System Admin has upgraded their Seat Type to Member.

David Tutwiler

Thank you for that clarification.

AngB789

@Ryan Dougal Similar to that scenario. If that user group is shared as editors, and the enginier has already gone through provisional status then downgraded. If they are still in that editors group (shared as) can I in the back end make them a viewer while still being in that group shared as a editor? Essentially my question is does the admin center permissions ignore that sheet level shared permission to match what I made in admin center (changed the user to Viewer)

Ryan Dougal

They would be changed to Viewer permissions and still have access to that group. Does that make sense?

Ryan Dougal

@AngB789 - Correct!

JGPM

This is interesting:

Because on Friday 9/12 that did not occur for someone who had been down graded before. Is this only for users downgraded AFTER this announcement above dated 8/26?
How will the communication come through to the Admin when a previously downgraded user needs to be an Editor again?

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