Request for Flexible Editing Access for Free Members on Project Plans

SGopireddy

Hello Members,

I hope you’re doing well.

We’re a small team of six members with a Business License — three licensed admins and three free users — using Smartsheet to manage and track multiple project plans. As admins, we create new project plans directly in Smartsheet and import some from Microsoft Project.

However, our free members are currently unable to edit these project sheets. According to your Smartsheet Learning Guide (the “Legacy Collaborator Model” article), free users can view and/or edit sheets they’ve been shared to. But in our case, all our free members appear as Viewers only, and the only permission options I see available to assign are Editor and Viewer seats — no free edit option.

We’re trying to find a cost-effective way for our team to collaborate. Since we cannot currently afford to add more paid licenses or use Data Shuttle for automation, could you please clarify or suggest:

• Why our free users cannot edit sheets even though the documentation states they can?
• If there’s a way (or specific sharing method) to allow editing access without additional paid seats?
• Any affordable or flexible licensing options (e.g., light-editor access, discounted small-team plan, or promotional pricing available if we upgrade this month)?

We appreciate your guidance and any available options to make this work efficiently for our small internal team.

Thank you for your time and support

Tim Dollmeyer

Hello,

Yes, unfortunately Smartsheet changed their licensing model so that editors also require a paid "seat". This just fully went into effect this year, so some of their documentation might not be up to date.

One way around this is to use the Update Request function, which does not require the user the request is sent to to be licensed. You can do this manually by right-clicking on the row in question and selecting Update Request. From there you select columns you want updated along with a note if you want. You can also schedule Update Requests in that manual function. You can also set up automations (top left of the sheet) sending Update Requests when certain criteria have been met.

Hope this helps.

Tim