How to add someone as a provisional member?

I am the admin for our Smartsheet team. I went to add two new people to our account and was informed that the Add Member option had moved to the Seat Types and True Up Page. I was able to add the first person with no issue, as they're just going to be a Viewer, but I wanted to give the second person Provisional Member status and only found the option to select Member or Viewer.

My True-up page has gone up by one and the user is now showing on that list as a Member, which looks like it means we will be charged for their seat during our next invoice which is in 8 days. I thought we were supposed to be able to make people Provisional Members and have a 30-day grace period to test and determine whether a user needs Member status or if they can get by as a Viewer. Is that not an option anymore? If it is, can someone please walk me through how to make this user a Provisional Member instead of a full one?

Thank you!

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Provisional Member

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JessN

Update (11/17): I received an email that confirmed we were about to be billed for the additional seat, so I reached out to Support and chatted first with the Smartsheet AI, then with a live agent.

The chat bot informed me that if I add someone directly to our team as a Member, it skips the Provisional Member status. The bot suggested that I downgrade the new user to Viewer, then add them to one of our sheets as a Commenter or Editor. PLEASE NOTE that this suggestion did not work. I did so, which sent the user an email to open and access the sheet in question, but they let me know that they weren't able to edit the sheet as it told them they only had viewer status.

According to the live agent, if a user needs Comment/Edit access after being downgraded, they will need to be manually upgraded to Member. The agent has confirmed that if you make someone a Member at the start and then downgrade them to Viewer, you can't then give them Provisional Member status.

So it sounds like going forward, I will need to add users as Viewers, then either give them Commenter/Editor access to something or add them to a group that has Member-level permissions in order for them to convert to Provisional Member once they interact with Smartsheet.

All comments

Mike Ferringer

Hi @JessN

If you have UAP turned on ( in settings on the Admin page) any new user added will be added as a Provisional Member. You can then immediately downgrade to Viewer (as with the first person in your example) or let them continue as provisional until you know for sure their final status.

If you have UAP turned off and add them manually, then as you indicate your options are either Viewer or Member. If you select Member, you can still downgrade them to Viewer on the Seat Types and True-up page at any time before the end of your True-up period. As I understand it, you won't be charged for that additional member seat until after the True-up which should be at least 30 days (depending on when the person is added during the cycle).

JessN

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply! I've located UAP in my admin panel and found that I do seem to have that turned on already.

When I add someone I enter their name and email by clicking "Add User" and this is what I see:

When I select Member, it seems to have automatically added them to our billing cycle as a Member rather than giving them Provisional Status/allowing us 30 days of a True Up period.

Referring back to my original post, I added this person on Tuesday (November 11). According to our Seat Types and True Up page it says that the usage period is through October 19 and the review period is through November 18, but it also says that our total billable seat count has gone up by one and one additional seat is needed. That reads to me as us getting billed for one additional member on the 18th.

This is how they show up in my list (identical to the rest of our Paid Members). They haven't yet received access to their account so there is no activity to be had yet.

It'd be great to hear that I'm just misreading this! But if I'm not, I'm wondering if it's because I am the one who essentially creates the account for our team members? Our current process is that I'm told when we get a new hire and I go to the Add User page and add their name and email address. They then get an invite from Smartsheet to log in and confirm their account/begin using our Workspaces.

JessN

Update (11/17): I received an email that confirmed we were about to be billed for the additional seat, so I reached out to Support and chatted first with the Smartsheet AI, then with a live agent.

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