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License versus Seat Members

Philippe Hill

The change from our 6 licenses to 25 members sheets has caused major disruption within our company. Previously, only the 6 licenses could create sheets, and ll other users could edit…. Now only member seats can edit and my 6 licenses is now 25 member seats.

I previously had 40 users that had editing rights so they could fill in data onto the sheets. So I now have 15 people that can no longer edit sheets and it is causing issues.

Was there an alert from SmartSheet telling us this change was coming? As our company admin, I do not recall getting a communication that this was taking place.

Is anyone else having the same issue? Do I now need to purchase more member sheets because of this change?

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khasimbashashaik

Hey @Philippe Hill ,
Many customers have been impacted by the transition from licenses to Member seats. From what I've seen, Smartsheet did communicate the changes, but the impact on editing permissions wasn't always clear.

If those 15 users need ongoing edit access, you may need additional Member seats. I'd recommend reaching out to your account representative to review your options and licensing setup.

Please feel free to reach out if you need any further support. Thanks

Philippe Hill

Hello @khasimbashashaik ,

I am the Smartsheet admin for the company and I did not receive any communication for this change. So basically, I have to increase the number of member seats in order for my 15 editors to have those rights again.

Very poor customer service by expecting all clients would pony up for more seats because of this change. But here we are with 400 active sheets so there is no way we can change to another platform….

Not happy at all with Smartsheet for this change…

khasimbashashaik

Unfortunately, with the new User Subscription Model, all editors need to be paid member in order to edit sheets directly. However, there are a few workarounds you can use:

Use Update Request automation — users can make updates through automated update requests without needing direct sheet access.
Use Dynamic View — this works well when multiple users need to work from a single source sheet. It allows controlled editing access without giving users full access to the underlying sheet.

I do understand and agree with your concerns around the new model and customer support. That’s where partners like us can help by suggesting alternative solutions and helping customers navigate challenges like these.

Carol Ater

We were told we would be charged per sheet that uses Dynamic View so that wouldn't save you any money either. Couldn't the user be set up as a commenter on the sheet instead of editing? Seems I read that was the solution if the user is not building sheets and only making comments on the sheet.

Paul Newcome

@Carol Ater Depending on exactly how your account is set up, you could be charged per Dynamic View or have unlimited Dynamic Views at a flat rate. There is no "per user" charge for Dynamic View.

Paul Newcome

@Philippe Hill I would suggest looking into Dynamic View for your editors. Users do need a Smartsheet account, but they can be set up with a free SS account and still be able to edit cells in Dynamic Views.

Carol Ater

Hi Paul,

Couldn't we just add them as a commenter instead? We were told it was per sheet per view charge.

Paul Newcome

@Carol Ater If all they need to do is make comments or interact with attachments, then yes. You can set them as a Commenter. This does not work though if they need to be able to edit cell data.

It should only be a "per view" charge if it is added on "a la carte" as opposed to being included in your plan if you have Advanced Work Management which comes with all of the add-ons.

Carol Ater

Thank you Paul. So if they need to be able to comment within a cell it must be a Member seat moving forward? And there are additional costs it is treated as a license?

Thank you,

Carol

Paul Newcome

For internal users, yes. To comment in a cell, they will need a paid Member seat.

If they are external to your organization (based on email domain), they will be able to edit as a free Guest seat type.

Carol Ater

Thank you Paul for your help. Carol

tim.wimmer49936

This change has forced us out of Smartsheet. We have been diligently working to transfer all of our processes to other systems and will not be renewing. We could accept that editors had to be paid users now, (although it should be a lesser cost than a member) but we still don't want editors to create new assets. Since they removed that control the system is useless to our business.

jeckenrode42196

Yes we too are experiencing the same changes to our account. It has become very expensive to have some users simply comment on a status update. As such, we are evaluating our usage of SS across the enterprise and at what cost.

tannermullin

I very much agree that this is frustrating. I want many of our internal teams to be able to edit sheets but not create new sheets and processes. We have worked very hard to standardize processes and sheets so we don't have rouge workflows and this change has threatened that.

I agree with a separate pricing tier for editors that are not allowed to create or edit the structure of the sheets themselves, just the content in them.

Paul Newcome

@jeckenrode42196 Commenters should not require a paid seat. This was updated about a month ago that free internal users can comment and interact with attachments.

If you mean changing a cell in the sheet, have you looked into Update Requests or Dynamic View?

jeckenrode42196

Thank you Paul for bringing this to my attention. I was not aware of the update last month to free internal users. We do have Dynamic View so I will dig into the updates there as well. Thanks!

tim.wimmer49936

This is a business case we presented to them. Nobody ever responded. After 8 years, we are done.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/141313/restore-asset-creation-controls-in-smartsheet-usm

tannermullin

Does this work even if they use the same domain email addresses? Everyone that edits and is in the same domain at our company gets

Paul Newcome

@tannermullin Yes. You can set them up with free Contributor seats, and they will still be able to edit data in the Dynamic View.

Carol Ater

Just a word of caution if you use to many Dynamic Views you will get billed for that also. We are facing that issue at this time. We are trying to rein in how many Dynamic Views that our organization is using.

Carol Ater

Thank you Paul. I appreciate the feedback. I wasn't on the call with Smartsheet and our Organization so I'm not sure if they were offered a different solution other than paying for each Dynamic View we're using.

bgyoung

For 2. - Use Dynamic View, it seems an interesting alternative. However, when clicking into it, we were greeted with messaging stating we are entering into this "Evaluation Mode" of it.
Further digging led to this article: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2483039-Advance-Capabilities-Evaluations with additional information of it at the bottom, including after the evaluation ends to "consider upgrading your service through our sales process to keep the new features."
It seems sheet "Owners" can exercise this evaluation at anytime without any guardrails. Owners can also within this new licensing architecture introduce Editors into sheets they own at will. In turn, those Editors, if left on the default permission "Editor - Can Share" eventually loops the above process and furthers provisional license sprawling. All the while, these users move through the system from Contributors to Provisionals and kicking administrative tasks on to I.T. ahead of these quarterly billing true-ups.

From I.T. System Administrative standpoint, we are finding it increasingly difficult and frustrating in keeping this all in check.

tim.wimmer49936

Yes, they have put the ability to expand system usage and licensing in the hands of the end users and away from Admins. The whole provisional user scheme is ridiculous. Another thing we become extremely annoyed with is they kept contacting random users trying to set up "usage review" meetings. We told them repeatedly to stop contacting our employees and only contact our System Admin. But they kept doing it.

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