Manage personal and work data across two Smartsheet accounts in a unified, secure way

At our senior exec meeting last week, we were discussing things from our personal lives that we manage in Smartsheet. 

We spend so much time talking about how customers use Smartsheet to power processes, that it was a fun change of pace to talk shop about life hacks -- also powered by Smartsheet.

I’m posting to the community because the recent release of our free plan now makes these life hacks much more accessible to folks.  

How can the free plan help?  It provides a way for those who have a Smartsheet account using their employer/work email to create a second Smartsheet account using their personal email address. I have always preferred to keep my personal data separate from my work data because I like having full control over this information. By “full control”, I mean being the sole person who determines who can access or backup my data.  

But keeping some information separate so often carries a convenience tax. Toggling between accounts, anyone? Not so awesome. Good news -- Smartsheet doesn’t impose that tax.

By setting up a Smartsheet account for your personal data, assets you share from your personal Smartsheet account to your work email address are visible, searchable, and reportable by you when you are logged into your work account. Super handy. But because the assets are owned by your personal account, they are not searchable, downloadable, or referenceable by anyone else unless you explicitly share that content with them.

It results in a massively convenient, unified work/life Smartsheet experience.  Your personal punch list or home remodel ledger or tax planner can peacefully coexist right beside your corporate transformation program. :)

If you don’t yet have a personal account setup on Smartsheet, it’s easy to get started:

- Open a browser tab that is not yet logged in with your company Smartsheet account

- Go visit Smartsheet's pricing page

- Choose free plan

- Use your personal email to register (suggest using a Gmail, Microsoft, or AppleID to account to benefit from single-sign on and two factor auth)

- Create a sheet with information that you are frequenting trying to find and keep updated (home info, plans, instructions, etc, etc).

- Share the items to your work email address (any permission level). I tend to share my personal sheets to my work address with ‘admin’ permissions so that I can change sheet configuration, create rules, etc. when I am accessing the sheets with my work account.

Once you’re done, log back into your work account, search on the sheet name you just created. Voila. Your personal info is now securely, conveniently available to you from within your work account. Convenience, security, and desired access control made possible by Smartsheet.

And, to be clear, the data in your work account remains distinct and secure. It won’t be accessible from your personal account just because you’ve shared a personal sheet to your work account. Smartsheet provides data governance controls such as domain restrictions, safe sharing, SSO, and others to protect corporate data. 

Here’s to bringing greater organization, clarity, and accomplishment to your personal and work lives — in a unified way.

Cheers,

Mark