PMO template - Sharing options with confidential projects

Hello Community,

We started using this template, but it happens that we have some confidential projects and when sharing the "EU Project Template (Copy for New Projects)" folder, it grants access to the entire Workspace.

And yes, while the confidential projects are outside of the workspace, the Portfolio sheet includes some info.

I was wondering if any of you had a recommendation ? Or are more familiar with how to change the "Sharing" value that currently says "Workspace"?

Thank you.

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Accepted answers

Maxx Gold

Hi,

I had this same challenge.

I went into every folder in the workspace and shared the sheet, report or dashboard at that level. For folks that could view everything in the workspace I set the shared view only at the workspace level.

You can have both set. for example some users I wanted to view everything in the workspace and then have edit access to only certain sheets. I set the user permission at the workspace level to view only. Then I went to each sheet that I needed them to be able to edit and set the access as edit but cannot share. they can now see everything and edit only the sheets for their team. Caution: I found that if you see the access at the workspace level to Edit they will be able to edit everything as it overrides the lower level settings.

You can also share at different access levels at the sheet, report, dashboard level by setting the access on each item to what you want the user to have. For example: I set the sheet as edit and then the report and dashboard at view only.

Also: when sharing the dashboard you can restrict the user access to only their permission view in the widgets configuration. in the viewer mode setting: "Their own perspective. this would limit the view of the dashboard to only what is shared with the user.

Hope this helps

Maxx

All comments

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/138757/pmo-template-sharing-options-with-confidential-projects

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

You would have to either change the sharing permissions on the individual assets or move them to another workspace that have different permissions.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅ Did my comment(s) help/answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community and me by marking it - Insightful 💡- Vote Up ⬆️ - Awesome ❤️ - or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer! I appreciate it, thanks!

MMCH

Hi @Andrée Starå
Thanks for your prompt reply.
What do you mean by "Individual assets" ?
Because it seems that by default it shares the entire Workspace.

Isaac A.

Hi @MMCH!

Thanks @Andrée Starå for your helpful input!

Let me expand a bit on what Andrée was referring to. In Smartsheet, when it comes to sharing, you generally have two approaches:

Workspace-level sharing – This gives users access to everything inside the workspace. This sounds like what’s happening in your case, where users are gaining access to the entire folder, including potentially sensitive project data.
Item-level sharing – This means you share access to each sheet, report, or dashboard individually. So instead of sharing the whole workspace or a folder inside it, you manually grant access to specific items.

If you've already shared the workspace but want to restrict access to certain confidential items (like individual sheets), you’ll need to go into those items one by one and update the sharing permissions directly from the Share menu(See screenshot). This gives you more control and allows you to keep sensitive projects private while still collaborating on others.

You can learn more about how sharing works here:

Let me know if you'd like help walking through how to adjust the sharing on specific assets.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Isaac.

MMCH

Thanks @Isaac A. for your feedback.
I figured it out what the problem was…
The item that I wanted to share is defined as Template, hence you don't have this option that you showed…
Hence you can only share from the browser and then it shares the entire Workspace.

Now whereas that resolves the challenge with this particular item, it doesn't resolve the problem of sharing only some folders that are in the PMO template Workspace…

Because the objective is to be able to share the "Project Level" but not the "Portfolio Level"…🤔

Any other thought ?

Isaac A.

Hi @MMCH!

In Smartsheet, permissions can be managed either at the workspace level or individually for each asset (sheet, report, or dashboard). Folders within a workspace inherit the sharing settings of the workspace, and there's no way to assign different sharing permissions at the folder level. More details here: Share a workspace.

To share only the "Project Level" content without giving access to the "Portfolio Level," you have a couple of options:

Create a separate workspace for project-level items and share only with those who need access.
Manually adjust sharing settings for each asset in the "Portfolio Level" folder to remove users who shouldn’t see that content.

You can also use Collections to organize assets across workspaces without affecting permissions: Collections in workspaces overview.

I hope this helps clarify your options!

Cheers,
Isaac.

Maxx Gold

Hi,

I had this same challenge.

Hope this helps

Maxx

MMCH

Thanks @Isaac A. and @Maxx Gold for your contribution.

S.Monteiro

Hello gentlemen,

I'm currently facing the same challenge, as the team that will have access to the Portfolio Level is not the same as the one working at the Project Level.
My question is: if I use two Workspaces, can I store the Project Template Folder at the Portfolio Level, or does it need to be at the Project Level to avoid data loss?

Many thanks!

Cheers,
Sabrina

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