New True-Up Steering Us Away from Smartsheet FAST

We have had 8 licenses (for over 2 years) for managers, who create sheets and manage sheets. We have built an entire CRM, Sales Pipeline, and other valuable tools in Smartsheet and have 2-3 staff level users for each manager. We are under the old business plan that is $32 a month per licensed user and allowed collaborators (not creators!). Now we are one month out or less from some True-Up, and our bill will AUTO INCREASE to $960 a month (from $192). Criminal Smartsheet. If this is true and the collaborator is gone, the new owners of Smartsheet are in for a rude awakening and a mass exodus. Maybe fortune 500's can afford this, maybe not. But a 50 person firm that has adopted and built it into the daily workflow cannot absorb a 5x monthly cost. Shame on Smartsheet.

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Comments

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/138333/new-true-up-steering-us-away-from-smartsheet-fast

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

Everything is paused at the moment, and nothing will happen before June.

Also, depending on what happens then, there are workarounds to solve so that not everyone would need a license.

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Brandonwpe

Andrea, thank you for responding, however what does a “pause” until June mean? Our account says it will renew in May at $960. Not the $192 we currently pay. Again we have 8 managers/creators and around 30 staff who literally update the status of tasks and comment when a row is complete etc…we also have a placeholder name that lets us track things like an outside agency plan checking our plans. We DO NOT WANT time consuming work arounds. We understand business and things change, but how about a $1.99 option for what used to be a free collaborator. That would keep people on the platform without question.

Brandonwpe

Also, we have grown our licensed users from 3 to 8 over the last two years BECAUSE our managers engaged and adopted to Smartsheet tools we built and they leveraged them with their teams. However our organization will not support having all user require licenses and we will not pivot to play smoke and mirrors with everything webforms and update requests and webapps.

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/480527#Comment_480527

Happy to help!

I'd recommend reaching out to your contact person at Smartsheet to check the specifics. I don't have any information yet on what changes, except for an improved admin experience when the pause is over.

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RWil

Having read and interacted with Support regarding many issues with the new True-Up system, I can safely recommend that you look for alternatives to Smartsheet like we are after discovering what exactly this new subscription based system entails and how it's launch has been botched by Smartsheet. Support provides little to no actual information outside of PR speak, so I will inform you about what "workaround" Andree is alluding to.

For starters, an overview of the True-Up system:
Each billing cycle, your account will go through the "True-Up Process" where users with the 'Viewer' permission class will be, if they were given Comment, Edit, or Update permissions for any sheet in your Smartsheet domain (granted by ANY 'Member' permission member who owns a sheet) that 'Viewer' will be updated to a 'Provisional-Member' which, as one Smartsheet member informed me, was the 'try before you buy' subscription.

During the True-Up cycle and before the next billing cycle, Admin level users can navigate to the User Management section to mark any Provisional-Members as either full Members (giving them a paid license), or to downgrade them back to Viewer which will remove ALL create, edit, and comment permissions on ALL sheets that that user was given access to.

At the end of the billing cycle, all Provisional-Members not downgraded to Viewer will AUTOMATICALLY be upgraded to a full 'Member' license, and the cost on your bill will increase and be PRORATED based on their 'usage' whatever that truly means. If any support reps would like to challenge this intended flow or clarify you are free to.

THE WORKAROUND (AS PROVIDED BY A SMARTSHEET SUPPORT AGENT):

Now, the 'Workaround' that Andree likely alluded to is a bit of a loophole in how the True-Up system is apparently supposed to function. Essentially, when an Admin downgrades a user from a Provisional-Member to a Viewer, this removes all permissions that user had and also prevents that user from being marked as a Provisional-Member during that same Ture-Up cycle. However, that same member can be granted edit permissions again to sheets and gain a sort of 'frozen provisional-member' license that will not go through as a full Member at the end of the True-Up cycle, and instead shift over to the next cycle where that user will again be marked as a Provisional-Member eligible for automatic upgrade to Member status.

The workaround, as you quite aptly stated, is a time consuming mess of fighting the True-Up system each and every cycle, and it would look something like this:

1. Get all Managers/Team Leads who you WANT to have full Member licenses (i.e: the 8 you have currently) into a meeting with one of your Smartsheet Admins

2. The Admin downgrades all Provisional-Members to Viewer, removing all their permissions.

3. Managers then re-add ALL Viewer members back to the sheets they need access to with the appropriate permissions.

4. Repeat ad nauseum each and every billing cycle.

As one might guess, this method is time consuming, and nigh impossible if you have a larger number of sheets which I can only assume is the idea. I am also extremely concerned about the 'Prorated charges based on usage' that is mentioned in their support documents as this sounds like if you were to miss a Provisional-Member one cycle whom you have done the downgrade-upgrade shuffle with for 2 years, you might get prorated for the full 2 years of their usage instead of just the one month. When I asked this question in my support ticket, I did not receive a response.

I would be happy Andree if you were to inform me as to where I may have strayed from the intended procedure of the new smartsheet subscription service.

My advice to any and all who are members of Smartsheet at the moment: Download your sheet and owner information and begin the process of looking for alternatives. This rollout was botched beyond belief, the changes do nothing to serve Smartsheet's client base at large, and Smartsheet's reporting and transparency leaves much to be desired. As many have likely seen, even if an Admin goes through the whole True-Up list and downgrades everyone, those people will be marked as True-Up Provisional Members the next day and require the whole process be done again in the same cycle. Smartsheet agents have informed me that 'in the backend all is fine and it's a front-end glitch', but all this does is further reduce my trust in their ability to accurately report information to their users.

If you found this helpful or insightful, please feel free to mark it as such so that more people can see this comment.

Kind regards,

zealvert

Thanks evryone for prociding these informative (and shocking) insights.

I was planning to a long way using Smartsheet in my business. But if this True-Up stuff is really going to be true soon, then I would rather have my own solution developed and say goodbye to Smartsheet.

The folks behind this new idea seem to have forgotten that every exceptional rise sees an exceptional fall.

Frankly it sounds like a browser is telling me: "hey, for every search you hit, I'll charge you 100 cents!"

Doesn't this True-up sound like the 'EEE strategy' once adopted by a software behemoth?

Anyways, I might soon have to "get out" and say goodbye Smartsheet.

Brandonwpe

Agree. Not all users need full functionality. Maybe a $2.99 collaborator level to replace the free level. But full price for everybody. Driving us away fast as well.

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/481639#Comment_481639

Hi @Brandonwpe @RWil @zealvert

I hope you're well and safe!

Here's a summary of what I've understood as a Smartsheet Expert Consultant and Partner, and what I'm allowed to share.
This might change before the pause is over.
-
1️⃣ Be patient! The pause is for making changes to simplify the Admin work and improve the overall process. The changes made will work much better and make more sense. I want to say more, but I can't, but trust me, it will be fantastic.

2️⃣ We can be disappointed about this new model, and that we don't get as much for "free" as before, but as one of my clients framed it, "we've been using it almost for free for over ten years".
IMHO, Smartsheet's model would not be sustainable in the world we're in now, and they needed to adapt and make a change. This ensures Smartsheet will still be around for the long term to innovate and improve.

3️⃣ The future (and Roadmap) is looking bright! 😉 ☀️

4️⃣ If you're affected so much that you're looking at alternatives, be aware that many workarounds still can make it work (Dynamic View, Forms, Update Requests, Approval Requests, and more.)
-

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!

zealvert

Thanks @Andrée Starå

Send Update Request sounds like a good option but it allows entering the email ID manually. Can't there be any method to send the update request to only one designated email ID?

And can you please also guide on using Forms to update a specific record.

Thanks

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/483279#Comment_483279

Happy to help!

Yes, you can send it manually or using workflows. In a workflow, you can select a contact column and send it to that for every row for which the trigger is true. You could add a checkbox to trigger it, for example.

Make sense? Would that work/help?

The form is more advanced because it involves advanced workflows or a so-called helper sheet and cross-sheet formulas to collect the information.

If it works with the Update Request, I'd recommend that or investing in Dynamic View. Dynamic View is fantastic!

✅ Remember! 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!

zealvert

@Andrée Starå - sounds too good! But to click the checkbox, the user will require the Editor-level access right?

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/483298#Comment_483298

Yes, the one clicking the checkbox would have to have Editor access.

Would that work? If not, can you describe the process?

✅ Remember! 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!

RWil

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/483262#Comment_483262

Hello Andree,

It seems you didn't comment at all on my 'workaround' that you alluded to and I detailed out. Is my workaround with the true-up rodeo an accurate and possible solution? (regardless of how time consuming it is)

Your pause after your completely botched rollout does not instill confidence in your users for your ability to provide accurate reporting information. When potential 10s of thousands of dollars are on the line, these are mistakes you literally cannot afford to make and client confidence you cannot afford to lose during this time.
'Disappointment' is not the word I'd use. 'Anger', 'Resentment', 'A sense of betrayal' all come to mind instead. Yes, we have gotten these features for FREE for the past 10 years, and for the past 10 years Smartsheet has trotted along. This change increases costs while simultaneously removing existing features your clients have come to expect. IMHO this is a blatant and disgusting cash-grab where you are attempting to abuse your client base due to the potential that their business rely heavily on Smartsheet service and they cannot easily pivot to other options. Do you have any comments against this opinion?
Your roadmap will cost your average client base an additional $30-40 Grand a year while taking away functionality we've come to know and expect from Smartsheet. Your product has gotten worse.
Are there any workarounds that don't require us to setup a specific user to manually enter all the information our Viewer users would be submitting? I see your 'Workflow' option would still require Member licenses for those updates to go through, otherwise there's no way for our basic users to send info to a specific member or email and it would need to be entered manually again each time.

On the topic of Workflows as a workaround, this still requires a sheet that someone needs to edit, which means that those people editing the sheet/workflow need Member status, is that correct?

Why do External Members get to keep their Free User (the 'Guest' Permission group) while actual internal users don't?

Is there any way we can prevent new Provisional-Members from creating new sheets, adding other editors to those sheets, which then add more users to our True-Up process?

How much of a user exodus is Smartsheet expecting from this change? Quite frankly, and IMHO this is the sort of change that destroys a company, not improves one.

Vuckecucke

@Andrée Starå,

if I publish the sheet to be Edit by Anyone, those users need only viewers permission and can stay on the free plan?

Also can you true up members just once a year before the billing cycle?

RWil

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/483558#Comment_483558

@Vuckecucke To my knowledge, anyone who edits any part of a sheet will be given a Provisional-Membership license, which needs to be kept or removed before the True Up period ends or they will upgrade to full Membership with their Membership costs being prorated to your bill. This would mean that setting a sheet to allow "Edit by All" would make it so any viewer who edited any fields in that sheet would be given a Provisional-Memberhsip.

Your Administrator must go through True-Up before each new billing cycle or risk having Provisional-Members be upgraded to full Memberships on your bill.

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