Smartsheet simplifies various project aspects like managing resources, content, documents, feedback, approvals, reviews, and many more. Users of various professions from more than 190 countries find this web-based app convenient for managing projects with lots of moving parts.

As a beginner, you might think that using this app would require a lot of training. However, if you go through the following essential features of Smartsheet, you’ll get one step closer to being a boss user.

1. Content Management

Smartsheet adds value to all the content management tasks that you undertake. If you’re a blogger, YouTuber, designer, or photographer, you can streamline your entire content management with this app. You don’t even need to hire an extra hand to manage content in this app because it’s an easy-to-use tool.

A few highlighted tasks of content management that you can do on Smartsheet are:

• A dedicated production process sheet to oversee content production by team members.
• Easy-to-setup notifications and reminders that keep your designers on schedule.
• Team members and concerned clients can easily review content proofs.
• Approvers can review the content in real-time to minimize the idle time of the creators.
• Multiple feedback channels like conversations, pinned annotations, and individual approvals.

Download: Smartsheet for Android | iOS (Free)

2. Project Resource Management

The resource management feature helps you to visualize team members’ capacity utilization, find a skilled person for tasks, reduce project cost, and above all, keep growing. You can try out the following actions to get started with resource management:

• Import employee or collaborator’s roster from any spreadsheet file.
• You can add clients and their projects in a structured way.
• Build elaborate schedules for tasks of a project by assigning resources from the roster. A simple slider allows you to set hours, time frames, etc.
• Team members can track their time in different formats like itemized hours and minutes and 1/2 days.
• A robust Analytics Page that pulls data from people, budgets, and time so that you can filter and group that data into insightful reports.

3. Seamless Team Collaboration

Smartsheet facilitates 360° collaboration and communication with collaborators, clients, team members, etc. Its flexibility allows you to share a single item, multiple items, or an entire workspace. Moreover, you can collect anonymous feedback and comments through forms that need fewer clicks to create.

The Conversations section keeps the project communication channels open via several media like @Mention, attachments, proofs, and reminders. The tool allows the recording of conversations at different levels like sheets, rows, and workspaces. Furthermore, you can customize the access levels of the users to allow or revoke comment modification rights.

4. Process Management

Do you regularly work on different projects or supervise more than one project as part of your profession? Then, Smartsheet is the ideal platform for you. The tool has many functionalities to help you manage several projects from one control center, and these are:

• Plan and set up projects on Smartsheet easily with Project blueprints. These are reusable reports, sheets, and dashboards that form a project.
• A strategic dashboard that provides a bird's-eye view of every project in your portfolio.
• Widget-based visualization of project status for multiple projects and one click-access to their sheets.
• A central console that allows you to approve content, tasks, proofs, assignees, etc.
• The global updates module allows you to make changes in project boards made from a specific blueprint.

Related: The Best Project Portfolio Management Tools You Should Try

5. Manage Digital Assets

Managing digital assets on a secure online platform is an essential task for a creative designer or developer. At times, clients may be unable to access your work, or someone is copying your creation without your knowledge because you need to focus on creating content.

Smartsheet gives you access to Brandfolder that resolves the above-mentioned issues. This tool enables you to distribute or showcase digital assets securely and efficiently. It also lets you:

• Customize the platform to suit your brand style.
• Easily search various asset metadata through filtering, sorting, etc.

6. Task Automation

You can replace repetitive or manual tasks with automatic workflows and save your team members from unproductive work or boredom by using Smartsheet workflow automation. An automated workflow module is a visual tool. Hence, users don’t need any coding expertise to create task automation.

Actions, triggers, and conditions are the three components that create automatic workflows. You can automate the following tasks:

• Notify the task assignee on crucial changes or remind them of deadlines.
• Seek approval or review the status of the content.
• Move rows to different sheets or lock and unlock them.
• Record the date of milestones.
• Assign resources to tasks or projects.

7. Streamlined Solution Center

Smartsheet Solution Center is a robust library that gives you access to an enormous collection of project blueprints and apps. Therefore, you don’t need to invest time in planning and setting up a project. Simply choose a template, modify it a bit, and start executing projects with agility.

You’ll find all the content of the Solution Center organized in the following three sections:

1. Templates: These are single sheet boards to manage your tasks, resources, and time.
2. Template Sets: Get pre-built dashboards, reports, and sheets to manage complex projects.
3. Add-Ons: These are integrations, connectors, and apps that you can link with your sheets to import or export project data.

8. Powerful Integrations and Add-Ons

Smartsheet lets you effortlessly sync your work with clients or external collaborators who might be using different project management tools and communications apps. Therefore, you don’t have to start using or paying for those apps.

You can effortlessly integrate third-party apps like DocuSign, Zapier, Quip, Slack, Outlook, Google Docs, etc., into your sheets. Whenever there are any updates from external sources, access those directly from Smartsheet.

Smartsheet also gives you access to simple apps developed for your project sheets. Pivot App, Dynamic View, Calendar App, DataMesh, etc., are some apps that ease project management efforts.

9. IT Requests and Ticketing

IT Requests and Ticketing feature is a template set that you can access from the Solution Center. You may use this template to streamline the following tasks:

• Capture and record IT requests through a simple form that anyone can access from mobiles or desktops.
• Manage open, stuck, or resolved IT requests from a simplified dashboard.

Projects Made Intuitive and Fun

The above-mentioned features of Smartsheet will help you to get started faster with this app. It’s not just another tool in your tech stack for which you keep paying without knowing how the app is repaying you.

It’s a powerful tool that can save you and your team’s time by cutting down on non-productive work in any project. Moreover, the app can integrate with many third-party productivity tools that your collaborators or clients use.