Greater control over your budgets with new Smartsheet administration capabilities

At Smartsheet, we are committed to ongoing updates that help customers manage their environments effectively. A big part of this approach is listening to customers and partners, then delivering the products and capabilities they need to be successful managing their collaboration and workflow platforms.  

Today we are pleased to announce new administrative controls designed to give organizations complete control and increased transparency over users and budgets, introducing more predictability into spend management. These updates, developed in direct response to customer feedback, focus on new settings for approving Provisional Members and a streamlined process for new user seat requests.

Admin approval default for Provisional Members

Starting next week, Smartsheet will introduce a critical change to the default setting for approving Provisional Members: all free Provisional Member upgrades to a paid Member seat will now require System Admin approval.

This change is designed to give your organization tighter cost control. Under the new default setting, a free provisional member who is not explicitly upgraded by a System Admin before the end of the review period will automatically revert to a free Viewer or Guest. This automatic downgrade prevents unintentional or unapproved additions of paid seats, ensuring that you maintain predictability in your budget and spend.

For companies that prefer the previous behavior, the option remains to select automatic approval of free Provisional Member upgrades to a paid Member. If this option is selected, any paid Members added beyond the purchased seats will be automatically added to the next bill.

It is important to note that System Admins also retain the ability to manually upgrade Provisional Members at any time for maximum flexibility and granular budget management. To upgrade a Provisional Member, Viewer or Guest, a System Admin can assign an available Member seat from the subscription. If all Member seats are allocated, the customer can purchase additional Member seats. System Admins can find seat usage details on the Seat types and true-up page in Admin Center.

Note that the automatic downgrade of Provisional Members to a free Viewer or Guest will apply to all Smartsheet plans that are currently in a review cycle and have an upcoming true-up. We recognize some pre-scheduled notifications refer to the previous behavior and are amending those for any future send. System Admins in this scenario have the option to manually upgrade any Provisional Members, or select automatic approval of upgrades to a paid Member before the end of the review period to minimize work disruption for users.

Streamlined seat requests

To further enhance seat management, we will be releasing a new streamlined seat request capability later this year. This feature benefits both end users and System Admins by consolidating and simplifying the process of requesting paid seats.

This new capability will enable Viewers and Provisional Members to request seats in Smartsheet, while also giving System Admins a centralized hub to review, approve or decline seat requests.

Additionally, to integrate with your organization’s established processes, this capability will include the option to use a customizable link that System Admins can use to tie seat requests into existing approval flows. It will allow them to capture key user information — such as manager name and email, user department, and cost center — to make faster, more accurate approval decisions.

Better budget management and simplified user experience

These new and upcoming administrative capabilities, alongside recent platform releases, give you better control over your Smartsheet users and budgets—while saving System Admins time and effort through a simplified administration experience.

We also plan to further consolidate user management into a single location accessible from the Seat Type and True-up page, improving administrative efficiency even more.

Smartsheet is committed to delivering a platform that earns your trust, and we believe these updates will help you confidently manage your Smartsheet environment and empower teams to achieve more. Thanks for your valuable feedback and please keep an eye on our product release news page for more details on these capabilities.