Great CWM (collaborative work management) tools should make life easier. But sometimes, with greatness comes complexity which leads the way to searching for a more streamlined approach.

Smartsheet is one of the most powerful CWM platforms available today, but even great systems have their limits. Every business that uses it is different and will have its own unique challenges and nuances.

That’s precisely why we created our Smarter Apps.

We’ve been building collaborative work management solutions since 2012 and over the years, our consultants kept spotting the same thing: businesses needed small but mighty tools that could do more than the native platform allowed. Simple things like creating dashboards that display exactly the right level of data but also allowed you to do proper drill down (filtering), generating documents straight from your sheet (from multiple sources), or automating the turning of ideas into structured, trackable projects all take time.

We designed Smarter Apps to extend Smartsheet’s functionality so it can do exactly what you need, when you need it.

Built for real-world CWM needs

Each Smarter App began life as a solution to a real client problem and when we realised how many organisations faced the same challenges, we turned those bespoke tools into ready-to-use apps anyone could benefit from.

Take Smarter Dashboards. These go far beyond Smartsheet’s standard dashboard capabilities, giving users the ability to create highly visual, filterable, and interactive views that surface the data that matters most.

Or Smarter Launch Pad, which provides a structured, repeatable way to capture, evaluate, and prioritise new ideas. It’s perfect for innovation teams, project offices, or any business wanting a clear and consistent approach to managing opportunities.

With Smarter PDF Creator, you can generate client reports, certificates, or documentation automatically from your Smartsheet data, stored in one or many rows or sheets, without the need for manual exporting or formatting. It’s fast, accurate, and beautifully simple.

How about Smarter Report to Sheet which takes things a step further, letting you capture data from a Smartsheet report and write it back into a sheet. It’s ideal for creating summaries, logging metrics, or tracking updates dynamically.

And many more…

Premium functionality without the premium price tag

For many small and medium-sized businesses, the cost of enterprise-level software can be prohibitive. Our Smarter Apps bridge that gap, bringing premium features to everyday budgets. They deliver the same level of automation, integration, and efficiency that large organisations enjoy, without the heavy investment.

Every app is built and supported by the SBP team, meaning you’re not just downloading a tool; you’re gaining access to our deep expertise in automation, workflow design, and smarter ways of working.

No app for that? Try our Smarter Consultancy

While our Smarter Apps can transform how teams use Smartsheet, they’re just one part of what we offer. Every organisation has its own systems, workflows, and goals and, sometimes, what you need doesn’t exist yet.

That’s where our consultancy and bespoke development services are ideal. We can adapt existing apps, build new ones from scratch, or design fully integrated solutions that connect Smartsheet with your wider ecosystem. Whatever your business needs, we can make it happen efficiently, securely, and with the future in mind.

Don’t forget that as part of our consultancy services we also provide highly effective, bite sized training modules. Designed to deliver the right knowledge to the right stakeholders.

Make your systems smarter

Technology should work for you, not the other way around. Smarter Apps prove there’s a practical, affordable, and purpose-built way to make Smartsheet even more powerful.If you’d like to see what’s possible, explore our full range of Smarter Apps or book a call to discuss how we can help you create something unique for your business.

The post Smarter Apps for CWM – 100% premium functionality without the premium price tag appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Smarter Business Processes – key notes from the keynote

Last week Smartsheet’s new CEO Raj Singh led the Keynote speech at their Engage conference, and we’re impressed! He spoke about the exciting task that lies ahead at a time of great change in the Collaborative Work Management space. In fact he has renamed it, very sensibly, to now read Intelligent Work Management to acknowledge the impact of AI on these processes. With less than a month in seat, Raj is kicking off some pivotal changes. Our key notes if you don’t have time to watch theirs:

• New CEO – wants to rebuild trust and offer transparency, admits pricing model mistake from last year and has promised no crazy price increases on your bill again
• AI as an Enterprise tool, Gen1 was about Co-Pilots, Gen2 is about Agents and Gen3 is about Cross System / Collaboration / Automation; Smartsheet are going to lead Gen3 using AI as a tool to create Intelligent Work Management
• New CPO – shared visions of AI agents building and analysing solutions in place of templates, with
  • Smart Assist taking prompts and instructions and building out your solution before your eyes and
  • Smart Agents to monitor your sheets and alert you to risks with recommendations on mitigating them
  • Smart Flows create automated workflows from your descriptions
  • Smart Columns are inserted into your views analysing data with no need for formulas
  • Smart Hub the central tool to allow you to manage all the AI within your plan
• CTO – shared updates on the new Table, Board and Timeline Views, quoting load times of less than 3 seconds and interactions being 5x faster in these views
• Enhanced Security for all plan types with access to Multi Factor Authentication

Here are the immediate plans we think Smartsheet users will love the most:

• Dynamic Dropdown Lists – linking dropdown options to a source sheet
• Filterable Dashboards – creating Smarter Dashboards

Smarter Business Processes – always a step ahead

We know just how needed these features are, as we listened to the community calling out for them and have been delivering Smarter Dropdown List Manager for over 8 years! It appears that Smartsheet’s Dynamic Dropdown List will be driven from the new views and will be destination linking back to source, so linking every time you create a new sheet, however our Smarter Dropdown List Manager allows you to centrally administer from source to destination irrespective of views and includes new sheets automatically; along with our Smarter Sheet Manager which facilitates the actual creation or updating of columns en masse across your whole plan, we already have this feature covered at an enhanced level.

Smartsheet will also be offering Filterable Dashboards during 2026 thus catching up with our own Smarter Dashboards. Filters are an essential dashboard feature that we’ve been delivering for clients over the past 2 years!  We’ve yet to explore Smartsheet’s new feature and but we expect it to deliver in the newer views, in the meantime though we will continue to provide our clients with our other forward thinking initiatives, which you can explore here, while we wait for Smartsheet to catch us up! 

You can trust us, with over 15 years experience of helping thousands of users benefit from extending this great platform via our apps that “Make Smartsheet even Smarter”.  We are delighted with the latest announcements and look forward to many more exciting features in Smartsheet’s new era of Intelligent Work Management. Contact us today for a free consultation, explain your needs, then let us show you how SBP can help your business thrive in this exciting new era.

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Artificial Intelligence is moving faster than any technology we’ve seen before. Every week brings new headlines, new tools, and new promises of change. And while it’s impossible to predict exactly what the next five years will bring, one thing is certain: the pace of innovation is accelerating. Businesses that fail to prepare risk being left behind. 

At Smarter Business Processes (SBP), we’re in a strong position to help. With decades of experience implementing platforms like Smartsheet and Airtable, and building our own Smarter Apps to extend functionality, we’ve already been helping organisations harness the power of technology. Now, as AI and quantum computing reshape the way we all work, we can advise on how best to integrate these tools into your business so you stay agile, efficient, and future-ready.

Compete or be forgotten?

On 15 September 2025, The Times reported that a UK startup, working with the National Quantum Computing Centre in Oxford, had built the first quantum computer using standard chips. Why does this matter? Because it signals that affordable quantum computing is on the horizon.

Combine quantum power with AI, and the potential impact multiplies, fast. From developing new medicines to optimising energy grids, entire industries could transform. The businesses that survive will be those ready to capture new opportunities, evaluate them quickly, and act decisively.

Everyday AI is just the beginning

We’re already using AI in subtle ways every day:

• Google Translate converting text instantly.
• Zoom or Teams summarising meetings.
• Google Lens identifying landmarks with one click.

Useful, yes, but just the tip of the iceberg. The real wave is still coming. As Mustafa Suleyman explains in The Coming Wave, companies that adapt to the pace of innovation will thrive; those that don’t will fall behind.

What can you do?

Preparation is the answer. At SBP, we recommend putting in place a framework of tools that allows you to:

• Capture new ideas.
• Evaluate them quickly.
• Decide whether to move forward—or move on.

We’ve been helping organisations do this for years, setting up systems that not only manage work but also empower teams to respond to change.

Our toolkit includes:

• Smartsheet: scalable, collaborative work management.
• SBP’s own Smarter Launch Pad: our Smartsheet tool for capturing and evaluating ideas.
• Airtable: a collaborative database with built-in dashboards.
• API integrations: connecting your favourite tools together.
• SBP’s own Smarter Dashboards: real-time visibility across all data sources.

With these tools, plus our automation expertise, we give businesses the confidence to innovate while reducing admin, duplication, and wasted time.

The time to act is now

Nobody knows exactly what tomorrow’s breakthrough will be but we do know it’s coming. Businesses that thrive will be those ready to experiment, evaluate, and move fast.

That’s where SBP comes in. We’ve already built the frameworks and the systems you’ll need to ride the wave of AI and beyond. All you need to do is use them.

Contact us today for a free consultation, explain your needs, then let us show you how SBP can help your business thrive in this exciting new era.

Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more insights, blogs, and posts on AI-related developments and what they mean for businesses like yours. From practical use cases to future trends, we’ll explore how to make these technologies work for you. Follow us here on LinkedIn to stay updated and be part of the conversation.

The post AI, Quantum Computing and the Next 5 Years: Are You Ready? appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Most people know that Smartsheet forms are a great way to collect data. They’re simple to set up, easy to share, and give you a straightforward way to capture information into a sheet. But far fewer people realise just how smart these forms can be.

With a little configuration, forms don’t just gather information, they guide the user, keep your data clean, and can even be personalised or send personalised responses. At Smarter Business Processes (SBP), we help clients unlock features like form logic, custom summaries, and prefilled fields to make forms more efficient, more accurate, and much friendlier for the end user.

Smartsheet form logic: show and hide fields

One of the most common mistakes we see is people making fields optional with notes like “Only fill in if applicable.” It’s confusing, it clutters the form, and it leads to incomplete or inaccurate responses.

Smartsheet’s conditional logic fixes this. You can configure forms so fields only appear when they’re relevant. For example, if a user selects “Requesting refund”, only then does a box for “Reason for refund” appear. If not, it stays hidden.

This approach keeps forms short and clear, which encourages more people to complete them as well as improving the quality of the data you get back.

Custom email summaries instead of “send me a copy”

By default, Smartsheet lets people tick a box to receive a copy of their responses. While handy, this option is limited: they simply receive a list of each field and answer, with no context or reference.

A smarter approach is to create a customised automation that emails back a formatted summary. For example, you can:

• Include a unique reference number generated by Smartsheet.
• Merge multiple responses into a single paragraph (“mail merge” style) for readability.
• Add a thank-you message or next steps.

Instead of a list with no context, the respondent receives a professional, personalised confirmation reminding them of their entries. 

For instance: “Thank you for your 5-star review of our app. You commented ‘Great service’ and confirmed you’re happy for us to share this feedback. Your reference number is #12345.”

It’s clearer for the user and far more useful for your records. Don’t forget SBP offer comprehensive training on how to do all these things See here for a list of workshop topics.

Prepopulating form fields

Another powerful feature is the ability to pre-fill fields. By adding simple query strings to your form URL, you can populate details such as name, email, or purchased product before the user even opens the form.

This reduces friction and makes it far more likely you’ll get comprehensive (and accurate) data. A customer leaving a product review doesn’t have to dig out their order details, they just click the link, confirm what’s already there, and type their feedback. 

Internally, teams can save time by pre-filling project IDs or client names to avoid duplicate entry errors.

Less effort means higher completion rates and more accurate data. See our previous top tips for details on how to achieve this, prefill forms 1 and Query Strings 2

Why it matters

Forms are often the first step in a workflow. If they’re cluttered, confusing, or time-consuming, users may give up or worse, enter incorrect information. By using logic, summaries, and prefilled fields, you create a smoother experience for respondents and better-quality data for your business.

At SBP, we specialise in configuring Smartsheet forms that do more than collect information. We design them to work smarter, save time, and give you the insights you need.  We can even give you Smarter Forms, that not only collect new data, but allow you to partially save and return to a submission, or even edit data from a previously submitted record.

If you think your forms could work harder for you, contact us for a free discovery call and we’ll show you how we can help.

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When you first open Smartsheet, it’s easy to see why people think of it as ‘Excel online’.

You’ve got rows, columns, and cells. You can type in text, dates, and formulas. You can colour-code, sort, and filter.

But the reality is, Smartsheet is not Excel and using it like a traditional spreadsheet means you’ll never unlock its true potential.

The familiarity trap

Many organisations start their Smartsheet journey by importing existing Excel files. It feels logical because you’ve got working spreadsheets, so why reinvent the wheel? 

The problem is that Excel is a spreadsheet tool, whereas Smartsheet is a work management platform. They may look similar, but they’re built for different things.

In Excel, horizontal layouts are common. You might have columns for ‘Action 1’, ‘Date Due’, ‘Date Completed’, ‘Action 2’, ‘Date Due’, ‘Date Completed’, and so on. That works fine for a single user tracking their own work, but in Smartsheet, it becomes a nightmare for reporting and automation.

Here’s a real-world example.

We worked with a client who had a Smartsheet that collected data from end users, then tracked it through a complex process. Over time, they’d added more and more columns:

• 17 date columns for different actions.
• 17 tick-box columns for completion.
• Multiple RAG status columns to track performance.

On paper, it worked. In practice, it was almost impossible to answer a simple question such as “How many actions were completed on time?” 

To summarise the data stored horizontally would have taken huge nested formulas and every time a new action/stage was added, the whole structure had to be updated.

The smarter (Smartsheet) approach

Instead of cramming every action into one massive, wide sheet, Smartsheet works best when you separate core data from actions. You keep your main data in one sheet, normally referred to as an intake sheet and log all related actions in a separate project or task sheet, sticking to one row per action.

This structure means:

• All due dates for all actions live in one column (Due Date)
• All actual completion dates live in another (Finish Date)
• With a progress indicator column covering all actions, Status’ can be easily obtained
• RAG balls can be updated easily

From there, you can run reports, create dashboards, and analyse performance without battling dozens of complex formulas. It’s scalable, collaborative, easier to manage, and plays to Smartsheet’s strengths.

Why this matters

Smartsheet’s real value comes from visibility. Dashboards, reports, and automations give you live, reliable insights but only if your data is structured to support them. 

If you build Smartsheet like an Excel spreadsheet, you’re stuck in a world of manual updates, limited reporting, and clunky workflows and you can never make the most of a dashboard overview.

By thinking in terms of data lifecycle rather than static tables, you can design solutions that grow with you. You can easily answer questions like:

• Which actions are overdue?
• Which team is hitting their SLA targets?
• How many tasks are stuck in review?

The takeaway

Smartsheet isn’t just ‘Excel in the cloud’. It’s a powerful, collaborative work management tool that can automate processes, integrate with other systems, and give you real-time visibility across your organisation.

At Smarter Business Processes, we help clients reimagine their workflows for Smartsheet to give them the insights they need without the headaches they don’t. Take a look at our case studies and testimonials to find out what the clients say about us.

If you think you could be working more efficiently with Smartsheet, or you’re still stuck with Excel spreadsheets, book a consultation call to find out how we can help you move forward, or call us about our Training programs to help you structure your Smartsheet’s in the best way possible.

The post Why using Smartsheet like Excel could be holding you back appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

At Smarter Business Processes (SBP), we’ve spent over 14 years helping businesses improve the way they work. We focus on streamlining workflows, reducing manual effort, and making data easier to manage. At the heart of our approach is Smartsheet.  

Why Smartsheet?

When we started looking for the best platform to help businesses work smarter, we knew there were three things that would address the majority of problems:

• Make collaboration easy – Work colleagues need a central place to manage work, share updates, and stay on the same page.
• Automate repetitive tasks – The less time spent on admin, the more time for real progress.
• Gain visibility of data – Businesses need to see the bigger picture without sifting through endless spreadsheets.

Smartsheet ticks all these boxes. It’s a flexible, cloud-based work management tool that scales with business needs. Unlike traditional spreadsheets, it’s built for real-time collaboration, allowing teams to track progress, assign tasks, and automate workflows without needing technical expertise.

One of the biggest benefits of Smartsheet is that it integrates seamlessly with other business tools, reducing the need for switching between platforms. It also comes with built-in reporting and dashboard features, giving businesses a clear view of their work in one place.

How SBP uses Smartsheet to help our clients

At Smarter Business Processes, we don’t just use Smartsheet, we live and breathe it. Our team of Smartsheet specialists have developed our suite of Smarter Apps, which extend Smartsheet’s functionality even further. Whether it’s custom dashboards, advanced reporting, or tailored automation, we help businesses get even more value from the platform.

Here’s how we support businesses using Smartsheet:

• Bespoke solutions – we design and build client solutions to make the tool support the clients’ processes.
• Enhance solutions – we analyse and review client solutions and offer recommendations to make them more effective and efficient, using custom workflows to fit exactly what our clients need.
• Training workshops – we create bespoke workshops to help teams get the most out of their Smartsheet investment, quickly covering the fundamentals of the app, thus empowering our clients to design and build effective solutions themselves.
• Integrate solutions – we facilitate the integration between Smartsheet and other apps, such as accounting packages, CRM’s, ERP’s allowing the flow of data to be seamless between the apps and cutting down on administrative effort of duplicating data between apps.
• Fill gaps in functionality – we build Smartsheet Add-on apps to fill little gaps in functionality.  We see a lot of clients and know how they rely on Smartsheet to support their business; but sometimes there are areas where a little more automation would be beneficial.  We make that happen.

Over the years, we’ve seen firsthand how Smartsheet transforms the way teams work. Whether it’s reducing time spent on admin, improving visibility across projects, or making collaboration smoother, it consistently delivers results. Look through our Case Studies for ideas on how you can use Smartsheet within your business.

Looking ahead: the future of Smartsheet

Smartsheet isn’t standing still. The platform continues to evolve, introducing new features that make work even more efficient. Save this link to review what’s been released and what coming.

Recent innovations include:

• AI-powered tools to help teams visualise data and automate repetitive tasks.
• Stronger collaboration features that bring together content, conversations, and workflows in one place.
• Enterprise-grade integrations to connect with other systems businesses rely on.

These developments align with our own mission at SBP, which is to help our clients work smarter, not harder and we know we’re getting it right when clients tell us.

Kelly Carmichael from Mood Media said “We highly recommend SBP to any organization looking to optimize their business processes.” and Christine Rubicco from Hyatt Hotels said “With SBP’s help our team has not only become more efficient and impactful but our work is now the best practice for other teams across the company.” with comments like these we are more than happy to continue to serve clients with Smartsheet requirements.

Choosing the right tool is essential for any business looking to improve efficiency and productivity. Smartsheet’s combination of collaboration, automation, and powerful data management makes it one of the best platforms out there and our Smarter Apps make it even more accessible and efficient. 

If you’re looking for ways to streamline your workflow, cut down on manual processes, and get more out of your data, we’re here to help. Get in touch with us at Smarter Business Processes to see how we can tailor Smartsheet to work for you.

The post Smartsheet – Why we chose it, and why it works appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Our mission has always been to help businesses run more smoothly, collaborate more effectively, and make better use of their data. We’ve spent over 14 years creating smart, streamlined systems for clients using powerful work management tools and Airtable is one of our go-to platforms.

That’s because it offers flexibility, ease of use, and scalability but also because it brings a different kind of visual clarity and creative control that makes it ideal for certain teams, sectors, and working styles.

Why Airtable?

We started using Airtable because we could see just how much it simplifies complex work. It combines the best of spreadsheets and databases with a highly customisable, user-friendly interface. Teams can build powerful systems without writing a single line of code and without needing IT involvement.

Here’s why Airtable works so well for modern businesses:

• It’s flexible – Whether you’re managing content, events, inventory, customer relationships, or internal projects, Airtable adapts to what you need. You can structure your data your way.
• It’s visual – You can switch between grids, galleries, calendars, kanban boards and timelines with a click. That makes it easier to get the right view of your work at the right time.
• It connects – Airtable integrates with popular tools like Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams, and with Airtable Automations or tools like Zapier, you can trigger actions and streamline handovers.
• It grows with you – From small teams to large organisations, Airtable scales up and down with ease.

How SBP uses Airtable to help our clients

As you’d expect from us here at Smarter Business Processes, we don’t just help our clients get started with Airtable, we help them build solutions that improve the way they work.

Our consultancy focuses on listening to what a business needs and then building the right solution, whether it’s a single workspace or a suite of connected tools. Our team of Airtable specialists knows how to unlock the platform’s full potential by using more detailed and integrated cross-functional workflows.

We also provide:

• Tailored training – to make sure teams are confident and equipped to manage their own Airtable systems.
• Custom integrations – connecting Airtable to the tools you already use.
• Ongoing support – because needs evolve, and your tools should evolve with them.

Click here to continue reading about how we support clients with Airtable.

Looking ahead: the future of Airtable

Airtable is continuing to grow, with regular updates and features that make it even easier to manage and automate work. As our workplaces become more complex and distributed, tools like Airtable give businesses a way to stay connected, organised, and efficient, all while giving teams ownership over their data.

At SBP, we’re proud to use Airtable as part of our toolkit. It helps us engineer better processes, deliver bespoke solutions, and make working life that little bit simpler for our clients.

If you’re ready to see what Airtable could do for your team, click here to make contact with our Airtable consultants

The post Airtable – Why Smarter Business Processes supports this Work Management Tool appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

The journey of Smarter Business Processes (SBP) began with a shared vision and a realisation. Back in the early 2000s, while managing a series of national events aimed at helping UK businesses embrace emerging technologies, Richard and Gwen Rymill saw a gap. Tools like Excel and MS Project simply weren’t cutting it anymore. Businesses needed something smarter: something truly collaborative.

That realisation led them to Smartsheet. And what started as helping new users create better workflows soon grew into a thriving business built on innovation, adaptability, and an unwavering focus on client needs.

Q: Tell us how it all started and how you got Smarter Business Processes (SBP) noticed?

“We built our early reputation by solving real problems and posting our testimonials online and it snowballed from there. We focused totally on what our clients needed and began developing a suite of apps that made Smartsheet even smarter.”

Q: What has the journey of building a company been like for you?

“Over two decades, we’ve gone from a two-person consultancy to a full team supporting clients across the UK, US, EU, and Australia. Gwen focused on making sure we were visible with great marketing and communications, and Richard crafted the solutions and nurtured client relationships.”

Q: Would you recommend starting a business with your spouse? What’s it like to work with family?

“Family life has always played a central role in the way we work. One of our rules has always been to respond to any enquiry as fast as possible, even if it means working at odd hours and that’s actually easier if you’re both invested in the same goals. We’re grateful that our happy and stable home life has put us in great shape mentally to develop the business successfully.”

Q: How would you describe the culture of SBP?

“It’s always been about flexibility, responsiveness, and empathy. That’s why we’ve become known for high-quality service, and why clients continue to come back. As we’ve grown, we’ve added openness and inclusivity and teamwork by proudly handing more responsibility to the team.”

Q: What’s a great piece of advice you received and would pass on again?

“We were told early on: always hire people more intelligent than you. And we did. Every member of our team brings something unique. There’s no ‘i’ in team and our people demonstrate the power of that every day.”

Q: What’s your proudest achievement? 

“Definitely that we’ve built a values-led company that succeeds by collaborating, not selling. We work with people who share our approach and values and, because we always put people first, whether they’re clients or team members, we’ve had long-term success that we’re extremely proud of.”

Q: Businesses are always changing and evolving. What is your experience of handling this?

“Client needs have shifted in terms of tools and platforms, but for us, the fundamentals remain the same. People still need systems that are easy to use, collaborative, and make it clear what needs to be done, when, and by whom. Executives still need visibility to make smart decisions. We’ve simply kept adapting with the technology.”

Q: What’s your greatest motivation?

“The feedback we get from clients speaks volumes. Comments like “You’ve saved me a week a month” and “I love my job again” are what keep us going. We also love the way technology is now serving humans better and we’re excited about what’s still to come.”

If you’d like to find out more about the Smarter Business Processes team, visit our website. You can also follow us on LinkedIn.

Image shows Gwen, Richard, Debbie, David and Emma, half the team who managed to get together at the latest SBP Summit in Jan 2025, Paul was there too, taking the photograph.  We were missing Etienne and James at this years summit, we’ll try and get them next time!

The post How SBP turned their vision to reality appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

The role of Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards has evolved significantly. Data may well be the key to success but the real game-changer is how you visualise and act on it. Thought leaders in the field are exploring new trends and innovations that are shaping the future of BI dashboards. Enter Smarter Dashboards, a premium app by Smarter Business Processes that transforms the way you interact with your Smartsheet data. Packed with advanced features and customisation options, this tool enables businesses to save time, collaborate effectively, and make smarter decisions—all in real time.

The power of a dashboard

While traditional dashboards have been a staple of BI, they are no longer sufficient in the rapidly changing business environment. Thought leaders are advocating for more dynamic and interactive data visualization tools that can adapt to the evolving needs of organizations.

Beyond static charts and graphs, Smarter Dashboards offers real-time data updates, live data editing directly in the dashboard, and the ability to drill down into data for deeper insights. This level of interactivity empowers users to explore data in ways that were previously unimaginable. Smarter Dashboards turns traditional dashboards into highly customisable, user-friendly tools that empower decision-making at every level.

Smarter Dashboards isn’t just an enhancement of Smartsheet’s default dashboard—it’s a major leap forward. Here’s what sets it apart:

1. Access and create dashboards with ease

One of the significant challenges in the adoption of BI tools is the lack of data literacy among employees. The need to foster a culture of data literacy is paramount. Whether you’re building a new dashboard from scratch or enhancing an existing one, Smarter Dashboards’ intuitive and incredibly easy to use platform has you covered. Built-in help and click-through guides ensure a smooth experience, even for first-time users.

You can even jump start your Business Intelligence game with our powerful AI Dashboard Generator, demonstrated in this short video.

2. Fully customisable views

With Smarter Dashboards, you can create multiple views with widgets tailored to different needs as different audiences need to see data from many perspectives. 

We love it when things are simple so we’ve made it easy to name and organise these views.

3. Wide variety of widgets

You can show your data through a wide variety of widgets including:

• Column and Bar Charts
• Line Charts
• Pie and Doughnut Charts
• Single cell driven metrics
• Single Tables
• Relational Tables
• Forms

It’s easy to drag and drop widgets to rearrange them as needed, ensuring the layout works for you. Every widget is fully configurable, set the data source, labels, colour scheme and even on click actions, such as applying filters or navigating to another view.

4. Interactive features

Smarter Dashboards brings your data to life and enables collaborative working on other levels:

Filters: By applying filters on the left hand pane, you can update all the widgets in a view, instantly.  Giving you options to view by Location, Employee, last month, last quarter the list is endless, giving you unparalleled control, especially when presenting.

Inline editing: Update data in the original Smartsheet directly in the dashboard. Data edits are permitted in Table widgets either inline editing or via a pop up editing pane.  Users can update the source files even if they shared to them.  Although you do get to manage this in the User Management area.

Adding Attachments: we have recently enhanced Smarter Dashboards to include row attachments, add or access existing attachments stored in the underlying sheet.

At Mentions: the comments pane is now also available in our table widgets, allowing users of the dashboard to continue to use the great @mention feature of Smartsheet to make comments and have Smartsheet notify your collaborators.

5. Secure access control

A User management console allows you to allocate who is able to view or edit the data and even lets you assign what data is able to be viewed by each user.  Giving you full control over who sees what when logging in.  Perfect for sharing with all stakeholders and not just internal employees.  Smarter Dashboards puts you in control.

Why teams love Smarter Dashboards

One of the standout features of Smarter Dashboards is its ability to save time. Teams no longer need to spend hours manually compiling reports; instead, they can focus on strategic tasks and delivering results.

One user shared:

“Smarter Dashboards is a must-have solution for any organisation looking to optimise their Smartsheet data. Its time-saving capabilities, enhanced accuracy, and powerful data visualisation tools have completely transformed the way our team collaborates and makes decisions.”

Imagine presenting at a meeting where the dashboard isn’t just a static screen but a tool you can interact with. Need to tweak a chart, filter data, or update information on the fly? Look at attached files, upload new files, tag people within the data for automatic notifications.  All whilst presenting! With Smarter Dashboards, it’s all possible.

Whether you’re monitoring KPIs, analysing team performance, or preparing a project review, this tool ensures your data is actionable, current, and visually compelling.

Smarter Dashboards isn’t just a tool, it’s a game-changer!Ready to see Smarter Dashboards in action? Click to start a free trial or get in touch to schedule a demo and take the first step towards having your own smarter business processes.

The post Become Visionary with Smarter Dashboards appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

As part of their Enterprise Plan, users can access a suite of four AI tools: Generate Formulas, Analyze Data, Generate Text and Summaries, and Get Help.

These don’t enable you to do anything that isn’t already possible on Smartsheet, but they do simplify the method of achieving the output. In other words, they enable the user to input a written request which is then interpreted and the work – be that a formula, a written summary, a chart or the answer to your FAQ – is done for you.

In essence, these tools are time savers and will make the broader functionality of Smartsheet more accessible for non-technically minded users.

Let’s look at an example. 

If you wanted to generate a formula but weren’t familiar with the type of coding this requires, you can instead tell the Generate Formulas AI tool to “find the sum of [column 1] and [column 2]”.

In addition to autocomplete options for the various columns you might want to add together, the system then creates the correct formula and applies it to the selected cells.

Or you could use the Analyze data element to create a chart, by saying “I want a chart comparing x to y” and voila, a chart appears.  These examples are pretty simple but as the formulas get more complex or the data builds up for charts, it’s easy to see the value this could bring. 

What Smartsheet have cleverly done is move the functionality of their help and learning community into their sheets; as they say, changing the focus from ‘how do I?’ to ‘do it for me’.

This feels very much like the start of a new era, with Smartsheet teasing some of the future capabilities that they are working towards and saying “the possibilities are endless.”

Before we go, here’s some food for thought. We all know the working world is speeding up and people are getting busier. As a result, burnout is on the increase and wellbeing costs businesses time and money in itself.

If you decide, therefore, to invest in AI to save time, have you considered what you’ll do with the time you save? It’s often too easy for firms to reduce headcount or load people up with additional tasks to replace the ones they’ve automated.

Smartsheet broach this subject in their article, How generative AI will enable Smartsheet users to be even more effective, saying one of their guiding principles is to ‘empower humans to do more’. This theme of using AI to unlock human potential is important.

Consider the example set by a leading Australian software company. They leverage time saved through the use of AI and automation to allow their developers one day per year to work on any project of their choosing. This focus on innovation has led to significant improvements to their own products as developers use the time to address non-core bugs or investigate even better ways of working. 

As usual, we’re here to add yet another layer of convenience for our clients. Using AI to the extent of its potential is all about knowing what commands and prompts to use and we offer training to assist with this along with what the various AI tools can do and when best to use them.

If you’re not planning to upgrade to Smartsheet’s Enterprise Plan, don’t worry, we have some amazing AI of our own.

In our own Smarter Dashboards app, there’s a ‘push button start with AI’. This allows you to not just create a chart from a prompt, but actually create a whole dashboard in seconds. It analyses your source data and generates a selection of charts for you to choose for your dashboard. You can see a demo here. Finally, don’t forget we love nothing more than creating bespoke training courses so if you’re using AI in Smartsheet and would like us to address some particular challenges, let us know.

The post Smartsheet’s AI tools: the 4 powerful tools with the what, how and why… appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Smarter Dropdown List Manager – why did we create it? There are few things more satisfying in life than finding an easy solution to a time-consuming or repetitive task, particularly when it comes to business. Rather than focusing on the time saving ‘hacks’ that populate the internet and promise to help you squeeze the most from your day, we prefer to highlight our suite of Smarter Controls for Sheets. These are admin friendly apps which help Smartsheet users perform routine tasks more efficiently and reduce the possibility of human error when working across multiple sheets. Put simply? They make Smartsheet even smarter. 

Steve Campbell, Jr from California Gold Development Corp says:

“We are loving the Smarter Dropdown List Manager…that one is a slam dunk and huge help to us. With all the sheets and workspaces, it is great for us to be able to use this to ensure we have consistent dropdown options across sheets. This helps ensure we have consistency and helps with reporting, etc

It is without a doubt a great feature for Smartsheet users. The more I think about it the more I wonder how other serious users of Smartsheet are managing without it”.

Streamline Dropdown List updates

Smarter Business Processes’ Smarter Dropdown List Manager is one of our Smarter Controls for Sheets apps, and a best-seller for good reason. It allows you to control dropdown list values from a central point, sending those values off to multiple dropdown lists across multiple sheets, thus creating a master dropdown list that automatically updates nominated columns across Smartsheet.  To really streamline the updates, the master list can be created from a report that updates as sheets are updated and will push changes through to the nominated columns every 10 minutes, automatically and effortlessly.

Save time and ensure consistency in Smartsheet

As Smartsheet experts, we are constantly working to improve your business processes and overcome challenges. We knew that using Smartsheet to control several projects could be fiddly and time consuming, particularly when you need to update changing criteria that can impact several sheets, for example adding or removing staff members from dropdown options across multiple sheets. 

Smarter Dropdown List Manager negates this issue by enabling you to send a single list of options to multiple dropdown lists in multiple different sheets all from one central point. You save valuable time, streamline lengthy updates, and maintain data uniformity by ensuring you’re updating your sheets once, rather than manually going into each one. You can even specify which sheets need to be updated, whether it’s individual sheets, an entire folder of sheets, or everything throughout an entire workspace.  The app runs automatically every 10 minutes, hunts changes, and updates all connected Sheets. This alone can potentially save hours that was previously used to manually update dropdown options. 

Russell Anderson, Head of Operations at Northern Transformer, says:

“We purchased the Smarter Dropdown List Manager and it has fixed one of the biggest deficiencies in Smartsheet. Since the first day I started using Smartsheet, I wanted something that would allow a dropdown list to be managed from another source. This tool does exactly that. It is clean, easily setup and has been very reliable. Now information flows seamlessly from our employee list to many other sheets where we use employee names in dropdowns. It eliminates many additional steps we used to have to do when changes to our employee list occured.

I have many other use cases queued up to take advantage of this capability. It has opened the door to enable many more smarter business processes!”

See more Client Testimonials or Case Studies

Configuring Smarter Dropdown List Manager is a User-friendly experience 

Our apps are designed with users at heart. Smarter Dropdown List Manager can be managed entirely within Smartsheet and doesn’t require any coding. It runs with your existing IT environment meaning there is no disruption or additional manpower to implement it. 

We have a host of satisfied clients who are discovering the many benefits to the Smarter Dropdown List Manager and our Smarter Controls for Sheets apps. 

Are you ready to implement this time saving tool?Click here to view a demonstration video or book a discovery call to talk to us – Free Consultation & Trial Licenses – SmarterBusinessProcesses

The post SBP’s Smarter Dropdown List Manager: a small investment with a big impact appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

There is a proverb that strikes a chord with us, that says, ‘if speaking is silver, then listening is gold.’ 

Client Feedback – why do our clients like us?

We’re here to make our clients’ lives easier which is why five-star reviews like this one from Hyatt Hotels’ Sarah Cammelot are music to our ears: 

“Debbie and team took the time to understand my issue and quickly found the most effective and streamlined solution. We are thrilled with the results using the Report to Sheet app. It is saving us hours of maintenance work on a weekly basis!”

In another department, feeding back on a different solution by SBP, Christine Rubicco stated that the work carried out with Smarter Business Processes was so successful that the solutions implemented are now being used as best practice across the company. 

“Debbie and James have been pivotal in standing-up our SmartSheet efforts this year. With their help and guidance we have been able to implement a tool that is invaluable in telling the story of our work and keeping us organized. Not only has our team become more efficient and impactful but our work is now the best practice for other teams across the company.”

The needs of businesses are evolving faster than ever, and companies are being constantly challenged to find new ways to streamline tasks and processes and integrate systems. They often need to keep up, innovate, look forward, and maintain business as usual. But the tricky part? That every company’s challenges are unique to them. 

At Smarter Business Processes, we understand the importance of truly listening to our clients. It’s what sets us apart and how we ensure our clients get the very best out of Smartsheet and, in turn, their business. In short, it’s turning that proverbial gold into tangible results. 

Helping you grow

Our consultancy services start with reviewing your current solutions and finding unique ways to maximise the value that Smartsheet adds to your business. We can help with your solution design and architecture, building your solution, tracking of processes, visibility of data, optimisation of your solution, and integration with other apps. This level of service is particularly important for clients who are growing and scaling their business as their data capture and reporting needs to evolve as they do.

On the topic of growth, Hyatt’s AVP Technology Strategy & Chief of Staff to the CIO, Angela Steele, said:

“SBP has been integral in helping Hyatt develop a solution that can meet the needs of our increasingly complex and rapidly growing organization. This solution will enable Hyatt’s ability to scale through automation, while also allowing for flexibility using different templates to support a wide range of projects across the organization.” 

Full Case Study here

Purpose-built apps to make your life easier

We know there are always ways to improve your business processes and overcome challenges, so we are continually developing what we know people need.  Our library of apps that complement Smartsheet is constantly growing. If we hear what you’re struggling with and the solution doesn’t already exist, our in-house team of experts will find a solution. We are dedicated to ensuring you use every function of Smartsheet to its fullest.

And we work quickly and efficiently. Angela also said:

“SBP helped us design, develop and deliver the solution in under 3 months, and we have already identified several more opportunities to continue our partnership with SBP.”

The post Why Smarter Business Processes are the perfect Smartsheet Consultants if you want to get the most from Smartsheet. appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

If you’ve ever had to move data between platforms – copying, pasting, exporting, or importing – you’ll know how time-consuming (and risky) it can be. 

One wrong number, misplaced decimal, or duplicated entry can cause headaches, especially when finances are involved. That’s where integration comes into play.

At Smarter Business Processes, we help businesses supercharge their tools by making them work smarter together. As accredited Airtable Services Partners, we specialise in helping businesses get maximum value from Airtable through consultancy, design and build, training, and integration.

Integrations are one of the most valuable services we offer because they transform how your business operates. By connecting Airtable with other platforms, like accounting software Xero, you can automate workflows, eliminate errors, and free up valuable time.

But why are integrations so important and how can we help you to create seamless, efficient systems too?

The power of integration

When your tools talk to each other, your business becomes frictionless. Information flows automatically from one platform to the next, meaning you don’t have to worry about:

• Manual entry errors: Numbers don’t get mistyped.
• Duplicated work: No more entering the same data into multiple systems.
• Lost time: Spend less time on admin and more time driving your business forward.

Integrations also allow you to consolidate your data in one place, making it easier to generate reports or dashboards. With Airtable, for example, you can pull in live data from other platforms, like Xero, and create real-time views of the numbers that matter to your business.

Real results: Airtable – Xero integration

To show what’s possible, let’s look at a recent project we worked on with Duct-IN, a wholesale and distribution business.

Duct-IN uses Xero for their accounting, which works well but it doesn’t track margin information on individual orders or provide the detailed insights they need at month-end. To bridge this gap, their director, Dan Lewis, had been manually entering data into spreadsheets, spending around 20% of his time each month on this process.

We worked with Dan to design and build a custom Airtable solution tailored to his business needs. By integrating Airtable with Xero, we created an automated workflow that eliminated the need for manual data entry. The result? Dan now has a system that not only saves him time but also reduces the risk of errors, while delivering the insights he needs at a glance.

As Dan put it:

“Smarter Business Processes understood my goals and helped me develop a customised Airtable solution tailored to our business needs, allowing us to achieve the required results…. We are continuing to develop the integration to create even more benefits for Duct-IN.”

Full testimonial below. This project is a great example of how integration can unlock new possibilities for businesses, allowing them to operate more efficiently and focus on growth.

Why Airtable and Smarter Business Processes?

Airtable is a powerful project management platform with endless potential—but to truly make the most of it, it often needs to be integrated with the other tools your business relies on. That’s where we come in.

At Smarter Business Processes, we don’t just know Airtable—we’re experts in making it work for your business. Our services include:

• Consultancy: Understanding your needs and goals
• Design and Build: Creating tailored solutions to match your requirements
• Self-Build Support: Helping you build your own tools with expert guidance
• Training: Equipping your team to use Airtable effectively
• Integration: Connecting Airtable to your other platforms to streamline your workflows

Full Testimonial:

” I currently use Xero as our accounting software for our wholesale and distribution business. While Xero is excellent, it has limited functionality for tracking margin information on individual orders and at month-end. To fill this gap, I’ve been manually inputting data into a spreadsheet, which takes up about 15-20% of my time each month. Smarter Business Processes understood my goals and helped me develop a customised Airtable solution tailored to our business needs, allowing us to achieve the required results. “

” From this initial engagement we are continuing to develop the integration to create even more benefits for Duct-IN. “

Dan Lewis – Director – Duct-IN

The bottom line

Integrating Airtable with platforms like Xero allows your business to run more smoothly, save time, and minimise errors, especially when it comes to managing numbers. 

Whether you need to automate financial workflows, streamline reporting, or build custom dashboards, integration is the key to creating a truly frictionless business.If you’re ready to get more from Airtable and connect it with your other tools, we’d love to help. Get in touch with Smarter Business Processes today to see how we can help your business thrive.

The post Airtable x Xero integration shows 20% savings of monthly admin time appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Today, if you’re looking to continuously improve and grow your business, one of the most effective things to tackle is streamlining your processes.

Tools such as Smartsheet make it very easy to do just that but, at Smarter Business Processes, we’ve discovered a way to go a step further.

You see, enterprise solutions like Smartsheet can only do so much. They have to cater for an enormous global market of clients but sometimes a small tweak here or a little extra automation there can be the difference that makes the difference.

And that’s exactly what we offer.

There’s an app for that

Our purpose-built apps make Smartsheet easier to navigate and help you be even more efficient at managing your data and decision making. We’ve developed what we know people need – we hear what people are struggling with and we find a solution to help you use every function of Smartsheet to its fullest.

We know you’ll get so much use from features like advanced data visualisation, automated alerts, and live reporting. 

For example, try our Smarter Report to a Sheet app which will copy data from a Smartsheet Report and paste it into a sheet. It can even be automated to do so on a regular basis. 

If you’re a system admin, you’ll love something like Smarter Global Search and Replace, which saves so much time by enabling you to make global updates across all your Smartsheet workspaces.

Or have a look at our premium Smarter Dashboards 2.0 app which enables you to configure your Smartsheet dashboard to analyse, filter and share exactly the information your business needs, when it needs it. 

Building the bridge to efficiency

If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, and it doesn’t already exist, we can bring our team of consultants together to create something bespoke. To date, we’ve worked on global Project Management Office (PMO) solutions, business process trackers and bespoke dashboards to help clients streamline their data flows and create the documentation and reports they need at the click of a button.

And we don’t stop at the tools themselves. We’re also available to help you improve your systems integration and increase automation across your business.

Nothing saves time and increases productivity like a suite of platforms that are all talking to one another. You can drop time consuming repetitive tasks and let your ERPs and CRMs take the strain on managing your data.

Having excellent connectivity within your business is the key to unlocking data integrity and transparency as well as simplifying tailored user access.

Showing you how as well as what

Our clients find they can reach new heights in productivity and smooth out their workflows, especially when they use our training capabilities too.

Because these are delivered as bespoke, live, online sessions of just 90 minutes, they work for busy business owners like you. Our clients tell us they find them easy to understand, highly relevant and because they’re bite-sized, easy to remember and replicate their learnings.
If it’s time for you to improve your productivity, harness your data for real-time decision making and position yourself for growth and success, let’s chat. We offer free consultations so we can find out how best to help you.

The post How Smarter Business Processes makes it even easier to benefit from time saving workflow tools appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

This blog explores the critical role of cybersecurity and shares our four top tips for steps you can take if you’re not protected already. 

Why cybersecurity matters more than ever

Even over the past few days there has been news coverage of increased risk to the UK from cyber warfare.

Digital transformation is empowering businesses to work smarter, and data is becoming more and more valuable, but storing it in accessible ways also brings heightened risks. 

Tools like Smartsheet handle vast amounts of confidential and proprietary data—customer records, project plans, financial information, and more. This data is a valuable target for cybercriminals, and a breach could lead to operational disruption, reputational damage, or even legal consequences.

The need for robust cybersecurity is clear. At Cyber UK 2023, the UK National Cyber Security Centre emphasised that boards and CEOs must treat cyber risk as a core governance issue. 

And this feels like a call to arms that is much needed. The UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2022 revealed only just over half of those UK businesses who had identified a cyberattack went on to take proactive steps to identify their risks. It feels as though we may have our heads in the sand.

The challenges businesses face

For many businesses, managing cybersecurity can feel overwhelming. Common challenges include:

• Lack of in-house expertise to assess and manage risks.
• Complexity in ensuring device compliance, especially with remote work and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies.
• Time constraints that make it hard to keep up with evolving threats.

Automation can help bridge these gaps by streamlining compliance tracking, software updates, and risk monitoring—areas where platforms like Smartsheet or Airtable can play a role.

Our top four tips to help you strengthen cybersecurity

Protecting your business doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some best practices to get started:

1. Secure your accounts:
   Use strong, unique passwords for each account and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible. Consider using password managers to generate and store passwords securely and opt for authenticator apps over SMS codes for added protection.
2. Safeguard devices:
   Ensure all devices—whether company-issued or personal—are kept up to date and compliant. Implement Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to monitor and automate updates.
3. Protect your data:
   Back up important data regularly and use encryption for sensitive files and communications.
4. Pursue cyber essentials certification:
   This UK Government-backed certification provides businesses with a framework for implementing basic security controls to protect against common threats. It demonstrates a commitment to best practices and boosts client confidence.

How Smarter Business Processes supports cybersecurity

At SBP, we understand the responsibility that comes with working on clients’ data. That’s why we’re Cyber Essentials certified, reinforcing our commitment to robust security practices.

By obtaining this certification, we not only protect our own operations but also set an example for our clients. We encourage all businesses to consider accreditation — not just as a compliance exercise but as a meaningful step towards a stronger and more resilient UK industry. 

Every certified business helps bolster the collective defence against cyberattacks.You can find out more about the government’s Cyber Essentials initiative here.

The post Your data may be organised but are you protecting it too? appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.