SmarterBusinessProcesses https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com Tue, 02 Dec 2025 13:20:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/cropped-SBPm-Square-32x32.jpg SmarterBusinessProcesses https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com 32 32 Smarter Apps for CWM – 100% premium functionality without the premium price tag https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/cwmapps/ Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:11:26 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25150 Great tools should make life easier. But sometimes, with greatness comes complexity which leads the way to searching for a more streamlined approach.
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. That’s precisely why we created our Smarter Apps.

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Smarter Apps

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.

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]]> Airtable for FREE https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/airtable-for-free/ Tue, 02 Dec 2025 09:58:31 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25145 Welcome to Top Tip Tuesday and today we’re focusing on the wonders of Airtable. In fact, the tip is simple and it’s to check out Airtable’s free membership tier. If you ever feel like you’re sellotaping tools together to manage your content planning (or any other project for that matter), or you’re bouncing back and […]

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]]> Welcome to Top Tip Tuesday and today we’re focusing on the wonders of Airtable.

In fact, the tip is simple and it’s to check out Airtable’s free membership tier.

If you ever feel like you’re sellotaping tools together to manage your content planning (or any other project for that matter), or you’re bouncing back and forth between project management platforms and spreadsheets to track things, it’s worth a look as it can achieve more than you might expect.

Because Airtable is a relational database wrapped in a user-friendly interface, it offers amazing functionality. You have the structure of a database, the flexibility of a spreadsheet, and the views of a project management tool… all in one.

Try using this to manage a project such as content planning.
– Track blog posts, social content, and video workflows in one place
– Link ideas to platforms and topics
– View everything in Calendar, Kanban, Grid or Gallery mode

If you’re managing content across platforms or juggling project details between tools, this solution will definitely save you time.

Don’t forget, you can always contact us and ask us about Airtable.

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]]> Conditional Counting https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/conditional-counting/ Tue, 25 Nov 2025 09:50:11 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25134 How many tasks has your team completed this week? How many belong to a specific department or client? Instead of filtering data manually, let Smartsheet do the counting for you with COUNTIFS formulas that count only the rows meeting multiple conditions. Try this:=COUNTIFS([Status]:[Status], “Complete”, [Department]: [Department], “Marketing”)This counts the number of rows where the Status […]

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]]> How many tasks has your team completed this week? How many belong to a specific department or client?

Instead of filtering data manually, let Smartsheet do the counting for you with COUNTIFS formulas that count only the rows meeting multiple conditions.

Try this:
=COUNTIFS([Status]:[Status], “Complete”, [Department]: [Department], “Marketing”)
This counts the number of rows where the Status column is “Complete” and the Department column says “Marketing.”

How can you use this?

📈 It’s ideal for tracking KPIs and progress by department, team, or timeframe.

🚥 Keeps dashboards accurate and up to date in real time.

💡 Helps you make quick, data-driven decisions without manual updates.

COUNTIFS is one of the most powerful tools in Smartsheet’s formula library and once you start using it, you’ll find endless ways to apply it.

Whether you’re tracking projects, analysing workloads, or managing performance metrics, this one formula can replace hours of manual reporting.

If you’re not sure how to start building COUNTIFS into your sheets, get in touch. We can help set up automated dashboards that do the hard work for you.

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]]> Linking to Local Folders https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/linking-to-local-folders/ Wed, 19 Nov 2025 08:52:39 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25122 If you’ve ever clicked a cell in Smartsheet expecting it to open a folder on your network drive, only to see the dreaded “Invalid URL” error, you’re not alone. So, can Smartsheet link directly to a folder or file on your local network drive, or does everything now need to be cloud based? The short […]

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]]> If you’ve ever clicked a cell in Smartsheet expecting it to open a folder on your network drive, only to see the dreaded “Invalid URL” error, you’re not alone. So, can Smartsheet link directly to a folder or file on your local network drive, or does everything now need to be cloud based?

The short answer is – not quite.

Smartsheet currently requires URLs that conform to web formats, so when you try \\Server\Folder\MyFile.xlsx, it flags it as invalid. This limitation is by design and the platform encourages linking to cloud-accessible URLs (like SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox) instead.

How can you get around this?

Enter the local folder path as plain text in a cell column labelled ‘File Location’. Users can then copy-and-paste this path into File Explorer.

Upload key files to a cloud folder, generate a share link and paste that into Smartsheet so it becomes clickable.

Taking this approach ensures everyone has quick access to documentation or assets, regardless of where they start and reduces the frustration of broken links in dashboards or approval workflows. It keeps your Smartsheet sheets and dashboards smoother, without invalid link errors breaking the experience.

If you need help making this workflow rock-solid for your team, we can help!

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]]> Get ahead in Smartsheet with Smarter Business Processes https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/engage2025keynote/ Wed, 12 Nov 2025 07:21:04 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25100 Last week Smartsheet's new CEO Raj Singh led the Keynote speech at their Engage conference, and we're impressed! With less than a month in seat, Raj is kicking off some pivotal changes. At Smarter Business Processes we really are living up to our name, as we already have solutions for their new roadmap.

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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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]]> Get ahead in Smartsheet with Smarter Business Processes - SmarterBusinessProcesses nonadult Introducing Smarter Sheet Manager https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/introducing-smarter-sheet-manager/ Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:39:59 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25095 If you’ve ever needed to update the same formula or column property across multiple Smartsheets, you’ll know how time-consuming it can be. That’s why this week’s top tip is all about managing global updates efficiently and how the newly enhanced Smarter Sheet Manager makes that easier than ever. Until recently, our Column Manager was the […]

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]]> If you’ve ever needed to update the same formula or column property across multiple Smartsheets, you’ll know how time-consuming it can be.

That’s why this week’s top tip is all about managing global updates efficiently and how the newly enhanced Smarter Sheet Manager makes that easier than ever.

Until recently, our Column Manager was the go-to tool for keeping columns consistent across sheets. It handled everything from renaming columns to updating properties. But we’ve taken things a big step further and evolved our app. In fact, it’s so much better, we’ve given it a new name.

Introducing Smarter Sheet Manager.

This upgraded app gives you:
✅ Global updates across multiple sheets in seconds with no more manual edits.
✅ The ability to manage column formulas and sheet summary fields, ensuring data stays accurate everywhere.
✅ A clear, centralised dashboard so you can see what’s been changed and where.

So, to today’s tip!
If you’re running a suite of similar sheets (for example, project trackers or regional reports), keeping your structure uniform is key. It means cleaner reporting, fewer formula errors, and much simpler automation. Smarter Sheet Manager takes care of that consistency for you.

You can find out what’s new and how it could save you serious admin time here

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]]> Managing Users and Groups  https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/managing-users-and-groups/ Tue, 04 Nov 2025 10:11:59 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25025 You can copy or clone a group of users by using the following steps: 1. Go to the Manage Groups section in Smartsheet. Open the group you want to duplicate.2. Select “View Group,” then highlight all the group members (names and email addresses). Copy them (e.g. Ctrl+C).3. Paste that into a text editor. (Heads up: […]

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]]> You can copy or clone a group of users by using the following steps:

1. Go to the Manage Groups section in Smartsheet. Open the group you want to duplicate.
2. Select “View Group,” then highlight all the group members (names and email addresses). Copy them (e.g. Ctrl+C).
3. Paste that into a text editor. (Heads up: this raw list isn’t ready to go back into Smartsheet yet.)
4. Use a tool (even an AI-powered one if you have it) to extract just the email addresses and clean up the list.
5. Back in Smartsheet, open the group you want to populate. Use the “Add Members” option, then paste in those cleaned email addresses. Save.

If your group has more than 1000 members, you’ll need to repeat the copy-paste in batches.

Doing this saves so much time and manual retyping when you’ve got large user groups. It also helps maintain consistency of names and permissions and, without a ‘duplicate group’ button, it’s the best way to tackle this task.

If you want help setting this up, or making similar Smartsheet admin tasks more efficient, drop us a message and we’ll be happy to show you how.

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]]> Formulas For Success https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/formulas-for-success/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:36:27 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=25010 Today, we’re focusing on using formulas to make Smartsheet work even harder for us. Do you ever wish Smartsheet could read between the lines of your data? With a simple combination of formulas, it can. Let’s say you have a column for comments or task notes. You might want to automatically flag anything that mentions […]

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]]> Today, we’re focusing on using formulas to make Smartsheet work even harder for us.

Do you ever wish Smartsheet could read between the lines of your data? With a simple combination of formulas, it can.

Let’s say you have a column for comments or task notes. You might want to automatically flag anything that mentions the word “urgent” so your team can respond quickly.

Here’s how:
=IF(HAS([Comments]@row, “urgent”), “High Priority”, “Normal”)

This formula looks inside the Comments column. If it finds the word “urgent”, it automatically labels that row as High Priority with no manual checking required.

It’s useful to:

🔍 Keep your team focused on what matters most.

⚠ Removes the risk of overlooking important updates.

🤝 Works perfectly alongside conditional formatting (e.g., colour-code “High Priority” rows in red).

This small but mighty formula is a great example of how Smartsheet can help automate your everyday tasks and reduce human error which saves time and keeps your workflow smooth.

If you’d like to explore other ways to make your sheets smarter, our team can help build custom automations that work just like this, but across entire processes.

To find out more about formulas, contact debbie.sawyer@smarterbusinessprocesses.com to discuss creating a bespoke workshop.

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]]> It’s Good Sharing https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/its-good-sharing/ Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:06:17 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=24855 Today we’re sharing a bit of a “heads up” when sharing sheets in Smartsheet: pay vigilant attention to the title in the share dialogue box. Ways to share if the sheet is open.* Clicking on Share from the File menu will open the Sheet Share dialogue box* Clicking the Share button in the top right […]

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]]> Today we’re sharing a bit of a “heads up” when sharing sheets in Smartsheet: pay vigilant attention to the title in the share dialogue box.

Ways to share if the sheet is open.
* Clicking on Share from the File menu will open the Sheet Share dialogue box
* Clicking the Share button in the top right corner, allows you to choose Share Workspace or Share Sheet, it’s fairly clear.

If the sheet is NOT open
Clicking on a workspace or folder in the browse bar will display the contents of that workspace/folder in the right hand pane. From here:
* Right clicking a sheet name and selecting Share will open the Sheet Sharing dialogue box
* Selecting the sheet (by ticking the box next to it) and using the Actions Menu and selecting Share will open the Sheet Share dialogue box but…if you click the Share Button in the top right corner will open the Share Workspace Dialogue box even though you had just a single sheet selected.

Sharing to a workspace means that users will have access to everything in that workspace and not just the item you clicked on.

It’s easy to make a mistake with this and the implications could be far-reaching.

So the top tip is: before filling out the user details and permission details, just check the title of the dialogue box – does it say Share Sheet or Share Workspace?

We cover tips like this and many many more on our training workshops. Feel free to contact us to find out more.

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]]> Formula Handbook https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/formula-handbook/ Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:34:28 +0000 https://smarterbusinessprocesses.com/?p=24848 If you’re a regular Smartsheet user, you’ve probably found yourself writing or tweaking a formula or two. From basic calculations to more advanced functions, formulas are where the real power of Smartsheet starts to shine. But did you know that Smartsheet has an official Formula Handbook available on their website? It’s a comprehensive, easy-to-use reference […]

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]]> If you’re a regular Smartsheet user, you’ve probably found yourself writing or tweaking a formula or two. From basic calculations to more advanced functions, formulas are where the real power of Smartsheet starts to shine.

But did you know that Smartsheet has an official Formula Handbook available on their website? It’s a comprehensive, easy-to-use reference that covers everything from simple operators to advanced logical functions, complete with examples.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’re already comfortable building complex formulas, this resource can save you time and frustration. It’s also a great way to discover new functions you might not have used yet and to learn how different formulas can work together to automate calculations or streamline workflows.

At Smarter Business Processes, we spend a lot of time helping clients set up and refine formulas to make their Smartsheet solutions smarter, faster, and more accurate so we know how useful this resource could be.

You can find it and download it HERE

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