Smartsheet

I love how easy it is to collaborate and share information with Smartsheet. With the different permission levels and how easy it was to get our whole company set up with Smartsheet, it has made so much of our project work so much easier and has enabled us to keep all relevant teams, and even just interested parties, up to speed on all that we have going on.

The one feature that I do wish would be added would be a visual timeline feature like MSP has. A lot of times our executive management team would like to see a simplified timeline with key milestones, but in order to do that with Smartsheet, we have to transfer things into PPT Timeline, which isn't impossible, it's just an added step that is a little inconvenient.

Because I use this software on a daily basis, I need to be able to navigate around fairly quickly. For the most part, I am able to do this. When I do have a question or can't figure out how to do something, the search function either in the Solution Center or a search in Google often produce great results. And if if doesn't, customer service is superb and I am able to get pretty close to an immediate response or help.

I do like how I can create a Dashboard that can house any type of information from links to other Smartsheets, forms, other websites, the list is endless. It helps bring projects and/or information together in one area that is easy to navigate through.

Although I know this isn't excel, I do wish it had more functionality like excel. With that said, the more I use this program, the more I do love it and am able to maneuver my way around easier.

Smartsheet is my preferred software for Gantt charts, and for quick & simple spreadsheets. The formatting features are especially effective, such as easy indenting and quick checkbox options that can be used with formulas. Gantt charts on Smartsheet are quick and intuitive with all the options I would like to have. Dashboards can be a nice way to have an overview with links to different sheets if you have a project with several documents, and are willing to spend the extra time and money to set it up.

The big Con with Smartsheet is that it lacks the in-depth features of similar spreadsheet software that is also usually freely available.
Conditional formatting the way you would like it to work can take a surprisingly long time, as it can take many conditions (often one per column per action) to accomplish what you would think would take a handful.
Automatic email sending from sheets sounds great but is still not very fleshed out, and options are pretty limited.
Complex formulas usually need to be done in several hidden columns or they can end up taking large paragraphs of hard-to-edit text and numbers due to lack of formula options. This can also make complicated spreadsheets pretty slow.
Bugs occur infrequently, but make me prefer to double check important sheets.

This is the tool we use every day, every hour, to track all of our enrollments and clients. Our team monitors enrollments and other CRM tools don't give us the flexibility to track multiple events and data points. It's Excel but on steroids with multiple functions and features. We're using it more and more every day for reporting up to our management team on progress for our client events.

I'm not so good at the formulaic side of things and making sheets talk to each other, or building a dashboard, is not an intuitive process. There are not step by step instructions or visuals which is something I need personally. It's a lot of trial and error in getting things set up. When I first started, it was very expensive to work with someone who helped build the infrastructure base and looking back there are many things I'd have done differently if I'd understood it a little better. A lot of the consultation time was wasted in trying to get the person to understand what we were trying to achieve.