Summary and recommendation
Smartsheet user management can be run manually, but complexity usually increases with role models, licensing gates, and offboarding dependencies. This guide gives the exact mechanics and where automation has the biggest impact.
Smartsheet user management runs through Admin Center (https://app.smartsheet.com/b/admin) and is available only to System Admins.
The permission model is two-layered: account-level roles (System Admin, Group Admin, Licensed User) govern who can administer the account, while asset-level sharing permissions (Owner, Admin, Editor, Commenter, Viewer) govern what each person can do with a specific sheet, report, or dashboard.
These two layers are fully independent - a System Admin is not automatically shared to every app or sheet in the account.
Quick facts
| Admin console path | Account menu (top-right avatar) → Admin Center → User Management |
| Admin console URL | Official docs |
| SCIM available | Yes |
| SCIM tier required | Enterprise |
| SSO prerequisite | Yes |
User types and roles
| Role | Permissions | Cannot do | Plan required | Seat cost | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Admin | Full account administration: add/remove/deactivate users, manage groups, configure SSO/SCIM, set account-wide security policies, access all sheets in the account (with transfer), manage billing. | Cannot access sheet content directly without being shared or transferring ownership; cannot override individual sheet sharing permissions without taking ownership. | Pro, Business, or Enterprise (at least one System Admin required on paid plans) | Counts as a Licensed User seat | System Admin role is separate from sheet-level Admin sharing permission. A System Admin is not automatically shared to every sheet. |
| Group Admin | Create and manage user groups within the account; add/remove group members. | Cannot manage account-level settings, billing, SSO, or user provisioning outside of group management. | Business or Enterprise | Counts as a Licensed User seat | Group Admin is a delegated role assigned by a System Admin; it does not grant broader account admin rights. |
| Licensed User (Member) | Create, own, and edit sheets, reports, dashboards, and workspaces; share content; use automations and integrations. | Cannot access Admin Center or manage other users unless also assigned a System Admin or Group Admin role. | Pro, Business, or Enterprise | Paid seat; counts against plan seat limit | On Pro plans, seat count is capped at 10 members. Business requires a minimum of 3 licensed users. |
| Free Collaborator (Guest/Viewer) | View and edit sheets shared to them by a Licensed User; comment on sheets. Does not require a paid seat on the inviting account. | Cannot create new sheets, own content, or access Admin Center. Cannot use certain premium features (automations, forms) unless the sheet owner's plan supports it. | No paid seat required for the collaborator; the inviting account must be on a paid plan. | No seat cost on the inviting account | Free Collaborators are not managed in Admin Center the same way as Licensed Users; they appear in sharing dialogs but not in the full user roster unless the account has domain-level visibility enabled. |
| Sheet Admin (sharing permission) | Share/unshare the specific sheet with others, change sharing permissions for that sheet, enable/disable sheet-level settings. | Cannot manage account-level users or settings; permission is scoped to a single sheet or workspace. | Any paid plan | No additional cost; this is a sharing permission level, not a separate seat type | Sheet Admin is a per-asset sharing role, not an account-level role. Confusingly named similarly to System Admin. |
Permission model
- Model type: hybrid
- Description: Smartsheet uses a two-layer permission model. At the account level, role-based admin roles (System Admin, Group Admin) control who can manage users and settings. At the asset level (sheets, reports, dashboards, workspaces), a separate set of sharing permission levels (Owner, Admin, Editor – can share, Editor – cannot share, Commenter, Viewer) controls what each user can do with that specific item. These two layers are independent.
- Custom roles: No
- Custom roles plan: Not documented
- Granularity: Account-level roles are predefined (System Admin, Group Admin, Licensed User). Asset-level sharing permissions are predefined (5 levels: Admin, Editor-can share, Editor-cannot share, Commenter, Viewer). No custom role creation is available.
How to add users
- Log in as a System Admin and navigate to Admin Center (https://app.smartsheet.com/b/admin).
- Select 'User Management' from the left navigation.
- Click 'Add User' (or 'Invite Users').
- Enter the user's email address.
- Select the user type: Licensed User or optionally assign System Admin or Group Admin role.
- Click 'Send Invite'. The user receives an email invitation to activate their account.
Required fields: Email address
Watch out for:
- Invited users must accept the email invitation before they appear as active in the roster; pending invites still consume a seat on some plan configurations.
- On Pro plans, adding a user beyond the 10-seat cap requires a plan upgrade.
- If the user already has a personal Smartsheet account with the same email, they will be prompted to merge or transfer their existing content.
- System Admin role must be explicitly assigned; it is not granted automatically to the account owner after initial setup.
| Bulk option | Availability | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CSV import | Yes | Admin Center → User Management → Add User → Import Users (CSV). Required CSV columns: First Name, Last Name, Email Address. |
| Domain whitelisting | Yes | Automatic domain-based user add |
| IdP provisioning | Yes | Enterprise |
How to remove or deactivate users
- Can delete users: Yes
- Delete/deactivate behavior: This app exposes delete operations in its API documentation, but the admin-console path may present removal as deactivation, archiving, or deletion depending on tenant configuration. Confirm whether the UI action is reversible before treating removal as recoverable.
- Log in as a System Admin and go to Admin Center → User Management.
- Locate the user by searching their name or email.
- Click the three-dot menu (⋮) next to the user's name.
- Select 'Deactivate User'.
- Confirm the action. The user is immediately locked out; their content remains owned by them.
- To transfer content, use 'Transfer Owned Items' from the same menu before or after deactivation.
| Data impact | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Owned records | Sheets, reports, dashboards, and workspaces owned by the deactivated/deleted user remain in their account unless explicitly transferred to another Licensed User via the 'Transfer Owned Items' function in Admin Center. |
| Shared content | Content shared to the deactivated user remains accessible to other collaborators who were also shared. The deactivated user loses access but the sheet itself is not deleted. |
| Integrations | Connected integrations (e.g., Smartsheet for Jira, Bridge workflows, API tokens) associated with the deactivated user's account may stop functioning. API access tokens issued to that user are invalidated upon deactivation. |
| License freed | Deactivating a user frees their Licensed User seat, making it available for reassignment. The seat count decreases in Admin Center billing view. |
Watch out for:
- SCIM deprovisioning from an IdP (Okta, Entra ID) triggers a hard delete, not a deactivation. Content must be transferred before the SCIM delete event fires, or it may be unrecoverable.
- There is no 'recycle bin' or recovery path for a hard-deleted user's owned content if transfer was not completed.
- Deactivated users still appear in the User Management roster with a 'Deactivated' status; they do not disappear from the list.
- Automations and scheduled reports owned by a deactivated user will stop running until ownership is transferred.
- A user cannot be deleted if they are the sole System Admin on the account; another System Admin must be designated first.
License and seat management
| Seat type | Includes | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed User (Member) | Full create/edit/own access to sheets, reports, dashboards, automations, integrations, and API. Required for anyone who needs to create or own content. | Pro: $9/user/mo (annual) or $12/user/mo (monthly). Business: $19/user/mo (annual). Enterprise: custom pricing. |
| Free Collaborator | View and edit access to sheets shared to them. Cannot create or own content. No seat cost on the inviting account. | No charge to the inviting account. |
- Where to check usage: Admin Center → User Management. The top of the page displays total licensed seats used vs. total seats purchased. Individual user last-login dates are visible in the user list.
- How to identify unused seats: In Admin Center → User Management, sort or filter by 'Last Login' date to identify users who have not logged in recently. There is no built-in automated inactive-user report; admins must manually review last-login timestamps.
- Billing notes: Smartsheet bills per Licensed User seat. Free Collaborators do not consume paid seats. On Pro plans, the seat cap is 10; exceeding it requires upgrading to Business. Business requires a minimum of 3 seats. Enterprise pricing is negotiated and may include volume discounts (48–53% for 500+ seats; 55–70% for multi-year terms). Nonprofits may receive a 15% discount. Seats freed by deactivation are available for reassignment within the same billing cycle.
The cost of manual management
Identifying unused seats requires manually sorting the User Management roster by last-login date; there is no built-in automated inactive-user report. Automations and scheduled reports owned by a deactivated user stop running silently - no proactive alert is sent to admins.
When a user with a pre-existing personal Smartsheet account is invited to a Business or Enterprise account, the merge flow is a known friction point that can leave content split across accounts.
SCIM deprovisioning via an IdP triggers a hard delete by default, not a deactivation, so content must be transferred before the delete event fires or it is unrecoverable.
What IT admins are saying
Recurring admin pain points reported in the Smartsheet community center on three areas. First, the SCIM hard-delete risk: IdP-triggered deprovisioning permanently removes user data if ownership transfer is not completed first, and there is no recycle bin.
Second, the lack of automated inactive-seat reporting forces manual roster audits. Third, plan-level SAML configuration has been deprecated in favor of domain-level SAML, requiring reconfiguration for existing Enterprise customers who set up SSO under the old model.
Common complaints:
- SCIM deprovisioning via IdP performs a hard delete with no recovery option if content transfer is not completed before the delete event fires.
- No built-in automated report for identifying inactive or unused licensed seats; admins must manually sort by last-login date.
- Enterprise pricing is not publicly listed; requires contacting sales for a quote.
- Plan-level SAML configuration has been deprecated in favor of domain-level SAML, requiring reconfiguration for existing Enterprise customers.
- When a user with a pre-existing personal Smartsheet account is invited to a Business/Enterprise account, the merge/transfer flow is confusing and can result in content being split across accounts.
- Automations and scheduled reports owned by a deactivated user silently stop running; there is no proactive notification to admins.
- Free Collaborators are not fully visible in Admin Center, making it difficult to audit who has access to sensitive sheets.
The decision
SSO and SCIM are gated behind the Enterprise plan, which carries custom pricing. If your organization needs automated lifecycle management - provisioning, deprovisioning, group sync - you must be on Enterprise with SAML configured before SCIM can be enabled. Pro plans cap licensed seats at 10 members; Business requires a minimum of 3.
Free Collaborators (viewers and editors of shared content) do not consume paid seats and are not managed in Admin Center the same way as Licensed Users, which matters when scoping your actual seat footprint across every app and workflow that touches Smartsheet.
Bottom line
Smartsheet's manual user management is straightforward for small teams but becomes operationally intensive at scale: no automated inactive-seat detection, silent automation failures on deactivation, and a hard-delete deprovisioning path that punishes admins who miss the content-transfer step. The two-layer permission model (account roles vs.
asset sharing) is powerful but requires deliberate governance to avoid confusion between System Admin account rights and sheet-level Admin sharing permissions. Enterprise plan is a hard requirement for SSO and SCIM, so teams below that tier are managing users entirely by hand.
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