Smartsheet is an online project management and collaboration tool. It includes automated alerts, instantaneous updating and sharing across team members, resource management, nested tasks organized in a hierarchy, a Gantt chart view, exportable and automated reports, and integration with email.
$14
per month
WORKetc
Score 7.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
WORKetc is a cloud-based business management system. With integrated CRM, project management, billing, help desk, reporting, and collaboration, teams can access one system for all relevant information. The system supports popular third-party apps such as Google Workspace, Xero Accounting, Quickbooks Online, Outlook, Dropbox, and Evernote.
$78
per month
Pricing
Smartsheet
WORKetc
Editions & Modules
Individual
$14
per month
Business
$25
Per User / Per Month
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Premier
Contact Sales
Starter Edition
$78
Per Month for up to 2 Users
Team
$195
Per month for up to 3 Users (Each extra user + $49/month)
Foundations
$395
Per month for up to 5 Users (Each extra user + $59/month)
Smartsheet was a never-ending to do list of unattached items. It wasn't creating a database for us to continue to pull from. WORK[etc] is both project managing and client managing at the same time.
For teams and users who are very familiar with Excel and its mode of operation, Smartsheet will feel like a walkover. If you have a number of users who use Excel or Google Sheets for their personal project management then you will find this tool to be very useful and somewhat familiar.
Teams that may be used to other project management suites or styles would find Smartsheet a bit challenging to adapt to, as formulas and formatting can be challenging to adapt to.
If you are looking for a way to organize customer data and projects across regions, then WORK[etc] will get the job done. For our company, the country is divided into 3 regions and each region has a team of workers in charge of providing ongoing support services to that region. WORK[etc] has organized our company exponentially and given us a solid database to pull from to ensure we're meeting contractual requirements, providing timely deliverables and staying ahead of the game. Because I only work in a service industry, I don't know if WORK[etc] would be appropriate for product based companies, However, if you were offering anything [product or service] that required online support, the system will function well.
Connecting all the different methods of communicating with our clients into one place is the best part of the application to us. The Google Apps integration lets us update all of our WORK[etc] details directly from our email page which saves a huge amount of time. It lets us move back and forth freely between WORK[etc] tools and our Google Apps email, documents, calendar, etc. with ease.
Breaking work according to what we are doing helps us group and ungroup things as needed. Since we do tech support and so much more having the ability to connect projects, support cases, to dos, documents, discussions, and more all together makes it easy to work with the relationships of all the different activity.
We have found the discussion tool to be vital to moving things through quickly. There are many discussions that are just FYI while others really need a decision or answer form the team members. Discussions allows us to quickly note the people we need to answer us and what is there as an FYI. It keeps all that history so our decision process become documented easily and not lost in email chains.
Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded
Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency
The one key issue that it doesn't solve is resource utilisation. You are able to add the number of hours that each "to do" will take but you can't allocate that to an employee and then aggregate all that up to show how much capacity you are using or have left.
One if its great benefits is its flexibility but that is also a drawback because there are multiple ways to do the same thing. This means that to ensure consistency across all employees having your own business procedures on how to use WORKetc is vital.
Some of the financial processes don't fully reflect UK practice currently. For instance it doesn't deal with VAT on expenditure well. However we have been assured that this is being resolved.
It definitely meets our needs as far as organizing and archiving our tasks and files. As we train more staff to view it, I see opportunities for more improvement, which I am sure this program can handle. I look forward to seeing continued improvement from Smartsheet on their capabilities and functionality.
We, as a company, have put a lot of time and energy into building the system to where it is for us today. With its constant improvements and our continually learning and developing, I couldn't imagine moving away from WORKetc to try a different system out. This really does give us everything that we've wanted/needed in a system without having to utilize 2-3 different products. The part that makes this so unique compared to other systems that we've used in the past is the fact that it has a project management piece built in, and that in itself is a huge driving point in why we will continue to use this.
Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions
My staff hates it, our clients require transparency and you manual have to enter notes, billing is horrific, as it does not subtotal by type - so as a T&M shop there is no way to easily see how much was spent to each matter or service type.
WORKetc compares well in regards to speed and reliability to other cloud-based products we use such as Google for Work. Compared to our old in-house based CRM, it is a superstar; faster, more reliable and easily run on a variety of browsers and smart phones. The program loads fast as do data screens for contacts, projects, invoices and more
I give this rating because it fills a niche in the market. MS Project scares many away from proper task management but there are limited tools our there, especially cloud-based that are mobile-friendly. Smartsheet fills this market gap, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. IT is not fair to compare it to MS Project, but fairer to see what gaps it fills.
WORKetc offers maybe the best support in the business. Product documentation and training resources are outstanding. Support tickets or inquiries are answered quickly. If you do need to address an issue in person, it is easy to schedule a 15 or 30 minute live call with their fantastic support staff who are fast, friendly and skilled
It's absolutely paramount to take a few minutes to actually play with the software. It's nearly impossible to do anything wrong or make a mistake which cannot be fixed easily. Under the help menu is Live Training option. After you familiarize yourself with the commands, watch the live training for some in depth understanding of how to make the software fit your needs perfectly.
The implementation of the system was fairly easy. Because of our previous experience with a similar system, we were ready and working on the product as soon as we announced the switch. The system also allowed us to simplify our processes by integrating timesheets and project management directly into our CMS.
Jira and Redmine are much more robust and technologically advanced project management solutions. I enjoy using either when managing a very large project. However, I prefer to use Smartsheet for my smaller to medium sized projects. As for Google Drive - I would say that Google sheets and Smartsheet are almost identical in my opinion when it comes to functionality. Personally I prefer to manage smaller projects via Google Drive, but it is a personal preference!
We needed a CRM that would work with US. We found WORK [etc] was exactly what we needed. being able to customize the CRM around our company and further change as we go has been the best thing about it. We haven't been locked into how it is set up and can change it very quickly.
Setting up project templates is time-consuming - if you want to do it right. Nevertheless, it is well worth it! Routine complex projects that used to require at least six people and at least as many "silos of information" are now done with two or three people, and - at most - 2 or 3 silos of information. And that's only because I haven't fully integrated the program with our Accounting programs (and there is an API for Quickbooks). I'd say the initial investment of perhaps 80 hours on my part was saved five or ten times over during our first six months, with better accuracy, accountability, and documentation. Since then, the ROI is at least 20 or 30 times annually of my time...the one thing I can't buy more of.
