Migrate from Smartsheet to Asana

Smartsheet Workspaces are top-level containers that may hold Folders and nested Sheets. We map each Workspace to an Asana Organization, with the option to further split large Workspaces into multiple Asana Teams based on the customer's desired organizational structure. During scoping, we review whether the Workspace hierarchy should become a flat Team structure or a nested Team-within-Organization model. Folders within Workspaces do not have a direct Asana equivalent; we map Folder groupings to Asana Projects or to Sections within Projects, and the customer selects the preferred granularity during scoping.

Smartsheet Folders group related Sheets. We map Folders to Asana Projects (preferred) or to Sections within a parent Project (if the customer prefers a flat structure). The choice depends on whether the customer wants Folder contents to appear as a single unified project or as multiple separate projects. During scoping we review the Folder count, Sheet count per Folder, and any cross-Folder Report dependencies that would constrain the structure.

Each Smartsheet Sheet is the primary project container and maps to a single Asana Project. We preserve the Sheet name as the Project name, the sheet-level summary data as Project description, and any sharing settings as Project-level member permissions. Sheet configuration (grid view defaults, column ordering, conditional formatting rules) is captured in discovery and the equivalent is documented for the admin to configure in Asana. Sheets with more than 500,000 cells are chunked into multiple destination Projects, which the customer approves during scoping.

Smartsheet Rows map to Asana Tasks. Parent-child indent hierarchy in Smartsheet becomes subtask nesting in Asana, with the top-level row becoming a parent Task and indented child rows becoming subtasks. Row order within the sheet is preserved as task ordering. Row-level formulas and computed values migrate as static values unless the customer specifies that the formula logic should be carried forward as a custom numeric field.

Standard Smartsheet column types (Text, Number, Date, Contact List, Dropdown, Checkbox) map to corresponding Asana Custom Field types. Dropdown columns with defined option lists become Asana enum custom fields with the same option values. We use column headers as the custom field name, removing special characters to match Asana's naming constraints. If two source columns have the same header name in different Sheets, we deduplicate by scoping the custom field to the relevant project rather than the workspace.

Smartsheet predecessor relationships (finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-finish) map to Asana Dependency links in Timeline view. We extract the predecessor row references from Smartsheet, resolve them to the corresponding task GIDs in the destination project, and create Asana dependency records using the Asana Tasks API dependency endpoint. Note: Asana dependencies sometimes do not cascade date adjustments correctly when a predecessor task is manually moved, a known Asana community-reported behavior; we document this for the customer's project managers and recommend using Timeline drag for dependency updates post-migration.

Smartsheet Baseline columns (snapshot dates and values taken at a project baseline) have no direct Asana equivalent. We capture the baseline data as static Date and Number custom fields named Original Start Date and Original End Date on the task, preserving the historical baseline values. The baseline visualization (overlay of baseline Gantt bars) requires manual rebuild in Asana Timeline as a separate tracking exercise.

Smartsheet Contact List columns hold one or more user references per row. Asana supports a single assignee per task natively, with the option to add additional assignees via a multi-person custom field. We map the primary contact from the Contact List column to the native Asana assignee field, and any additional contacts to a multi-person custom field. All contacts are resolved by email match against the Asana Organization's member list.

Smartsheet formula columns (cross-sheet references, aggregations, conditional logic) cannot be preserved as live formulas in Asana because Asana does not support cross-task or cross-project formula evaluation. We evaluate formula columns at migration time and write the resulting static values into Asana custom fields. For simple row-level formulas (arithmetic, date arithmetic), we document the original formula syntax so the customer's admin can optionally rebuild them in Asana's reporting layer.

Smartsheet Automations (triggers, conditions, and actions) cannot be exported via API or UI. We run a discovery audit of every active automation rule, capture its trigger event, conditional criteria, and action sequence in a structured spreadsheet, and deliver it as a rebuild guide. The customer's admin uses Asana's Rules for Asana builder (available at Advanced tier) or a workflow automation tool to reconstruct equivalent logic. This is manual rebuild scope outside the data migration.

Smartsheet Row-level and Sheet-level Discussions migrate to Asana Task comments and Project comments respectively. We preserve the comment body, the author name, and the timestamp. Threading structure (replies to comments) may flatten in Asana depending on whether the destination project uses a flat comment model; we sort by timestamp to preserve chronological order. Mentions (@user) in comments are captured as text references and optionally converted to Asana @mentions if the mentioned user exists in the destination Organization.

Smartsheet row-level and sheet-level file attachments are downloaded from Smartsheet's attachment endpoints and re-uploaded to the corresponding Asana Task. We cannot preserve Smartsheet-hosted attachment URLs because Smartsheet does not export attachment files via standard sheet export. Customers must confirm they have access to the original source files before migration. We validate file size against Asana's 100 MB per-file limit and flag any attachments exceeding this threshold.

Smartsheet Reports aggregate data from one or more source Sheets and are capped at 50,000 rows. We migrate the report's underlying data into Asana as a project with tasks, preserving the filter criteria as named static custom fields. The report's layout, grouping, and visualization do not migrate; we deliver a report reconstruction guide documenting the source report's data sources, filters, and column configuration so the customer's admin can rebuild it in Asana Portfolios or the Asana Dashboard.

Smartsheet user accounts with their assigned roles (Owner, Admin, Editor, Viewer) are mapped to Asana Organization members. We resolve by email match. Any Smartsheet user whose email does not correspond to an existing Asana Organization member is held in a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before record import. Role mapping: Smartsheet Owner and Admin map to Asana Admin; Editor maps to Member; Viewer maps to Guest (if the destination org uses Guest access) or Member.