If you searched "how to get off Smartsheet," here is the honest, complete answer. A safe exit is five steps: take inventory, export everything while you still have access, know exactly what will not come with you, cancel on the right timeline, and pick a landing spot where your sheets keep working. This guide walks all five, and every claim about Smartsheet on this page is cited to Smartsheet's own documentation.
The short version: export first, cancel second, and if your formulas matter, do not rely on Smartsheet's own export to carry them (it doesn't1).
The teams that regret their exit are the ones that discovered what they had after they lost access to it. Before you export or cancel anything, walk your workspaces and write down what actually exists. The list matters because each kind of item leaves Smartsheet by a different door, and some don't leave at all.
The core assets. Count the sheets you actively use, flag the big ones, and note which sheets carry row attachments, because attachments are excluded from Excel exports1 and need their own plan (step 2).
Open your most formula-heavy sheets and note which ones your team would rebuild by hand if the formulas arrived as frozen values, because that is what Smartsheet's own export produces.1 Cross-sheet references deserve a special flag: they don't survive backups either.3
These are views and collectors built on top of your sheets. Smartsheet's backup documentation lists reports and dashboards among the things a backup does not include,3 so screenshot the layouts and write down what each report filters on. Ten minutes now saves a "wait, how was that grouped?" later.
Workflows are also on the backup's not-included list.3 For each automation, record the trigger, condition, and action in a plain sentence ("when Status becomes Done, notify the PM"). Do the same for anything wired in from outside: integrations stop at the door.
Do this while your access is intact and unhurried, not during the 30-day read-only countdown after cancellation.2 Smartsheet exports one sheet at a time from File > Export > Export to Microsoft Excel, and can export a whole folder (right-click it in the workspace panel, then Export) or workspace (three-dot menu above the workspace name, then Export).1 Our step-by-step guide to exporting Smartsheet to Excel walks every click. Before you trust the files, know what Smartsheet's own documentation says the export does:
An honest exit guide has to say this part out loud. Some of what you built in Smartsheet is not data, it's configuration, and no export file carries it. Smartsheet's own backup documentation draws the line clearly: backups cover sheet data, comments, and attachments, and don't include "reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows, cross-sheet references, formatting information, or custom configurations."3
In practice that means you should plan to rebuild your automations, dashboards, reports, and forms in whatever tool you land in, from the notes you took in step 1. Published links stop resolving, and anything integrated with your Smartsheet account stops flowing. None of this should scare you off the move; it should just go on the plan with an owner and an afternoon allocated. If the destination has the same concepts (automations, dashboards, forms), rebuilding is mechanical rather than creative work.
Only after your exports are verified. The self-serve path is Account > Plan & Billing Info > Cancel Account, followed by a confirmation dialog; Enterprise plans go through their sales representative or the billing team instead.2 Two deadlines to respect: the cancellation request must be submitted at least 30 days before your term renews, and canceled accounts don't qualify for pro-rated refunds.2 After expiry your sheets go read-only for 30 days, then Smartsheet deletes them.2 The full details, including what happens to your data on each path, are in our guide to canceling a Smartsheet subscription.
Skip the "top 10 tools" listicles and run a checklist against your step-1 inventory instead. A replacement earns the job if it covers what you actually use:
We wrote an honest, no-rigged-table guide to running this checklist, including where the other tools genuinely fit better: choosing a Smartsheet alternative. And if you want the side-by-side with sources, Wisegrid vs Smartsheet publishes the receipts.
The two Smartsheet deadlines (cancel at least 30 days before renewal, and the 30-day read-only window after expiry2) suggest a comfortable four-week plan that never leaves you racing a countdown:
Wisegrid's importer exists because of everything above. Paste one read-only Smartsheet API token and it mirrors your workspaces, folders, sheets, formulas, attachments, forms, and reports directly through the API, no export files, no flattened formulas. We never write to your Smartsheet account, and you can revoke the token anytime.
Formulas come over as live, working formulas. Wisegrid's formula language is written the way you already write it, as [Column]@row, so most formulas arrive in syntax your team already knows, and cross-sheet references translate to typed inline references. Anything that can't translate cleanly lands in a transparency report with the original formula text and our best guess, so nothing is silently dropped: you see exactly what needs review before you trust the result.
Prefer the credential-free route? The Excel path works too: export from Smartsheet, then use File > Import from Excel inside any Wisegrid sheet, which can even keep the formulas your workbook carries. Either way, run it during the 7-day free trial (no credit card required) against your real workspace and judge the fidelity yourself.
1 Smartsheet's export documentation: File > Export > Export to Microsoft Excel; "Formulas aren't preserved due to the differences between Excel and Smartsheet formula syntax"; Groupings, Summary rows, and Attachments are "excluded from exports"; for dropdown, contact list, checkbox, and symbol columns "Only text values are exported"; "Exporting a Gantt chart to Excel exports only the task list it's based on"; and comments and sheet summaries "appear in the exported workbook on separate tabs" (Smartsheet export documentation).
2 Smartsheet's cancellation documentation: "Your sheets become read-only for 30 days when your subscription expires. After 30 days, Smartsheet deletes those files"; "You must submit your cancellation request at least 30 days before the renewal of your current term"; "Canceled accounts don't qualify for pro-rated refunds" (Smartsheet cancel-account documentation).
3 Smartsheet's backup documentation: "Sheet backups include sheet data, comments, and attachments"; "Backups don't include reports, dashboards, formulas, workflows, cross-sheet references, formatting information, or custom configurations"; backups are available on Business and Enterprise plans, and "Backup file size is limited to 4 GB" (Smartsheet backup documentation).
4 Smartsheet limits each sheet to 500,000 cells: "A sheet cannot exceed a total of 500,000 cells" (Smartsheet API documentation). Wisegrid's ceiling is 1,000,000 cells per sheet.
Getting off Smartsheet is a checklist, not a leap. Export first, cancel on the clock, and pick a destination where your sheets still act like your sheets: 1,000,000 cells per sheet4, every feature on one $19 per editor plan, view-only collaborators free, and an importer that keeps your formulas working.