Migrating from Smartsheet to Asana
Asana fits startup and scaleup teams best and has a moderate learning curve. If you're moving from Smartsheet, the first week is the hardest — new UI, different terminology, rebuilt automations. This guide compresses that learning curve with a step-by-step migration plan.
At a Glance
- Spreadsheet-familiar interface makes adoption easy for teams transitioning from Excel — minimal training needed for basic use
- Extremely powerful Gantt chart and dependency tracking capabilities, ideal for traditional project management and waterfall methodologies
- Robust automation engine with conditional logic, approval workflows, and automated notifications that scale across the organization
- Exceptionally intuitive and visually clean interface — one of the lowest onboarding friction tools for non-technical teams
- Multiple project views (list, board, timeline, calendar, Gantt) included from lower tiers, giving teams flexibility without add-ons
- Goals feature provides native OKR tracking with clear alignment from company objectives down to individual tasks
You gain with Asana
- +roadmapping
- +sprint planning
- +backlog management
- +time tracking
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching Asana, document what lives in Smartsheet: projects and tasks, custom fields, automations, integrations, and team permissions. Export a full CSV backup — most tools support this from Settings → Export. Pay particular attention to any custom fields and workflow automations that your team relies on daily.
Set up your Asana workspace
Create your Asana workspace and replicate your project structure using tasks and sections. Start with the free tier — it covers the core workflow before you commit to a paid plan. Run with a single pilot team before migrating everyone.
Map your workflow equivalents
Find the closest Asana equivalent for each Smartsheet feature your team relies on. projects and tasks in Smartsheet maps to tasks and sections in Asana. Asana supports custom fields — recreate your Smartsheet field schema here first. Gantt-style timeline views are available if your team used them in Smartsheet. Prioritise the critical path: task creation, status tracking, and assignment.
Import your data
Asana supports CSV import for tasks and projects and has 20+ native integrations. After importing, rebuild your key automations — Asana's automation engine can replicate most rules you had in Smartsheet. Start with your most active project rather than importing everything at once.
Onboard your team
Run a 30-minute walkthrough covering the daily workflow: how to create tasks and sections, update status, and find your board. Expect a moderate ramp — most engineers and PMs hit their stride within a week. The biggest adjustment is usually the sprint ceremony workflow.
Run Smartsheet in parallel for two weeks
Keep Smartsheet read-only while your team works primarily in Asana. This reduces risk and lets people reference historical context — old decisions, archived tickets, past sprint data — without slowing the migration. After two weeks with no new work going into Smartsheet, archive the workspace and make Asana the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full Asana review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.