Migrating from Asana to Smartsheet
The main reason teams move from Asana to Smartsheet is project tracking and resource management. Smartsheet's approach — spreadsheet-familiar interface makes adoption easy for teams transitioning from excel — minimal training needed for basic use — suits scaleup and enterprise teams that have outgrown Asana's model. Here's how to migrate without losing historical context.
At a Glance
- 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
- 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
You leave behind
- −roadmapping
- −sprint planning
- −backlog management
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching Smartsheet, document what lives in Asana: tasks and sections, 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 Smartsheet workspace
Create your Smartsheet workspace and replicate your project structure using tasks and projects. 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 Smartsheet equivalent for each Asana feature your team relies on. tasks and sections in Asana maps to tasks and projects in Smartsheet. Smartsheet supports custom fields — recreate your Asana field schema here first. Gantt-style timeline views are available if your team used them in Asana. Prioritise the critical path: task creation, status tracking, and assignment.
Import your data
Smartsheet supports CSV import for tasks and projects and has 20+ native integrations. After importing, rebuild your key automations — Smartsheet's automation engine can replicate most rules you had in Asana. 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 projects, 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 project hierarchy.
Run Asana in parallel for two weeks
Keep Asana read-only while your team works primarily in Smartsheet. 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 Asana, archive the workspace and make Smartsheet the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full Smartsheet review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.