Smartsheet Control Center: Create a project

Once you've configured Control Center, you can launch robust, organized projects. Creating a new project in the Control Center application automatically creates all the necessary Smartsheet items.

Create a new project

When using the project builder, you can select what's included in your project and what's included by default on your sheets, reports, and dashboards. You can also access all the items you create.

Use the Next or Previous buttons at the bottom right to navigate the project builder.

Manual provisioning

To create a new project, you should:

1. Log in to Control Center or use the Launcher to access it.
2. Open the menu in the top-left corner and select the program you want to work with.
3. Select + Create project to open the project builder.
4. Select the blueprint you want to work with.

The blueprint determines which templates you’re including in the project. 

5. Confirm your templates. Some items may be optional. You can include or exclude them from your project.
6. Select the project you want to build from the Project Name dropdown at the top of the Profile Data screen.
7. Set sharing permissions (Admins, Editor, Viewers) for the project. In the Template Sharing section, you can share individual items with users or groups and set their access level for each item. Select + Add Row to grant access to additional users.

Primary Leads must own any groups they want to share to.

8. Select Create to build your project. When the project is ready, select Open in browser to access the project workspace.

While provisioning, the project folder may say Creating project [insert name], and the template items start to appear for the profile data to be linked. Once the provisioning is complete, all items within the project folder and the folder itself have the appropriate name.

Auto-provisioning automation

To enable auto-provisioning on a blueprint:

1. Log in to Control Center or use the Launcher to access it.
2. Open the menu in the top-left corner and select the program you want to work with.
3. Select Manage program.
4. Select the Automations tab and then select New Automation at the top right.
5. Select the blueprint where you want to enable automated provisioning and select + Create at the bottom right.
6. The blueprint is now set up for auto-provisioning. Automation is on by default. Use the toggle to the left of Creator to turn it off.

To auto-provision your projects

• In Smartsheet, open the intake sheet containing the projects you want to auto-provision and mark them as Approved.

Tips and tricks

• You can only use automated provisioning on blueprints with intake sheets.
• You can’t edit a blueprint if you’ve enabled automation. To edit it, toggle automation off, edit the blueprint, then toggle it back on again when you’re done.
• You can close the Creating modal if you want to continue working while your projects provision.
• To see the status of your projects, hover over one, select the three-dot More icon to the right, and then select View logs...
• Projects that fail to provision appear under the Creation Failed filter and can be accessed by the Project Lead and the person who created them.
• You should re-provision (Edit option > Provision) or delete failed projects.

Things to know

Profile data

Profile data fields show relevant information about the project.

• Select the project you want to create.
• Select a particular workspace for the project.
• Enter specific Profile Data.

Sharing

• If your team already has access to the workspace, you don't need to share the project again.
• Primary Leads and project creators are shared by default.
• Additional users and groups might appear by default if they're set in the blueprint.
• Primary Leads should own any groups they want to grant sharing permissions to.

• You can limit access to specific templates. For example, you may want only the financial planner on your team to access a budget template.

• To share a template with specific team members, fill in User or Group and Permissions, and then start typing the template name. The field autocompletes with the optional template name.

To add users to the groups, you should’ve shared an item with that user before within Smartsheet. Control Center doesn’t add these users automatically or send user sharing messages either.

Add new templates

If you want to add optional templates to the project after you've created it, you should:

1. Hover over the project.
2. Select the Edit button (pencil icon) that appears to the right of the project.
3. Select Add New Templates.
4. Select the new templates and follow the wizard.

When adding new templates to your portfolio, add them as Optional - Selected and then manually add them to each existing provisioned project. Then, make the new templates required for all new projects moving forward. If you need to provision new projects before adding the templates to all existing projects, you need to manually select this new template during provisioning.

Update reporting and edit project information

• To see the latest information about your project, select the project and then select the Update Reporting button at the bottom of the screen.
• If the cell links aren't working as expected, select Edit Project Information to rebuild cell links without removing or changing any of the project data.