Archive or delete your project

Archive your project

Project leads can archive completed projects as a crucial part of managing the Control Center program. It ensures data preservation, limits accessibility, and reduces active project clutter by deactivating alerts and actions.

Archiving projects also maintains system scalability by reducing inbound and outbound cell links from the intake and summary sheets.

Learn more in the Project Archiving FAQ article.

There is no way to undo the archiving of rows. Once archived, they no longer appear in portfolio metrics or reports.

When to archive projects

Archive projects when you need to:

  • Lock completed projects and remove access to them.
  • Exclude archived projects from portfolio-level dashboards and reports.
  • Move project data to an archive sheet for historical reporting without cluttering active sheets.

Archive a project

Before setting up an archiving workflow, create the following Smartsheet items:

Add a column in the summary sheet to help Control Center identify projects ready for archiving.

Archive a workspace

  • Create an Archive workspace to store completed project folders. This helps restrict visibility and access.
  • Assign the Primary Lead as the workspace owner and ensure any Program Leads responsible for archiving have Admin permissions.
  • Decide whether to use a single archive workspace for all workflows or multiple workspaces for different blueprints or archive workflows.

Archive an intake sheet

  • Create an archive version of your intake sheet to store rows of completed projects, removing them from the active sheet. 
  • Start with a blank sheet in the archive workspace. Delete all columns except the Primary column, and allow columns to auto-create when you archive the first intake row.

Archive a summary sheet

  • If using summary sheets, create archive versions for each active summary sheet. This way, you can archive the summary row without occupying space on the active summary sheet.
  • Start with a blank sheet in the archive workspace. Delete all columns except the Primary column, and allow columns to auto-create when you've archived the first intake row.
  • Use separate archive summary sheets for different types of data if needed.

When you archive rows, you remove all cell links and formulas, leaving only static values.

Best practices

  • Archive often and consistently to ensure proper organization.
  • Don’t create archiving rules with inconsistent behaviors. For example, one rule may move a row on the intake sheet while another deletes it.
  • Use archiving rules instead of deleting rows manually from the intake and summary sheets.
  • Depending on volume, don’t move all archived project folders to one single archive location, as you may reach workspace limits.
  • Don’t attempt to archive a project more than once. 

 

Delete your projects

This functionality allows program users to bulk delete multiple projects simultaneously. This functionality removes:

  • All project items (sheets, reports, dashboards).
  • The associated Resource Management project (if applicable).
  • The project in WorkApps (if applicable).
  • The row in the intake sheet.
  • The row in all summary sheets.
  • The project as a source in any dynamic report scope.
  • All child projects of a parent project.

You can't recover deleted projects or blueprints.

Best practices

  • Before deletion, create a backup copy of the intake and summary sheets. Use this for validation or project re-provisioning.
  • Perform a small-scale deletion test before executing bulk deletions.
  • If the dynamic report scope deletion process times out, rerun it to ensure completion.
  • Follow these manual deletion steps to avoid issues:
    1. Delete projects from Resource Management if applicable.
    2. Delete projects from WorkApps if applicable.
    3. Delete project items in Smartsheet from centralized or individual workspaces.
    4. Remove project sources from dynamic report scopes.
    5. Delete rows from summary sheets.
    6. Delete rows from the intake sheet.
  • Don’t run a bulk delete without acknowledging that this process permanently deletes associated intake sheet rows, summary sheets, and all items.