Project Online to Smartsheet Migration Services
Move your project schedules, portfolio data, reporting processes, and PMO workflows from Microsoft Project Online to a structured Smartsheet environment before Project Online retires on September 30, 2026. BSuite365 assesses your current Project Web App (PWA) environment, designs the right Smartsheet solution, migrates and validates required data, rebuilds workflows and dashboards, and supports your teams through testing, adoption, and go-live.
Fit-gap analysis
Controlled migration
UAT & cutover
Project Online / PWA
- Schedules & WBS
- Enterprise fields
- Resources & timesheets
- Reports & workflows
02 Map
03 Rebuild
04 Validate
Smartsheet PMO
- Project sheets
- Portfolio dashboards
- Automations & intake
- Governed reporting
Why act now
What Does the Project Online Retirement Mean for Your PMO?
Microsoft has confirmed that Project Online will retire on September 30, 2026. After retirement, organizations will no longer be able to access their projects or associated Project Online data within the service. Your migration plan must therefore address PWA schedules, portfolio data, reporting feeds, workflows, integrations, and historical records—not only MPP files. Project desktop is a separate product and is not affected by this retirement.
Project Desktop Is Not Being Retired
The September 2026 retirement applies to Project Online. Microsoft Project desktop, Project Server Subscription Edition, and Planner are separate products. If your project managers still need Project desktop for specialized scheduling, that requirement can be assessed independently from the Smartsheet migration. Project desktop is not retiring with Project Online; however, each perpetual version remains subject to its own Microsoft support lifecycle and should be reviewed separately.
Who this is for
Who This Service Is For
We support organizations that depend on structured project delivery, reliable portfolio reporting, and repeatable PMO processes. Our approach is especially valuable when project data connects to Microsoft 365, Power BI, SharePoint, Excel, business applications, or custom workflows that must continue after Project Online.
PMO & Portfolio Leaders
Organizations that depend on structured project delivery, reliable portfolio reporting, and repeatable PMO processes.
Connected Microsoft 365 Environments
Teams whose Project Online data connects to Microsoft 365, Power BI, SharePoint, Excel, business applications, or custom workflows.
Organizations Planning Beyond PWA
Teams that need those connected processes and reporting flows to continue after Project Online.
Fit assessment
Is Smartsheet the Right Replacement for Project Online?
Smartsheet can be a strong replacement when an organization wants easier collaboration and accessible portfolio reporting. It is not a universal one-to-one substitute for every Project Online capability.
✓
Smartsheet May Be a Strong Fit When You Need
Easier updates for non-specialist users
Smartsheet provides a familiar, grid-based experience that can make task updates, status changes, and collaboration more approachable for team members who are not trained Microsoft Project schedulers.
Standardized project templates
Reusable sheets, folders, workspaces, and—where licensed—Control Center blueprints can help every project start with consistent fields, schedules, registers, reports, and governance controls.
Collaborative schedules and Gantt views
Teams can manage tasks, dates, milestones, dependencies, and progress in shared sheets while viewing the same information in grid, Gantt, board, calendar, or other available views.
Forms and structured project intake
Smartsheet forms can capture project requests, business needs, sponsors, budgets, priorities, and supporting information in a consistent format without giving every requester access to the underlying sheet.
Automated approvals and notifications
Approval requests, reminders, update requests, and escalation alerts can reduce manual follow-up and help governance processes move forward on time.
Portfolio reports and dashboards
Cross-sheet reports and dashboards can bring project health, milestones, risks, financial indicators, and decisions into role-appropriate views for PMO and executive audiences.
Scalable project provisioning
Organizations with repeatable project types can use templates or Smartsheet Control Center, depending on licensing and requirements, to create standardized project assets more efficiently.
Cross-functional work management
Smartsheet can bring PMO, operations, finance, procurement, construction, IT, and other teams into connected workflows without requiring every participant to become a scheduling specialist.
Integration with Microsoft 365 and business applications
Depending on the use case and licensing, Smartsheet can exchange data or connect workflows with Microsoft 365, Power BI, ERP, CRM, HR, accounting, and other systems through connectors, APIs, integration tools, or custom development.
A less scheduler-dependent PMO model
Smartsheet is well suited to organizations that want project managers to maintain structure while allowing broader teams to contribute updates through forms, reports, controlled views, and automated requests.
!
Smartsheet May Not Be the Best Fit When You Rely Heavily On
Advanced enterprise scheduling behavior
Organizations using sophisticated scheduling functions should test representative plans carefully because Smartsheet and Microsoft Project use different scheduling engines and data models.
Complex effort-driven scheduling
If task duration, work, units, resource calendars, and effort-driven calculations must behave exactly as they do in Microsoft Project, another target or a hybrid design may be more appropriate.
Automatic enterprise resource leveling
Smartsheet provides workload and resource-management capabilities, but it should not be assumed to reproduce Project Online’s enterprise scheduling and leveling behavior exactly.
Deep dependency and calendar rules
Smartsheet supports the four standard dependency types and positive or negative lag. The fit-gap concern is how imported relationships behave within Smartsheet’s scheduling model.
Extensive Project desktop integration
If project managers rely on round-trip synchronization between PWA and Project desktop, the future operating model must define whether Project desktop remains, is separated from the portfolio system, or is replaced.
Sophisticated portfolio optimization models
Organizations using Project Online for business-driver prioritization, scenario modeling, or portfolio optimization should assess whether those capabilities will be rebuilt, simplified, integrated from another system, or retained elsewhere.
Highly specialized project accounting
Complex billing, revenue recognition, capitalization, cost rates, and financial controls may belong in an ERP or project-accounting platform, with Smartsheet used for execution and visibility.
Exact one-to-one replication of PWA
Smartsheet should be designed as a new operating model. Attempting to recreate every PWA page, field, rule, and view without questioning its purpose can add cost while carrying obsolete processes into the new environment.
Formula-driven schedule fields
When Smartsheet dependencies are enabled, formulas cannot be used in the designated start date, end date, duration, percent-complete, and predecessor columns. Calculated scheduling requirements may therefore require helper columns, automations, integrations, or a different scheduling platform.
Platform fit-gap
Project Online vs. Smartsheet
Project Online and Smartsheet can both support project and portfolio management, but they are built around different architectures and working styles. The right choice depends on the capabilities your PMO actually needs.
| Buyer requirement | Project Online approach | Smartsheet approach | Migration consideration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project and task planning | Enterprise projects managed through PWA and Project desktop | Project sheets, templates, and multiple collaborative views | Rebuild the planning model around standardized sheets and user roles |
| Gantt scheduling | Detailed scheduling through Project desktop and PWA | Gantt view with dates, durations, milestones, and dependencies | Validate complex schedules and calculation differences |
| Dependencies | Advanced Microsoft Project dependency and scheduling logic | Predecessor-based dependencies within Smartsheet project sheets | Test dependency types, calendars, constraints, lag, and lead requirements |
| Baselines | Project schedule baselines | One baseline per project sheet; additional historical baselines require separate columns, or archival storage. | Decide which historical baselines must be retained or archived |
| Project intake | Demand management, PDPs, workflows, and EPTs | Forms, intake sheets, approvals, and optional Control Center | Redesign intake rather than copying PDP layouts |
| Stage-gate approvals | Project workflows and SharePoint-based processes | Approval automations, alerts, forms, and status controls | Rebuild approval logic and evidence requirements |
| Custom fields | Enterprise project, task, and resource fields | Standardized sheet columns and reference data | Map, consolidate, transform, or retire fields |
| Portfolio reporting | Project Center, OData, Excel, and Power BI | Reports, dashboards, API, connectors, or revised Power BI models | Rebuild datasets and calculations around the target data model |
| Resource planning | Enterprise resource pool, engagements, assignments, and capacity views | Workload tracking and optional Resource Management | Assess capacity, allocation, skills, rates, and approval needs separately |
| Time tracking | Project Online timesheets and approvals | Resource Management time tracking or an integrated time system | Do not assume a direct timesheet migration |
| Risks and issues | SharePoint project-site lists and reporting | Standardized risk and issue sheets or registers | Transform list structures, ownership, scoring, and escalation rules |
| Document management | SharePoint project sites and libraries | Attachments, links, workspaces, or a linked SharePoint repository | Choose a document system of record before migration |
| Workflow automation | Project workflows, SharePoint workflows, Power Automate, and custom logic | Smartsheet automation, Bridge, connectors, API, or Power Automate integration | Inventory triggers, conditions, approvals, and exceptions |
| Forms | PDPs and SharePoint forms | Smartsheet forms with conditional logic where supported | Redesign for the people who submit or update information |
| Dashboards | PWA pages, SharePoint, Excel, and Power BI | Smartsheet dashboards and external BI | Rebuild for business purpose, audience, refresh, and security |
| User collaboration | PWA, Project desktop, SharePoint, and task updates | Shared sheets, reports, comments, update requests, and controlled views | Define the least-complex experience for each user group |
| Permissions | Project Online security groups, categories, SharePoint permissions | Workspace, sheet, report, dashboard, Dynamic View, and WorkApps permissions | Design roles and access from the ground up |
| Integrations | OData, CSOM, SharePoint, Power Platform, and custom interfaces | API, connectors, Data Shuttle, Bridge, and custom interfaces | Rebuild and retest every business-critical integration |
| Mobile experience | Browser and Microsoft applications | Smartsheet mobile applications and responsive forms | Confirm the tasks mobile users must perform |
| Portfolio standardization | EPTs, enterprise templates, fields, and governance | Templates or Control Center blueprints and portfolio assets | Determine whether core Smartsheet or Control Center is required |
Migration scope
Importing a Project Schedule Is Not the Same as Migrating Project Online
Smartsheet supports importing Microsoft Project data into a new sheet. It also supports importing data into an existing sheet, but that operation can overwrite existing data.Migration imports should therefore be performed in controlled test or staging sheets and validated before they are promoted for production use. Current Smartsheet import limits include a maximum file size of 50 MB, 20,000 rows, 400 columns and 500,000 cells; these limits should be reconfirmed during the migration assessment.
Level 1: Schedule Import
A schedule import moves an MPP, MPX, MSPDI, XML, or structured Excel schedule into a Smartsheet project sheet. It is appropriate when the goal is to preserve essential tasks and selected dependencies for a relatively straightforward project. The imported sheet must still be checked for hierarchy and unsupported fields.
Level 2: Project Migration
A project migration goes beyond the task plan. It considers project metadata, sponsors, owners, risks, issues, decisions, change requests, documents, and project-level reporting. Some information can be transferred directly; other elements must be transformed, reconfigured, rebuilt, or archived.
Level 3: PMO Migration
A PMO migration replaces the organization-wide operating model around Project Online. It may include Project Center, enterprise custom fields, resource processes, governance, project intake, and integrations. This level requires current-state assessment, training, and change management.
Decision framework
Five Treatments for Every Component
Migrate
Transfer information with minimal structural change when the source and target models align sufficiently.
Transform
Clean, reshape, map, or consolidate information so it works correctly in the Smartsheet data model.
Rebuild
Recreate a workflow, report, integration, calculation, or control using target-platform capabilities.
Archive
Preserve information for audit, reference, or historical reporting without placing it in the live Smartsheet environment.
Retire
Remove obsolete data or processes that no longer provide business value or support the future operating model.
Source-to-target map
What Must Be Migrated, Transformed, Rebuilt, Archived, or Retired?
The following source-to-target map summarizes how common Project Online components may be treated:
| Project Online component | Potential Smartsheet destination or replacement | Typical treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Project Center and portfolio views | Portfolio intake sheet, summary sheets fields , cross-sheet reports, dashboards, WorkApps, or revised Power BI content | Rebuild |
| Individual project schedules | Smartsheet project sheets created from standardized templates | Migrate and transform |
| WBS and project hierarchy | Parent-child rows, standardized hierarchy, and governed project templates | Transform and validate |
| Predecessors and dependency logic | Smartsheet dependencies and valid predecessor references | Transform, rebuild, and validate |
| Enterprise and resource calendars | Smartsheet project settings, Resource Management availability, or another scheduling system | Transform or rebuild |
| Effort-driven scheduling logic | Simplified Smartsheet scheduling, Resource Management, or a hybrid model retaining a specialized scheduling tool | Rebuild or retain elsewhere |
| Enterprise Project Types | Standard templates, provisioning rules, or Control Center blueprints | Rebuild or retire |
| Project Detail Pages | Forms, metadata sheets, reports, dashboards, Dynamic View, or WorkApps | Rebuild |
| Enterprise custom fields and lookup values | Standardized columns, dropdowns, reference data, formulas, or integrated master data | Transform or retire |
| Project Online custom formulas | Smartsheet formulas, Power BI measures, integration logic, or calculations retained in a financial or operational system | Rebuild |
| Stage-gate and approval workflows | Smartsheet approvals, forms, update requests, Dynamic View, Bridge, Power Automate, or custom workflow logic | Rebuild |
| Project and SharePoint workflows | Smartsheet automation, Bridge, Power Automate, or custom integration | Rebuild or retire |
| Alerts, reminders, and notification logic | Smartsheet alerts, update requests, reminders, escalation rules, or integrated notifications | Rebuild or retire |
| Portfolio reports and dashboards | Smartsheet reports and dashboards or revised Power BI content | Rebuild |
| OData-based Power BI reports | Smartsheet reporting data, APIs, connectors, an integration layer, or a revised historical reporting model | Rebuild |
| Custom Excel reports | Smartsheet reports, Power BI, a reporting database, or retained Excel workbooks connected to new data sources | Rebuild or retain |
| Project resource assignments | Contact columns, workload tracking, Resource Management allocations, or another resource system | Transform |
| Resource Center and capacity reports | Resource Management by Smartsheet, workload tracking, Power BI, or another capacity-planning platform | Rebuild |
| Timesheets and approval history | Resource Management time tracking, an integrated time system, ERP, or historical archive | Transform, rebuild, or archive |
| Project Online security groups and categories | Workspace, sheet, report, dashboard, Dynamic View, WorkApps, group, and administrative permissions | Rebuild |
| SharePoint project sites and workspaces | Smartsheet workspaces with retained SharePoint libraries, linked repositories, or migrated project records | Transform, rebuild, or archive |
| Project document libraries and links | SharePoint or another document system of record, Smartsheet attachments, and governed links | Migrate, reconnect, or archive |
| Risks, issues, decisions, and change requests | Standardized Smartsheet registers, forms, reports, and escalation workflows | Transform and rebuild |
| ERP, accounting, and CRM integrations | Smartsheet connectors, Bridge, Power Automate, APIs, middleware, or custom interfaces | Rebuild or retire |
| External APIs and custom integrations | Smartsheet APIs, supported connectors, middleware, or a revised target architecture | Rebuild |
| Custom financial calculations | Smartsheet formulas, Power BI, an integration layer, ERP, or another financial system of record | Rebuild or retain elsewhere |
| Reusable project models and site templates | Smartsheet templates, workspace structures, or Control Center blueprints | Rebuild |
Migration coverage
What Can Be Migrated from Project Online to Smartsheet?
Project Online schedules and related PMO information can often be migrated to Smartsheet, but the appropriate treatment depends on data quality, business value, target-platform capabilities, and historical requirements.
Schedule Data
Tasks, subtasks, Work Breakdown Structures, start and finish dates, durations, milestones, dependencies, predecessors, and percent-complete values can often be transferred into Smartsheet project sheets. We validate task hierarchy, date calculations, duration units, dependency behavior, milestones, and summary rollups because Microsoft Project and Smartsheet use different scheduling engines. Complex constraints, calendars, cross-project dependencies, lag or lead rules, and effort-driven calculations may require transformation or redesign.
Project and Portfolio Metadata
Project names, identifiers, descriptions, departments, programs, priorities, lifecycle stages, owners, sponsors, health indicators, strategic objectives, custom fields, and lookup values can be mapped to standardized Smartsheet columns and portfolio records. Before migration, we identify duplicate projects, inconsistent values, obsolete fields, missing owners, and conflicting definitions. This prevents unnecessary PWA configuration from being carried into the new environment and supports consistent cross-project reporting.
Resource and Time Information
Resource assignments, contact information, roles, departments, skills, allocation data, and selected timesheet records may be transferred when they are required for ongoing operations, capacity planning, financial reporting, compliance, or audit purposes. Current users must be matched to valid Smartsheet accounts, while inactive users, generic resources, duplicate identities, calendars, rates, and historical records require defined treatment. Depending on the requirements, resource and time information may be placed in Smartsheet, Resource Management by Smartsheet, another timekeeping system, an ERP, or a historical archive.
Governance Records
Risks, issues, decisions, change requests, status reports, and related governance information can be transformed into standardized Smartsheet registers and reporting structures. We review ownership, dates, status values, priority or severity, scoring methods, approval information, resolution details, and connections to projects or tasks. Open records normally require the most complete migration, while selected historical records may be summarized or archived based on reporting and audit requirements.
Financial and Baseline Information
Required baseline dates, budgets, forecasts, actual costs, commitments, variances, and other financial indicators may be migrated when their definitions and sources are understood. Selected baseline information can be retained in Smartsheet or a reporting model, while multiple historical baselines may require a separate structure. The target architecture should identify the authoritative financial system and prevent Smartsheet from becoming an uncontrolled duplicate of ERP or accounting records.
Documents and Reporting Information
Attachments, document links, project-site content, and the data behind project-level reports can be migrated, reconnected, or archived. The treatment depends on the future document system of record, access permissions, retention policies, naming standards, and URL structure. Reporting data may be transferred into Smartsheet reports, dashboards, Power BI, Excel, or a central reporting repository, although existing report layouts, calculations, connections, and refresh processes may need to be rebuilt for the new data model.
Active and Historical Projects
Active projects and selected completed projects with continuing operational, reporting, legal, or strategic value can be migrated into Smartsheet. Older projects that users only need to search or report on may be retained in a governed repository such as SharePoint, SQL, Dataverse, a data warehouse, or structured archival files. Power BI can then provide searchable historical reporting over the retained data.
Target-state design
Designing the Right Smartsheet PMO Environment
A successful migration requires more than transferring Project Online data into new sheets.
Workspace and Portfolio Architecture
We define how portfolios, programs, departments, projects, templates, reports, and dashboards will be organized across Smartsheet workspaces. The architecture establishes ownership, naming conventions, administrative boundaries, and relationships between project-level and portfolio-level assets so users can find information easily and the PMO can govern the environment consistently.
Standard Project Templates and Schedules
Standardized templates provide a controlled starting point for different project types. They may include schedules, required metadata, formulas, risk and issue registers, status-reporting structures, reports, and automations. Standard schedules establish common phases, milestones, and governance requirements while allowing approved variations for different delivery methods and levels of project complexity.
Project Intake and Provisioning
The intake process defines how project requests are submitted, reviewed, prioritized, approved, rejected, or deferred. Approved requests can then be converted into active projects using the correct template, identifier, workspace structure, owner, and portfolio connection. Provisioning may be performed through core Smartsheet templates and procedures or, where appropriate and licensed, through Control Center blueprints.
Project Metadata, Identifiers, and Portfolio Data Model
We standardize fields such as project ID, name, owner, sponsor, program, department, priority, lifecycle stage, health, budget, and reporting period. Stable project identifiers connect schedules, documents, dashboards, integrations, and historical records while reducing duplicate projects. Source Project UID, Task UID, Resource UID and other required system identifiers are retained separately from user-facing names and Smartsheet row references so reconciliation, traceability and integration mapping remain reliable.
Governance, Risks, Issues, and Status Workflows
Project approvals, stage gates, change control, status updates, risk escalation, issue resolution, exceptions, and project closure are translated into consistent workflows with defined roles and evidence requirements. Standard registers establish common ownership, scoring, status values, due dates, and escalation rules. Where approvals must serve as formal audit evidence, the design defines the required approver identity, decision, timestamp, correction process and immutable or separately governed record location.
Portfolio Reporting and Executive Dashboards
Portfolio reports and dashboards are designed around the decisions each audience needs to make. Governed definitions for project health, milestones, risks, budgets, resources, strategic alignment, and exceptions support consistent reporting across projects. Executive dashboards provide focused visibility, while PMO and project-management views can offer greater detail and drill-down capability. Every important metric should have a documented definition, owner, source, audience, and refresh expectation.
Security, Documents, and Archiving
We design role-based access for Smartsheet administrators, PMO leaders, project managers, team members, executives, requesters, clients, and external collaborators using the least privilege required. The information-governance design also determines whether documents remain in SharePoint, move into Smartsheet, use another repository, or follow a hybrid model. The access design distinguishes source-sheet sharing, report visibility, WorkApps roles, Dynamic View row and field restrictions, form access, publishing controls, external sharing and administrative permissions.
Platform, Resource, and Integration Architecture
The solution may use core Smartsheet capabilities—including sheets, forms, reports, dashboards, automations, templates, and workspaces—or add premium capabilities when justified by scale and requirements. Control Center may support repeatable project provisioning and managed portfolio assets, while Resource Management may support allocation, capacity, availability, skills, time, and resource-related financial analysis. Required integrations are documented by system of record, data owner, direction, frequency, identifier, validation rules, exception handling, monitoring, and support responsibility. Feature availability and licensing are confirmed before the target design is finalized.
Eight controlled phases
Our Project Online to Smartsheet Migration Process
Our eight-phase process turns a complex platform transition into a controlled sequence of decisions and approvals. Each phase produces evidence that the target is ready before the project moves forward.
Phase 1: Project Online Assessment
This phase builds a complete picture of the current Project Online environment. We inventory PWA sites, projects, schedules, resources, workflows, reports, integrations, and permissions to understand how everything is used and connected.
Phase 2: Requirements and Fit Assessment
In this phase, we define what the future PMO needs to achieve and evaluate whether Smartsheet can support those requirements. We review essential capabilities, where it needs configuration or add-ons, and where another system may be required.
Phase 3: Target Architecture
Here we design the future Smartsheet environment before any data is moved. We define how workspaces, templates, portfolio structures, governance processes, reporting, resource management, permissions, and integrations will work together.
Phase 4: Data Classification and Cleanup
This phase prepares the data for migration by cleaning and organizing it. Each item is classified as migrate, transform, rebuild, archive, or retire. We resolve duplicates, fix inconsistencies, and remove unused content.
Phase 5: Prototype and Pilot
We build a small-scale version of the solution using representative projects to validate the design. Simple and complex projects are tested to ensure the model works in real conditions. This phase helps identify issues early before full migration begins.
Phase 6: Migration and Rebuilding
In this phase, we execute the actual migration in controlled batches. Data is extracted through the appropriate source method, which may include MPP or XML exports, Project Online OData reporting feeds, supported Project Online APIs, structured reports, and SharePoint export or migration methods.
Phase 7: Validation and User Acceptance Testing
Here we confirm that everything works correctly in the new system. Data is reconciled between source and target, and all key functions such as forms and permissions are tested. Users validate real-world scenarios, and any issues are corrected. Validation reconciles record counts, permissions and workflows, with all approved exceptions documented before sign-off. Validation also covers time zones, locale-specific date formats, date-only versus date-time values, daylight-saving changes, working hours, holidays and timesheet-period boundaries.
Phase 8: Cutover and Adoption
This final phase transitions the organization to Smartsheet. A change freeze is applied, final data is migrated, and the system is formally signed off. Users and administrators are trained and post-launch improvements are made to optimize the new environment.
Engagement outputs
What You Receive
The engagement produces practical deliverables your PMO can review and support. The exact package is tailored to scope, but the following deliverables are commonly included.
Project Online Current-State Assessment
A documented review of how your organization currently uses PWA, Project desktop, SharePoint, reporting, resources, workflows, and integrations.
PWA Environment Inventory
A structured inventory of sites, projects, fields, resources, timesheets, workflows, reports, project sites, integrations, users, permissions, and related assets.
Migration-Readiness Report
A concise summary of readiness, risks, data-quality concerns, critical dependencies, decisions required, and recommended preparation activities.
Project Online-to-Smartsheet Fit-Gap Analysis
A requirement-by-requirement assessment showing what Smartsheet supports directly, what requires configuration or premium products, what needs integration, and what may not be a suitable fit.
Target Smartsheet Architecture
A documented target design for workspaces, templates, metadata, intake, portfolio reporting, governance, security, resources, integrations, and archiving.
Smartsheet Licensing Recommendations
Recommendations tied to defined requirements, user roles, scale, and premium capabilities—not a blanket assumption that every product is needed.
Data-Retention Strategy
A clear decision framework for active projects, completed projects, documents, timesheets, audit records, historical reporting, and long-term access.
Source-to-Target Mapping Workbook
A detailed mapping of source objects and fields to their target destinations, transformations, owners, validation rules, and migrate-transform-rebuild-archive-retire treatments.
Standardized Project Templates
Configured project structures with approved schedules, metadata, registers, formulas, automations, and reporting components.
Project Intake Solution
A structured request and review process using forms, intake records, approval steps, and provisioning rules appropriate to your governance model.
Portfolio Reports and Dashboards
Role-based views for PMO leaders, executives, project managers, and other stakeholders using governed definitions and approved data sources.
Configured Automations
Alerts, reminders, approvals, update requests, escalations, and other workflows built around documented responsibilities and exception handling.
Migrated Pilot Projects
Representative projects moved into the target environment to validate mappings, usability, schedules, reporting, resources, and workflows before broader migration.
Migration Scripts or Repeatable Procedures
Documented and, where appropriate, automated procedures for consistent extraction, transformation, provisioning, migration, and exception handling.
Validation and Reconciliation Report
Evidence showing what was compared, what passed, what changed by approved design, what required correction, and what was excluded or archived.
User Acceptance Testing Plan
Realistic test scenarios, expected outcomes, roles, issue tracking, sign-off criteria, and responsibilities for business acceptance.
Cutover Plan
Before cutover, we preserve approved source extracts, configuration records, mapping versions, migration logs, and copies of critical target data. Before cutover, we preserve approved source extracts, configuration records, mapping versions, migration logs, and copies of critical target data. Recovery planning therefore includes configuration documentation, export procedures and solution-rebuild instructions.
User Training Materials
Role-specific guidance for requesters, team members, project managers, approvers, PMO users, executives, and other audiences.
Administrator Documentation
Operational instructions for templates, permissions, automation, provisioning, reporting, troubleshooting, change control, and support ownership.
Governance Guide
Rules for project creation, naming, identifiers, metadata, access, reporting cycles, template changes, portfolio inclusion, closure, and archiving.
Post-Go-Live Support Plan
A defined period and process for issue triage, corrections, adoption support, optimization, ownership transfer, and ongoing administration.
Historical data strategy
Should All Project Online History Be Migrated to Smartsheet?
Usually, no. Active and strategically important projects may belong in the live Smartsheet environment, while older completed projects can be retained in a structured archive or reporting repository.
Historical Information
Not every completed project needs to become a live Smartsheet project. Older information may be better retained in a searchable archive, reporting database, SharePoint repository, or Power BI historical model. The decision should reflect audit, compliance, reporting, access, and cost requirements.
Option 1: Full Project Migration
This approach moves active projects and a broad set of completed projects into Smartsheet. It may be appropriate when historical projects must remain operationally accessible or governance requires detailed records in one platform.
Option 2: Active-Project Migration Plus Archive
Active projects and selected recent or strategically important projects move into Smartsheet, while older completed work is preserved separately. Users receive a cleaner live environment, and the organization retains historical information.
Option 3: Historical Reporting Repository
Selected Project Online data can be retained in a governed repository such as SQL, Dataverse, a data lake or warehouse, SharePoint, or approved archival files, with Power BI used as the semantic and reporting layer. This approach is useful when the main need is search or read-only reporting rather than continued project execution.
Compliance and Audit Needs
Retention decisions should reflect legal, regulatory, contractual, records-management, and internal audit obligations. Required fields, attachments, approvals, timestamps, and access history should be identified before the source service is retired.
Long-Term Reporting
If leaders need trends that span the old and new platforms, the reporting architecture must use consistent definitions and preserve the necessary historical grain. A combined data model may be more effective than recreating every completed project in Smartsheet.
User Access and Searchability
An archive is useful only if authorized users can find and understand its content. We define indexing, naming, metadata, access roles, retrieval procedures, and the relationship between archived records and live projects.
Cost and Data Volume
More data means more extraction, transformation, storage, testing, documentation, and support. We help you retain what has legitimate business value without paying to move information that no one expects to use.
Reporting continuity
Replacing Project Online Reports and Power BI Dashboards
We review what each report is meant to accomplish, then rebuild it using the most appropriate Smartsheet and reporting architecture.
Data Sources, Power BI Models, and Transformations
We inventory Project Online OData endpoints, queries, tables, filters, relationships, scheduled processes, and downstream consumers. Power BI datasets and Power Query or ETL processes are then redesigned around Smartsheet data, APIs, connectors, reporting databases, or other approved sources. Existing relationships, measures, transformations, refresh schedules, gateways, and row-level security are reused only after their assumptions and source fields have been validated against the new data model.
Excel and Operational Project Reports
Existing Excel reports may rely on Power Query connections, pivots, formulas, macros, copied extracts, or undocumented manual adjustments. We document the preparation process and determine whether each report should remain in Excel or be replaced by Smartsheet reports, dashboards, Power BI, or a central reporting layer. Operational reports—such as project status, late-task, missed-milestone, dependency, and schedule-health reports—are recalibrated for Smartsheet’s data structure and approved business rules.
Portfolio, Resource, and Financial Reporting
Executive portfolio dashboards are rebuilt around decisions such as delivery health, strategic alignment, milestone performance, risk exposure, funding, resource capacity, and exceptions. Resource reports depend on reliable availability, allocation, assignment, role, skill, and actual-time information, while budget and financial reports must align with the organization’s ERP or accounting system. Smartsheet may support planning and visibility without becoming the authoritative source for actual costs, billing, or other controlled financial records.
Historical Continuity and Reporting Controls
Long-term trend reporting may require historical Project Online data, combined source models, or periodic snapshots because current Smartsheet sheets may not preserve every prior status or value. We define the required historical detail, shared metric definitions, source ownership, refresh frequency, access controls, and validation rules. This allows leaders to compare information across the old and new environments without recreating every completed project as a live Smartsheet project.
Workflow redesign
Rebuilding Project Online Workflows in Smartsheet
Project Online and SharePoint workflows generally need to be redesigned rather than transferred directly. Common workflow examples include:
Project intake and triage
Capture requests through forms, check submissions for completeness, categorize them, assign reviewers, and route unclear requests for follow-up.
Business-case review and project approval
Collect information about benefits, cost, risk, strategic alignment, capacity, and supporting evidence before routing requests to the appropriate decision-makers.
Stage-gate governance and change control
Manage entry criteria, required evidence, reviewer responsibilities, approvals, rework, exceptions, change-impact assessments, implementation, and closure.
Status updates and task notifications
Send reminders and update requests to project owners, notify appropriate roles about overdue work, and apply filters or thresholds that prevent unnecessary notification volume.
Risk and issue escalation
Route high-scoring, overdue, or worsening records to the correct owner or governance group using defined probability, impact, severity, exposure, and status rules.
Project provisioning and portfolio updates
Create approved projects from standard templates or Control Center blueprints and connect their identifiers, metadata, owners, reports, and dashboards to the portfolio structure.
Document generation
Produce or assemble formal status reports, approvals, meeting records, and other required documents through Smartsheet capabilities, integrations, or custom development.
Resource workstream
Migrating Project Online Resources, Assignments, and Timesheets
Resources, assignments, and timesheets require separate assessment because they combine people, schedules, calendars, availability, rates, approvals, security, and historical information. The target may use core Smartsheet capabilities, Resource Management by Smartsheet, an existing HR or timekeeping system, an ERP, or a combination of platforms.
Resource Records and User Identity
We inventory named and generic resources, roles, departments, skills, account status, identifiers, and other required attributes. Active workers are separated from former employees, dormant accounts, test users, duplicate identities, and records retained only for historical reporting. Source resources are matched to current Smartsheet accounts using reliable identifiers such as verified email addresses, while ambiguous or changed identities are resolved before assignments are migrated. Placeholder and role-based resources may be retained for planning when work is forecast before a specific person is assigned.
Assignments, Allocation, and Capacity Planning
Task assignments can be transformed into Smartsheet contact assignments, workload data, Resource Management allocations, or records in another resource-planning platform. We validate ownership, dates, planned effort, allocation percentages or hours, and the relationship between schedule tasks and resource plans. Capacity reporting is designed only after demand, availability, allocation, project dates, and data ownership are consistently defined so the results do not imply false precision from incomplete plans.
Availability and Resource Calendars
Working patterns, regional holidays, leave, part-time schedules, shifts, and other exceptions influence resource availability. We assess which calendar information must be maintained and whether Smartsheet, Resource Management, an HR system, or another platform should own it. Complex enterprise and resource-specific calendars may require a redesigned planning process rather than direct replication of Project Online behavior.
Actual Time, Timesheet History, and Approvals
Actual time may be migrated when it supports open-period operations, project reporting, billing, compliance, or audit requirements. Historical timesheets can be costly and complex to reproduce, so we determine whether users need detailed entries, period summaries, approval records, reporting outputs, or a read-only archive. Submission, rejection, correction, approval, locking, cost allocation, and audit requirements are evaluated before selecting Resource Management or another target timekeeping system.
Rates, Financial Controls, and Resource Reporting
Standard, role-based, individual, billing, and effective-dated rates require careful ownership, access control, and historical treatment. In many organizations, finance or ERP systems should remain authoritative while Smartsheet or Resource Management provides planning and operational visibility. Resource reports are then designed around approved definitions for capacity, allocation, utilization, availability, actual time, cost, and forecast demand.
Scoping factors
What Affects Migration Timeline and Cost?
There is no responsible universal timeline or fixed price for a Project Online-to-Smartsheet migration.
Environment Scale and Project Scope
The number of PWA sites, active and completed projects, schedules, tasks, custom fields, resources, users, project sites, reports, and connected systems affects the effort required for discovery, migration, validation, and support. Active projects generally require more precise reconciliation and cutover planning, while completed projects may be moved selectively or retained in an archive. Standardized projects can be migrated more efficiently than projects built around inconsistent templates and processes.
Schedule Complexity and Data Quality
Deep hierarchies, large task volumes, complex dependencies, multiple calendars, constraints, baselines, custom formulas, resource-driven calculations, and effort-based scheduling require additional fit-gap analysis, prototyping, and validation. Data problems such as duplicate projects, invalid dates, missing owners, inconsistent custom fields, dormant resources, broken links, and undocumented formulas also increase the work because they require business decisions as well as technical cleanup.
Workflows, Reports, and Integrations
Simple reminders or status reports require less effort than multi-stage approvals, exception routing, automated provisioning, document generation, portfolio dashboards, and cross-system processes. Every Project Online OData feed, Power BI dataset, Excel report, Power Automate flow, SharePoint workflow, API, connector, and downstream application must be identified and assigned a future treatment. Custom integrations add requirements for authentication, mapping, development, error handling, logging, monitoring, testing, and ongoing support.
Resource, Timesheet, and Financial Requirements
Resource pools, assignments, availability, skills, allocation, capacity planning, actual time, timesheet approvals, cost rates, billing, and utilization reporting can become a separate migration workstream. The effort depends on whether the organization needs current operational data, detailed historical records, summarized reporting, or an archive. Integration with HR, payroll, ERP, accounting, or timekeeping systems adds further design, security, reconciliation, and testing requirements.
Documents, SharePoint Content, and Historical Records
Project sites, document libraries, attachments, lists, permissions, and existing links add scope beyond schedule migration. The organization must decide which records will move to Smartsheet, remain in SharePoint, transfer to another repository, or be archived. Moving every completed project and timesheet record requires more extraction, transformation, storage, testing, and support than migrating active work while preserving older information in a governed historical repository.
Smartsheet Architecture and Licensing
The target design affects both implementation effort and product cost. A smaller environment may use core Smartsheet sheets, forms, reports, dashboards, automations, templates, and workspaces. Larger or more standardized portfolios may require Control Center, while advanced resource or time requirements may require Resource Management or another connected platform. Licensing, procurement, user roles, premium capabilities, provisioning rules, and administrator readiness should be confirmed before implementation begins.
Validation, Cutover, Training, and Support
Migration timing must include prototype testing, data reconciliation, user acceptance testing, issue correction, final extraction, change freezes, communications, access changes, and business sign-off. Short freeze periods, fixed deadlines, multiple business units, parallel operations, or after-hours deployment increase coordination requirements. Role-specific training, administrator enablement, documentation, go-live assistance, and post-launch optimization also affect cost but reduce adoption and operational risks.
Recommended first step
Request a Project Online Migration-Readiness Assessment
Send us a brief overview of your PWA environment, including approximate project counts, key reports, workflows, integrations, resource requirements, and scheduling complexity. We will discuss whether Smartsheet appears suitable, identify the areas requiring deeper assessment, and recommend a practical next step.
Frequently asked questions
Project Online to Smartsheet Migration FAQs
Can Project Online Be Migrated to Smartsheet?
Yes, Project Online projects and related PMO information can be migrated, transformed, rebuilt, or archived in a Smartsheet environment. The scope may include schedules, project metadata, custom-field values, risks, issues, documents, reports, resources, and workflows. However, Project Online and Smartsheet have different architectures, so a complete migration requires more than transferring schedule files.
Can Smartsheet Replace Microsoft Project Online?
Smartsheet can replace Project Online for many organizations that need collaborative schedules, standardized templates, project intake, workflow automation, portfolio dashboards, and accessible status reporting. However, it is not an exact feature-for-feature replacement.
Is There a Direct Project Online-to-Smartsheet Migration Tool?
Smartsheet does not provide a native end-to-end tool that converts an entire Project Online environment into a production-ready Smartsheet PMO solution. File imports and third-party migration utilities may accelerate parts of the work, but portfolio structures, workflows, permissions, reports, integrations, and governance still require assessment, configuration, rebuilding, and validation.
Can Project Online Schedules and MPP Files Be Imported into Smartsheet?
Yes. Smartsheet supports importing Microsoft Project files in MPP, MPX, MSPDI, and XML formats. Imported schedules may still require adjustment because the platforms handle constraints, calendars, dependencies, summary calculations, and other scheduling behavior differently.
Will Task Hierarchy and Dependencies Be Preserved?
They may be preserved partially, depending on the export method, file format, and schedule complexity. Excel-based exports may flatten task hierarchy or bring predecessor information into Smartsheet as text rather than active scheduling relationships. MPP or XML imports may preserve more structure, but unsupported constraints and scheduling differences can still affect the result.
Can Project Online Custom Fields Be Migrated?
Many custom-field values can be transferred into standardized Smartsheet columns, dropdowns, contact fields, formulas, or reference data. However, Project Online field definitions, lookup structures, and formulas do not automatically become working Smartsheet configuration.
Can Project Online Resources, Assignments, and Timesheets Be Migrated?
Selected resources, assignments, allocations, and timesheet information can be transformed, but an exact one-to-one migration should not be assumed. User identities, generic resources, roles, skills, calendars, rates, actual time, approval history, and inactive accounts require separate assessment.
What Happens to Project Online Workflows?
Project Online and SharePoint workflows must usually be redesigned and rebuilt rather than directly migrated. We document their triggers, stages, conditions, approvers, notifications, exceptions, and audit requirements before selecting the target method.
Can SharePoint Project Sites Be Migrated?
Yes. Selected content from SharePoint project sites—such as documents, lists, risks, issues, metadata, and links—can be migrated, retained, archived, or reconnected. A SharePoint project site does not convert directly into a Smartsheet workspace, so the future location and permissions for each content type must be defined separately.
What Happens to Power BI Reports Connected to Project Online?
Power BI reports that rely on Project Online OData feeds must be redirected and normally redesigned for the new data architecture. Existing Power Query transformations, relationships, measures, refresh schedules, gateways, historical data, and security rules should be reviewed.
Should Completed Project Online Projects Be Migrated or Archived?
Most organizations do not need to move every completed project into the live Smartsheet environment. Active projects and selected high-value historical projects can be migrated, while older records are preserved in SQL, SharePoint, Dataverse, a data warehouse, structured Excel archives, or a Power BI historical model.
Can Smartsheet Control Center Replace Project Center?
Smartsheet Control Center can support some of the operating outcomes previously delivered through Project Center, particularly standardized project creation, portfolio consistency, and aggregated reporting. However, it is not a direct replacement. The target solution may also require project sheets, summary sheets reports, dashboards, Resource Management, integrations, and redesigned governance processes.
Do We Need Resource Management by Smartsheet?
Not necessarily. Smartsheet contact columns and workload tracking may be sufficient when the primary requirement is task ownership and basic workload visibility. Resource Management may be appropriate when the organization needs portfolio-level allocation and capacity forecasting.
