SmartSuite organizes work as a workspace that holds solutions, which hold tables of records shown through views. This tour (the SmartSuite Quickstart Guide) walks that structure from the home page to automations and the API in 30 minutes, with one link to the full article on each part.
About 30 minutes.
Plan Availability | All plan types: Team, Professional, Enterprise and the per-solution Signature plan; new workspaces start on a 14-day free trial of Professional. |
Permissions | Administrators and Solution Creators create solutions; every member works in the solutions shared with them. Only Administrators invite members. |
Platform | Web |
Related Reading |
Where do I begin?
Watch the overview, then read the five building blocks below. If you would rather build first, the ten-minute quick start is the next article in the path.
The video shows the home page, a solution with its tables and views, and a dashboard. The written version of what it shows is this article and Guide to SmartSuite's Structure.
What are the five building blocks?
Block. | What it is. | Where it shows. |
Workspace. | Your SmartSuite account. A company or team usually shares one; each workspace has its own plan. | Your name and workspace in the upper-right corner. |
Solution. | The container for one business process: its tables, views, dashboards and automations. | The colored tiles on the home page, grouped by Category. |
Table. | Records of one type of item: projects, tasks, campaigns, products. Every solution has at least one. | Tabs across the top of a solution. |
Record. | One item in a table. Expand a row, or press the space bar on a selected row, to open it. | A row in Grid View, a card in Kanban. |
Field. | One attribute of a record; more than 40 field types, from text and dates to SmartDocs and Linked Records. | A column in Grid View. |
Full detail: Guide to SmartSuite's Structure, Introduction to Solutions, Field Overview.
How do I move around?
The home page groups your solutions by Category in the layout you choose; a member with one solution opens it directly at sign-in.
Click a solution tile to open it; the three-dot menu on the tile holds its options. Click a table's name in the toolbar to open it.
Power Search in the top panel finds any record in the workspace; Starred Items pins what you use daily.
The profile menu in the upper-right corner holds your profile, notification settings, Workspace Administration (Administrators only) and Log Out.
How do views work?
A view is a saved way of looking at one table: which fields show and how records are sorted, filtered and grouped. The view types are Grid, Card, Kanban, Calendar, Timeline, Map, Chart, Dashboard, Form and Gantt. Editing a record in one view changes it everywhere. The View Panel on the left lists every view; Guide to View Types shows each one.
How do I start a solution?
From a template: click + New Solution on the home page and choose Start with a Template. The Solution Library holds more than 200 templates with demo data you can keep or delete. See Start from a Solution Library template.
From scratch: choose Build from Scratch and add your first table.
With AI: choose Create with AI, describe the workflow, and the tables are built in about 1 to 2 minutes.
From a file: choose Create from Import for a CSV or an Airtable base, or import a CSV or Excel file into an existing table.
Who are the people in a workspace?
Role or permission. | What it means. |
Workspace Administrator. | Runs the workspace: members, Teams, billing, settings, every solution. |
Solution Creator. | Creates solutions and becomes Solution Manager of the ones they create. |
General Access. | Works in the solutions shared with them; most members. |
Solution Manager (a permission, not a role). | Full control of one solution: its tables, fields, permissions and automations. |
Teams. | Named groups of members; share a solution with a Team once. |
A new solution is Private to Me until you share it: Permissions in five minutes explains the modes and levels; Invite your team and set roles in your first week covers invitations.
How is work assigned and followed?
The Assigned To field gives a record an owner, who gets a notification.
My Work in the top panel lists everything assigned to you, grouped by due date.
Comments and @mentions on a record keep the conversation beside the work; the Notification Center under the bell icon collects mentions, assignments and updates to records you follow.
Which plan am I on, and what does it set?
Your plan shows on the home page next to the workspace name. Team, Professional and Enterprise are priced per seat and the Signature plan per solution; the plan sets the records per solution, file storage, automation runs and API calls per month, and Recycle Bin retention. Figures and prices are in SmartSuite Plans, Features and Pricing, verified against the pricing page.
How do automations and integrations fit in?
An automation pairs a trigger with up to 10 actions, for example send an email when a record is updated: Automations Introduction.
The REST API and the integrations connect your solutions to other systems: the Integration collection.
Where do I get help?
Live office hours run every weekday; the schedule of record is on Start here: your first week in SmartSuite. The Academy has free courses, the community has other customers, and the message icon in the lower-right corner reaches support.
Frequently asked questions
How many workspaces can I have?
More than one; each workspace is a separate account with its own plan, and you switch between them from the profile menu.
Can I copy a solution to another workspace?
Yes. Solutions can be shared or copied from one workspace to another; the solution's menu holds the option.
What is the difference between a table and a view?
A table holds the records; a view is one way of looking at them. One table can have many views, and all of them show the same records.
Is there a free plan?
No. New workspaces start on a 14-day free trial of the Professional plan with no credit card; after it, choose Team, Professional or Enterprise, or the Signature plan through Sales.
Next step: How are workspaces, solutions, tables, records and fields related: Guide to SmartSuite's Structure.
Last verified 22 Oct 2026 against Guide to SmartSuite's Structure, the Home Page, View Panel, Creating New Solutions, Roles, Permissions and Automations Introduction articles, and the pricing page (four plans, trial)