With our Google Sheets Automations, you can have rows be inserted in a worksheet
of your choosing, any time a particular trigger event occurs within your funnel
(like, for example, when a new lead comes in from a form). To be able to add
the correct data into the correct place in your worksheet, however,
a bit of (_crucial_) setup is required.
The easiest way to properly set up your sheets is to create a fresh, blank
worksheet and follow along to the steps below. If you have an existing sheet you
want to have values appended to, that's no problem at all. In that case, all you
have to do is make sure your existing sheet is formatted the same way as the test
sheet.
So, follow along to the steps below to get started with a Google sheets
automation.
1. Create a new sheet
You can create a new worksheet in a existing spreadsheet, or you can create a
whole new spreadsheet altogether by going to Google Drive > New >
Google Spreadsheets (make sure to give it a name and save it).
You'll see the following:
2. Give each column a header
If you were to go to the 'Action Setup' step of a Google Sheets automation,
you'll see your newly created sheets in the list of spread-/worksheets. However,
selecting it will only render a message saying the sheet isn't formatted
correctly. To format it _correctly_, you'll need to add a column header to
for each column of data you would like to store.
For example, if you wanted to store the first name, last name, and email address of
any lead that comes in from the form you've selected, you should add a column
header for them as follows:
3. Map form fields to the column headers
Now when you select your worksheet in the 'Action Setup' step, we'll be able to
detect these headers in your sheet, and display you options on which form field
you want under which column:
_The displayed options are the 'names' of the form fields. You can edit the names
of the form fields in the builder by changing the 'Field name'._
4. Save your automation, and wait for a lead to roll in from the form.
_After saving your automation, make sure it is turned 'on'._
Now, whenever a lead comes in, it will automatically be added to your sheet!
## Caveats
- Make sure the columns in your sheet are adjacent to each other, and there
are no 'gaps' between them
- Make sure there are no gaps in any existing data rows (an entire empty row).
Google Sheets recognizes the data starting from that gap as a new table, which
might lead to the headers being recognized faultily, or data being added in the
wrong places
- Make sure there is no cell to the right or below your table (the range of
values bounded by the columns and the rows).