
Ask HN: What do you use Google Sheets for? - nickgervasi
With yesterday&#x27;s announcement of Microsoft Lists, I was curious to learn more about how people use spreadsheets today. Are we using them for complex calculations, or simply to store lists&#x2F;tables of data?<p>Most of my recent sheets were simply lists. Here are the last five I&#x27;ve opened:
1. Lead prospecting (accounting firms)
2. Lead prospecting (B2B SaaS companies)
3. Cap table
4. Health insurance plans
5. VSCO April 2020 Layoffs Candidate List<p>If you&#x27;re curious, you can get your list at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;spreadsheets&#x2F;u&#x2F;0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;spreadsheets&#x2F;u&#x2F;0&#x2F;</a>.
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saradhi
We, extracttable.com, use Google Spreadsheets, a minimal, to save the signup
via Google Forms which is also linked to an endpoint using the app scripts to
generate an API key.

The biggest workflow I witnessed is from our user, a financial intelligence
platform from Brazil, which initially takes data from images and do a manual
entry to spreadsheets, has a significant pipeline with as many as 200+ macros
defined for their business flow that takes down to close a final output of
their clients need.

 _Prerelease: I planned for a Show HN post, next Tuesday, as we are yet to
publish the below content in our site._

We have built a Spreadsheet Add-on
([https://gsuite.google.com/marketplace/app/extracttable_image...](https://gsuite.google.com/marketplace/app/extracttable_image_to_spreadsheet/387162865168))
to aid their business process that extracts table data from images and puts
into the spreadsheet.

 _Offer_ : For HN community, take 20% extra credits on your purchase with an
email to apikey@extracttable.com with the subject "From HN."

~~~
nickgervasi
extracttable.com looks cool! Looking forward to reading the Show HN post!

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robertbalent
I have so many Google Sheets.

I track my weight, running performance, workout progress, my spendings,
savings, investment performance, car expenses, all trips out of the country
(for visa purpose) and more.

Everything with fancy charts showing progress and how well I'm achieving my
goals.

~~~
brittpart_
wouldn't this be easier if you could do it in an application?

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andrefuchs
I'm using a Google Spreadsheet as a database backend for my portfolio.
([https://andrefuchs.github.io/](https://andrefuchs.github.io/)) I wanted a
solution that is lightweight and easy to update.

~~~
nickgervasi
That's pretty cool! I took a look at your repo out of curiosity. I didn't
realize Google Sheets had an easy way to read sheet data as JSON. Neat!

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mooman219
A few things that I use it for: Pre-programed D&D stat trackers because it's
free and Pathfinder is... complicated. Factorio base ratio calculations, and
EvE online related market data. Quickly sharing database query output. A
simple weight tracker.

Most of these things are and can be independent services, the issue is if I
need something now that's ad hoc, then Sheets provides a computation sandbox
in a format that most people are familiar with.

~~~
nickgervasi
Interesting! I also used a spreadsheet a while back when playing
reactoridle.com. Similarly, I had a spreadsheet for my weight and body fat %
every day.

Agree that while independent services are possible, it's hard to beat the
flexibility you get from Sheets.

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0x54MUR41
Currently, I use Google Sheets for tracking expenses and investments. There
are two files, one for tracking expenses and the other is for investments.

I track my daily expenses in a sheet. A sheet is indicated the month and the
year. Once I spend the money I input the expense soon to prevent from
forgetting. It's simple. A table with a category expense, detail expense, and
the amount. This is something that I want to do because this habit can make me
understand how I spend my money. I mean do I appreciate the money?

For investments, a sheet is indicated a category of investments. Stocks,
bonds, and mutual funds, for example. I also use a simple table to track what
I buy or sell. By the way, Google Sheets has a GOOGLEFINANCE formula [0] that
is very usefull for getting the price of a stock.

[0]:
[https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093281?hl=fr](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093281?hl=fr)

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harrydehal
For a fun side project, I decided to use Google Sheets as a database that
would be easily editable by the general public (non-developers).

It is currently populating data for a crowdsourced map of San Francisco Bay
Area third-wave coffee roasters:

[https://hdehal.github.io/coffee-maps](https://hdehal.github.io/coffee-maps)

I was able to quickly get the app created in React, and while Google Sheets
has extensive API docs
([https://developers.google.com/sheets/api](https://developers.google.com/sheets/api)),
I found it far easier to use the simplified Node.js wrapper from
[https://github.com/theoephraim/node-google-
spreadsheet](https://github.com/theoephraim/node-google-spreadsheet)

On occasion, I'll get a friendly "request for access" with someone adding a
roaster to the list (and the map gets populated automatically), so it's fairly
hands-off.

~~~
nickgervasi
That's pretty cool! I was recently looking at Google's API docs as well, but
I'll definitely check out node-google-spreadsheet.

One thing I could never figure out from Google's API docs is whether you can
retrieve the revision history of a particular cell? Going out on a limb here,
but has anyone had any luck with this?

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bdcravens
I use it as a great way to share data from ad-hoc queries, and often times can
drive a quick workflow without having to build out a full set of screens in
our line of business app.

On a personal level, despite many attempts to find a perfect app, my
relatively simple set of budgeting spreadsheets is still the best solution
I've ever come up with.

Not Google Sheets, but the president of our company has been able to build out
a new line of business app using Excel in a few weeks, something that would
have taken use several months or more using our traditional development
approaches (it will eventually be moved there for robustness, but using
spreadsheets as a prototyping tool and letting those who understand the
business hammer out the logic, before handing off to developers, is a great
approach. A working spreadsheet is definitely the best requirements doc in the
world)

~~~
yen223
I use Google Sheets to share ad-hoc queries with other people too. Fun tip for
those who use Postgres: psql has a command `\copy` that allows you to write
the results of a query out into a local (clientside) CSV file. From there,
it's pretty straightforward to import that into a Google Sheet.

~~~
bdcravens
Yeah, I use Datagrip, which lets you easily copy a query's results to TSV data
in the clipboard, so you can't quickly paste into Google Sheets.

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mikecarlton
To see an interesting use -- check out
[https://www.tillerhq.com/](https://www.tillerhq.com/). An entire business
built on top of google sheets.

Unfortunately, i didn't care for it (I didn't like the way they handled splits
or the import from amazon)

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gshdg
I’ve got three files open right now. One is calculating contract rates based
on hourly, weekly, and monthly contracts and various discounts. One is a list
of RFPs, contacts for them, and their status. One is costing out a few options
for a home office setup.

So a combination of lists and light calculations.

In the past I’ve also used them as awkward makeshift databases and leaned
heavily on conditional formatting to highlight data points that required
action.

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lukaszkups
I've tracked my wedding-related costs with my at-the-time-fiancee-and-now-
wife.

Then we've used couple times it to calculate some monthly living costs and
savings.

And the last time I've used it was for keeping track of all recruitment
processes I've took part of (because over a week I've applied to like hundreds
companies and it was difficult then to differ which company was offering what
etc.)

------
laurex
"Let's build a product that is better than spreadsheets!" \- 50% of founders
of recently-failed B2B startups

Sorry for the joculariry, but having worked for such a company, I have a bit
of amusement of how prevalent that idea is, and also how amazingly Teflon free
spreadsheets are in comparison to so many of the more beautiful and usable
paid alternatives (freemium things like Airtable aside)...

~~~
nickgervasi
No need to apologize. :) There's a reason spreadsheets are so widely used, and
I often find myself using Google Sheets or Excel for a wide array of tasks
before even considering more specialized alternatives. I'm already paying for
it (or it's free), I know how to use it, and it's extremely flexible.

"having worked for such a company" If you don't mind me asking, which company
was that?

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eel
In my personal life, I use Google Sheets to help me shop for larger purchases.
For example, choosing tires for my car. I made a spreadsheet of all the
available tires that fit my car, with columns for specs, prices of different
retailers, user review numbers, and government ratings. Then I filter what's
important to me and calculate my own rating based on the remaining columns.

------
_448
I recently used Google Sheets to create a simple list[0] of people who want to
co-hack on projects.

[0]
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YKQ9g6h4BuWI32xcMbSM...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YKQ9g6h4BuWI32xcMbSMUSP5ndaOCtEewa14WISqNaY/edit?usp=sharing)

~~~
nickgervasi
Curious - do any online communities exist for this purpose?

~~~
_448
None that I know of. But in the past people use to linger around various IRC
channels to meet others and start projects together.

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obviyus
I use one sheet every day to track my time. It’s simple enough with 24 x 365
cells for each year’s sheet. It takes me around 30s a day to fill it out. It’s
mostly guesstimating what I was doing during the day. It’s a fun way to look
back on my week.

I honestly think this is one of the most impactful things I’ve done to reduce
wasting my time.

~~~
nickgervasi
That's great. Do you use a consistent naming scheme or categories to help
aggregate data?

~~~
obviyus
Yep! Every cell can hold values from a list. You can read more about it from
where I originally found it:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/5lh6tc/eve...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/5lh6tc/every_hour_of_my_2016_charted_by_category_oc/dcx5jrb/)

------
meelad
Connecting APIs with Google Sheets for business intel and data analysis
purposes using our tool [https://apipheny.io](https://apipheny.io)

------
shakkhar
I track my workout progress in a sheet that is backing a google form. After
every session, I enter the details from my phone. My priorities were: 1. not
having to install yet another app; 2. not locking my data into a silo.

------
abinaya_rl
I've been using Google sheets to curate the remote jobs from many job sources.
It's a really an easy database for me since I have limited database skills.

Also, Airtable for some cases and when it's relevant.

------
rasulkireev
I use Sheets for personal data tracking, for content planning, for making
quick financial projections, etc, etc, etc.

Would be easily top used tool for me if it wasn't blocked on the company level
where I work.

~~~
nickgervasi
Interesting- why is it blocked at work?

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dhruvkar
Tracking shipping containers as they progress from supplier -> port ->
ship(s)/port(s) -> port of discharge -> rail -> depot -> our warehouse and
then returned to the depot.

~~~
nickgervasi
Interesting use case! Any reason you didn't consider something like Trello for
this? It seems like it would fit it nicely and give you a nice visual overview
of where each shipping container is.

~~~
bdcravens
Aside from draggable cards and swimlanes, Trello doesn't make for a great
solution where you need to store structured data, especially if you need to
additionally query or filter on that data.

Probably far easier to just build out a visualization and keep the data in the
spreadsheet.

I tend to store status in a dropdown in the spreadsheet, and color-code the
row based on status.

~~~
nickgervasi
I see. I haven't used it myself, but I know Trello has a custom fields feature
to add structured data to each card
([https://help.trello.com/article/1067-using-the-custom-
fields...](https://help.trello.com/article/1067-using-the-custom-fields-power-
up)).

Are you the only one working out of this spreadsheet or do you share it with
others?

~~~
bdcravens
In this instance, it's just me, but I've used shared spreadsheets on Google
with no issues.

~~~
nickgervasi
Got it. Transparently, I've been working on a tool called Flowdash
([https://flowdash.com](https://flowdash.com)) that helps bring structured
data to workflows like this. I'd love to get your feedback since it sounds
like you're pretty familiar with the problem.

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Chetane
My most recent spreadsheets are: Budget, Shared expenses, Catan Quarantine
League, Metrics Dashboard, Talent List.

So a mix of personal finance, dashboards, and lists.

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wdroz
I used them to grade students, multiple teachers can edit the document at the
same time and the grades are computed dynamically.

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thidr0
I track my budget in Sheets. I have some AWS Lambda functions that IFTT calls
to update the sheets with new data

~~~
travisennis
I'm interested in hearing more about this setup. What triggers the IFTTT calls
and what do the Lambda calls accomplish?

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rebelrexx858
Budget and date night ideas are our two main used sheets

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musicale
They fit perfectly on my Google Bed.

~~~
nickgervasi
(＾▽＾)

