10 Creative Ways to Automate Spreadsheets and Win Back Time

Still using spreadsheets the old way and spending hours manually navigating your datasets? 

You don’t have to anymore. 

Spreadsheet automation helps you create more versatile sheets and speeds up data capture, analysis, enrichment, reporting, and other workflows. You can automate different tasks and win back time for more critical action items. 

In this article, I’ll walk you through 10 of the best ways to create an automated spreadsheet that I personally love! 

10 tips to creating an automated spreadsheet

Spreadsheet automation works for multiple use cases—whether you want to collect new data, convert files from one format to another, or enrich a lead database. 

I’ll break down 10 ideas to leverage automation in Gigasheet for your big data needs. 

1. Process, clean, and organize large datasets

Organizing large databases is tedious—from uploading a massive file to cleaning the data available. But Gigasheet makes this process a breeze with its API automation.

You can integrate Gigasheet with platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive, where you store your datasets. Use Pipedream to create this integration. Once integrated, you can set up an automation workflow for Gigasheet to import any files uploaded to a specific folder. 

When uploading a file, define how you want to process or organize the data and let Gigasheet do all the heavy lifting. You don’t even have to open the file! 

2. Capture data and track changes at scale

Work in sales or marketing? You probably need to collect tons of data. Spreadsheet automation can make this task more seamless by automatically capturing data from defined sources in a sheet. 

For example, you can integrate Gigasheet with your CRM or marketing tools, and it’ll collect all new data points + track changes in this data in real-time. 

Use Zapier to create this workflow—import a new record into a Gigasheet file. You can also clean up this data to remove duplicates and track what changed to make data-driven predictions. 

3. Present live data feed from BI and spreadsheets 

Automating spreadsheet actions can change your entire approach to business intelligence (BI) data analysis because you can:

• Fast-track analysis with in-depth datasets
• Streamline data visualization workflows
• Minimize the scope of human error

Gigasheet’s integration with BI tools like Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Domo, and more means you can create dynamic dashboards with real-time data reporting.

You only need to add your database URL to feed all the data and insights directly from these BI tools and spreadsheets to Gigasheet. Once this one-click integration is complete, your Gigasheet file will present live data and you can visualize it through dashboards.

4. Enrich and move lead data from/to CRMs

Managing leads on CRMs can be tricky, especially since you can’t analyze data the way you want. That’s where spreadsheet automation can come in handy.

You can transfer lead data from your CRM to a Gigasheet file, then analyze and enrich this data using integrations like Apollo.io and Hunter. Once the data is enriched, you can send it back to your CRM. 

This data movement is seamless, and you can even schedule it with daily or hourly triggers. 

5. Merge or combine multiple files into one

Another neat way to automate spreadsheets is by merging different files into a single sheet. You can consolidate data from different sources without wasting time on manually downloading, combining, and uploading files. 

Gigasheet will automatically merge multiple Excel or CSV files. And if you’re using Google Sheets, then Gigasheet can also append data when you add new rows to your original sheet. 

6. Collect form responses in a spreadsheet 

Tools like Typeform or SurveyMonkey don’t collect form responses in a spreadsheet. But you can integrate these tools with Gigasheet to instantly add all responses in a spreadsheet and perform in-depth analysis. 

Use Zapier to directly integrate any app with Gigasheet and create your automated workflows. Or, you can use Pipedream to use the API for integration and capture your form responses directly in Gigasheet.

7. Capture subscriber data for email lists in real time

Maintaining a clean email list is a challenge. Every time I launch a new campaign, I end up creating dozens of spreadsheets to get all the details right. 

But with Gigasheet’s automation capabilities, you can capture new subscriber data and clean your email list in real time.

For example, this Gigasheet integration with Mailchimp triggers every time you have a new subscriber. You can define a few parameters to categorize each subscribe in the right segment and add them to different files, like your main email list and segment-based lists. 

8. Deliver digital products with a touch of personalization

Setting up spreadsheet automation can be a game-changer for people selling digital products built on spreadsheets. For example, if you sell lead databases, you can leverage Gigasheet automation to

• Collect some details from the client 
• Filter the master database based on requirements
• Create a new database matching all criteria
• Send the file link with a personalized notification

You don’t have to lift a finger to make this process work. Once the setup is complete, you can deliver as many digital products as possible!

9. Collect data from Salesforce into a spreadsheet

Salesforce data analysis is one of the most common use cases I’ve seen for spreadsheet automation. Since Salesforce has limited reporting and analytics capabilities, tools like Gigasheet can help you analyze data at scale effortlessly.

You can integrate Salesforce with Gigasheet using the API. It’s a longer process, but allows you to do a lot more for capturing and transferring data. 

Alternatively, you can create Zaps to capture data from Salesforce quickly into your spreadsheets. Then, perform different actions to navigate your data—like sort, filter, group, format, and more. 

10. Automate repetitive tasks 

Lastly, you can automate different steps in your data processing workflow, like cleaning, formatting, and enriching data. Gigasheet’s built-in triggers on Zapier allow you to export new sheets in different formats and add new data in real-time. 

Then, you can apply different functions, like renaming columns, filtering data, and more. Essentially, these automation tasks will reduce the scope for error and speed up your data analysis process. 

Automate spreadsheets for faster, easier data analysis

Spreadsheets don’t have to mean endless manual effort. You can make your spreadsheets more dynamic and analyze data quicker with automated tasks. 

While tools like Google Sheets and Excel take more time to configure these automation tasks, you can use Gigasheet as a more robust alternative for spreadsheet automation. Use its API or Zapier to set up different workflows and make big data analysis a cakewalk.

‍Sign up and try now!