How To Use Google Sheets For Business

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Google sheets refer to the free, web-based platform that creates spreadsheets, much like how Excel does. Google sheets, however, aren’t stored on your computer. It’s a file that’s stored on a shared platform that can be opened by anyone in your business, for as long as access is granted. It’s a very efficient file-sharing platform across employees.

Even if you’ve got a team that’s working remotely, it’s still like as if they’re sitting right next to each other, when they all can open the file simultaneously.

You can access the file from any computer, provided that you’ve got an Internet connection. You can all study it and make edits, should it be needed. Businesses, both small and large, have been using Google Sheets since its availability. Computer experts find that the number of businesses that will start and continue to use Google sheets will increase. That’s how efficient it is for companies.

If your business hasn’t taken advantage yet of Google sheets, here’s how you can use it to your advantage.

Collaborate With Remote Workers

This applies both whether you’re the boss and if you’re working with fellow employees. If there’s any work that needs to be done, fast, it’s possible. You don’t have to waste time now, if, for instance, a fellow worker has to work from home for a few days. Maybe you’ve got members in your team that are in another country. This is very common now with companies hiring workforce from around the world.

Google Spreadsheets can be opened, edited, and managed, even by remote employees. Despite the distance, you can continue working on the documents together. Here are other features that come with Google Spreadsheets, along the line of working with remote workers:

It has a color-coded feature that enables you to see who is responsible for every edit. That way, every member of the team is also held accountable for whatever changes they’re going to make. There’s no pointing fingers and blaming each other.

It shows you when the last update to the spreadsheet was made. It’s so precise that it also shows you the time, and who made the latest change.

A bonus tip: Use Google Spreadsheets together with Google Hangouts. You can hold meetings and discuss the document as if you were all seated in one conference table.

Pull-In Data From Various Sources

Google sheet is so practical for businesses, such that it also enables you to pull in data from various sources. This includes the following:

• CSV and Excel
• BigQuery, for data that need an in-depth analysis
• Census Bureau and World Bank, for incorporating real-world databases

These abovementioned are only a few of the tools that you can use in your business to analyze, visualize, and even study various types of data. You don’t have to confine yourself only to files that are easy to load and download. Depending on the need of your business report, these can now be attached more effortlessly.

Automate Tasks

Another way for you to use Google Sheets is for you to automate tasks. Microsoft Excel has this feature for over a decade now. Now, Google sheets has it too. This refers to macros.

Macros is an efficient Google Sheets tool. For example:

• Repeat the same tasks automatically, such as formatting a spreadsheet. Rather than doing it over and over again, you record yourself doing it once. Then, macros saves it to remember what you did. You only need to click a few buttons, then there you go. You’ve got the same sheet, format, and whatnot. This saves every member of the workforce who uses the sheet for that purpose, a lot of time.

Use Google Sheets Offline

Generally, you’re going to need to have a stable Internet connection for you to open Google Sheets and do some work in it. But, if you have to, you can also use Google sheets even while you’re offline. This enables you to be even more productive, as you can save your sheet anywhere.

Here’s how you can do so:

• Open Chrome.
• Sign in to your Google account.
• Go to drive.google.com/drive/settings.
• Tick: “Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Drawings files to this computer so you can edit offline.”
• Install Backup and sync.

A word of caution for you to remember, though, is that for the offline function, you have to use Google Chrome as your browser. You’ll also first need to install and enable the Google Docs Offline Chrome Extension. From whatever device you’re opening up and saving the file, you also have to be sure that your device has enough space. Remember that you’re not saving your spreadsheet on the cloud.

Use Google Sheets On-The-Go

Google Sheet’s isn’t just for your laptop or computer. You can even use it to go mobile. At the end of the day, the purpose here is for better productivity of your company. While you’re stuck in traffic, commuting, or in your break at a café somewhere, you can still access work files through your mobile phone or other gadgets. If there’s anything that needs immediate attention from your boss, it’s addressed right away.

You don’t have to keep yourself locked up to your desk to work. If you’re the employer, technologies such as Google Sheets is also an excellent way to keep your employees happy. You’re giving them the ability to work anywhere they want. Even when you’re traveling, you’d still be able to see work done by your team through accessibility to the sheets.

Perform Office Tasks More Efficiently

Google Sheets offers businesses an excellent opportunity to increase their efficiency, track, and evaluate essential data. Rather than having to use different software for each task, you can use Google sheets for more coherence. That way, the file transfer from one employee to another is also faster. They have to open it themselves.

Examples of office tasks that you can do with Google sheets functions include:

• Accounting and budgeting. Google sheets is a spreadsheet tool. This means that it’s not foreign to the usual tasks that evolve around financial accounting, creating budgets, and keeping track of expenses. To make things even simpler for you, Google sheets have ready-made templates that you can use for each specific purpose. There’s one made, for instance, for budgets, and another for expense reports.

• Charts, graphs, and reports. Data visualization is an integral part of any business report. How do you translate rows and columns of information into visuals that are more comprehensible by the entire team? Convert them into graphs and other chart formats. You can directly save these into a PDF form. If you’d like to distribute physical copies ASAP to the entire team, you can print directly from Google sheets too. You only need a stable Internet connection to function.

• Project management. Every business has its outlook as to what project management is. But, this is something that almost every company has to go through. In general, however, project management involves keeping track of progress, budget, time, and other resources that may be across different locations or office sites. Your project manager need not jump from one location to another consistently, to get some work done.

• Data analysis. There’s a feature on Google sheets called the pivot tables. This is an advanced program that allows users to narrow down a large sheet. Perhaps also you’d like to see the correlation between different sheets or tables. You no longer have to worry about zooming out to teeny-tiny charts, or printing each of them out. The pivot table function on Google sheets also enables you to see the relationship across specific data points that you input.

For example, the pivot table feature allows you to see which one of your sales representatives have brought in the most income in a given period.

• Calendars and schedules. Are you managing the schedules of employees that are scattered across various offices? Perhaps you’re even managing those that are working remotely, too. Many businesses have found Google spreadsheets as useful in creating calendars and schedules for the entire team.

You can even go as detailed as creating customized calendars, one that’s personal only to your business.

• Purchase orders and invoicing. One of the most challenging tasks of companies that are in the business of producing and selling goods is in the creation of purchase orders and sales invoices. If there’s any custom purchase order that you need to create for your customers, this is possible through Google sheets.

Google sheets also make it easier for you to email these purchase orders and invoices to customers immediately. After you’ve sent them, you can quickly tally it down for tracking status. On the other end of the line, the customer receiving the file can view it at their convenience too. Just as you’re able to create files through mobile devices, they can open it on mobile devices as well. This reduces delays and increases customer satisfaction.

• Time tracking. Google sheet is also an efficient way for businesses to create individual employee time cards to tally up the total number of hours worked. This comes in handy, especially when you’re dealing with overseas employees. Of course, other online software devices track employee work time, real-time. But, this doesn’t tally up the total number of hours worked.

For payroll purposes, Google sheets can still come in handy. Because Google sheets files are automatically saved and backed up on the Cloud, there’s no risk of any employee losing their time cards at any given payroll period. This also reduces the risk of any dispute regarding salary computation.

Save Documents On The Web

Gone are the days when businesses live in the constant fear of their computer system suddenly shutting down. Google sheets, as a part of the whole Gsuite of Google, enables you to save documents on the web. This means that it doesn’t take up any space in your office computers. For as long as the team has the log in details, they need only access to the Internet, log in their Gmail accounts, and open the file.

In essence, this is one way for you to reduce your startup costs. You don’t have to worry about constantly updating your systems, in fear of destructive crashes that will lose all your files. Along this line, Google sheets can be used for the following:

• Ease of emailing sheets and other documents
• Lesser need to back-up storage
• Invite collaborative effort by the entire team
• View your sheet’s edit and revision history and go back to any revised stage

Manage More Control Regarding Access

One of the universal problems faced by companies has to do with data security. When office files are all saved in the computers of your employees, it can be tough for you to control who are those that have access to your data. Especially if you’re also managing a remote team.

You can take advantage of using Google Sheets for your business to have more control as to accessibility. You can limit access to specific spreadsheet files only to those that you want access to. You can even specify the type of access that you want to be granted. Some may have editing access, while others may only have viewing access.

Here are other features concerning control regarding access:

• Manage permissions across a group or individual levels
• Use data loss prevention controls to keep specific private or sensitive data safe
• Set expiration dates for accessibility or edit access
• Disable options for download, copying, and printing to particular individuals that you deem don’t need to have this kind of access

Conclusion

Google spreadsheet is one of Google’s newer breakthrough products. It allows for an entire team to create, update, and edit spreadsheets online, from remote places. You only need to ensure that each member of your team has access to a stable Internet connection.

Many businesses find Google sheets as an efficient tool to use to improve business productivity and efficiency. Indeed, it has and will continue to be. These are some of the ways that you can use Google sheets in your business. As you start with it, you’ll now understand why it has almost become a staple in every business.

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