Google Sheets Trigger¶

Overview¶

The Google Sheets Trigger watches a Google Sheet and starts a workflow when its rows change. Use it to turn a spreadsheet into a front end for automation — a sales team keeps a sheet, and every new row becomes a CRM record, an email, or an invoice.

BaseCloud polls the sheet and compares it against the last state it saw, so the trigger reports what actually changed rather than simply that something did.

When to use this trigger:

• Create CRM records from rows a team adds to a shared sheet.
• Kick off a workflow when a status column changes.
• Import a list someone maintains outside the CRM.

BaseCloud polls the sheet and compares it against the last state it saw. That comparison is why the very first run behaves differently from every run after it:

flowchart TD
    A[Poll the sheet] --> B[Compare against last seen state]
    B --> C{First run?}
    C -->|Yes| D["initial_connection — a baseline, not new records"]
    C -->|No| E["batch_changes — rows added, modified, deleted"]
    E --> F[Workflow runs]

Guarding against that first run is the single most common thing to get wrong here — see On the first run after connecting.

This trigger takes the spreadsheet URL; the Google Sheets action takes the spreadsheet ID. They are not interchangeable — paste the whole URL here, and the long identifier from inside it there.

Leaving Watch Range blank watches the entire sheet. Narrowing it is the cheapest way to stop edits in unrelated columns waking the workflow.

Configuration¶

Builder fields¶

The Field column is the label as it appears in the task builder; Key is the name the value is stored under and referenced by.

Finding the spreadsheet ID:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz/edit#gid=0
                                       └──────── spreadsheet ID ────────┘

Outputs¶

Field names are camelCase, unlike most tasks. They are exactly as emitted.

On a batch change¶

On the first run after connecting¶

Real-World Examples¶

Turn new spreadsheet rows into CRM clients¶

Google Sheets Trigger      watch A2:F1000, trigger on row updated
  └─ If Statement          type is not "initial_connection"
      └─ Loop              over batchChanges
          └─ Match to Client   look the client up by email
              └─ Email         send a welcome message

Act on a status column change¶

Google Sheets Trigger
  └─ If Statement          the status cell equals "Approved"
      └─ BaseCloud Accounting   raise the invoice

Best Practices¶

• Always set a watch range. It bounds the comparison and avoids noise from unrelated columns.
• Skip the header row by starting the range at row 2.
• Handle initial_connection explicitly. It is a baseline, not a batch of new records.
• Loop over batchChanges, don't assume one change per run — several edits between polls arrive together.
• Keep the sheet's shape stable. Inserting or reordering columns changes what each position means and will produce confusing changes.
• Don't have the workflow write back to the same watched range — the write is itself a change and the trigger will fire again.

Troubleshooting¶

Frequently Asked Questions¶

How quickly does it react? The sheet is polled, so a change is picked up on the next poll rather than instantly.

Does it detect a formula's result changing? It compares cell values, so a recalculated formula reads as a change. Keep formula columns out of the watch range unless you want that.

Can I watch several tabs? One task watches one tab. Add a task per tab.

Can I write back to the sheet? Yes — with the Google Sheets action task, but write to a different range than the one being watched.

Related Tasks¶

• Google Sheets - Read and write sheet data in a workflow
• Loop - Process each row in batchChanges
• Match to Client - Turn a row into a CRM record
• If Statement - Guard against the initial connection run
• Webhook In - A more immediate alternative when the source can post data