5 Reasons Why You Need To Start Using Google Sheets

5 Reasons Why You Need To Start Using Google Sheets

Google Sheets is one of the most popular and easy-to-use spreadsheets out of the bunch of spreadsheets that are available. It’s as versatile and capable as Microsoft Excel and yet the popular perception is that it is an inferior product–perhaps because it is free and requires no installation; anyone with a Google account can use it.

Its drawback is that it requires an internet connection. But that is also one of the reasons why it’s so convenient. Being constantly connected to the internet means that all changes are automatically saved so that the data are safe no matter what happens to your computer or if you close the tab accidentally. Another benefit is that since the files are stored in the cloud, there is less risk of losing them.

There are plenty of other upsides to using Google Sheets. Here are 5 reasons why you need to start using google sheets.

1. Collaboration

Effective collaboration is key to productivity. With work-from-home becoming the norm, virtual interaction has taken over face-to-face interaction as the primary mode of collaboration.

Fortunately, Google Sheets makes it incredibly easy to share and collaborate on any project.

Suppose you have to make a report on Google Ads performance. You can easily export the data to Google Sheets and make a detailed analytic report. If you want insight from your team members, then you can give them access to the file and they, too, can edit or add comments to the report–all in the same spreadsheet.

You can share the report with your client directly without having to download and share it. They can then give feedback within the report.

Perhaps you want a more detailed and thorough discussion of a complex and important project? No big deal. You can just integrate Google Meet or Google Chat to have a discussion.

2. Access And Update Data

In today’s collaborative and fast-paced work environment, the ability to access a document and make changes and give input is essential.

Google Sheets offers a useful and convenient way of sharing files that allows multiple users to access it at the same time. If you want one of your employees or teammates to make a change to the report, then you can simply share the link with him/her and you can have the data updated in your report by another person.

You can share your spreadsheet anytime and anywhere with anyone on your mobile or computer. And read or make changes from your mobile device itself.

3. Varieties Of Templates

There are a lot of templates that are available online to use in Google Sheets–and they are free! You do not have to understand each formula exactly and how each formula works. Moreover, once you get familiar with templates you can even build your own template.

These are some of the few Google Sheets templates to speed up your project or business:

• Invoices
• Annual Business Budget
• Financial Statements
• Project Timeline
• Project Tracking

4. Task Automation

There are several ways you can use Google Sheets to automate mundane tasks or speed up workflows. It ranges from a simple task such as automatically applying the related formula to the rest of the cells in a row to sending WhatsApp messages or emails.

If, say, you have a data table that is updated regularly, then you can make it so that the calculations are automatically updated accordingly.

Sending and scheduling emails from within Google Sheets requires a bit of technical knowledge if you want to set it up yourself with Google Script. However, you need not do it yourself as there are plenty of add-ons that can help you do this. You can also track the status of the emails from within Google Sheets–whether they’ve been sent, or opened and responded to, and create automatic follow-up emails.

5. Visualise data

Google Sheets has various tools for effective and easy visualisation of data. You can visualise data in Google Sheets with different types of charts and graphs to show data in a more effective and understandable way.

You can, for example, create a payment funnel, analyse trends in sales using line charts, create Gantt charts to track project completion, progress bars, and so on.

They make understanding the data much easier than bare numbers and also provide better insights that help you reach conclusions quickly while at the same time helping you make better decisions.

Conclusion

Google Sheets is one of the few tools for data keeping and analysis that are available for use–professionally as well as personally. The few reasons mentioned here why you need to use Google Sheets may be compelling. But the most important reason is that it is completely free. For a free product, it does well at what it does.

If you’re not using it for work or for personal purposes, you’re missing a great deal. You will be amazed at how easy it is to use and how much functionality it offers.