In a professional context, spreadsheet tools like Google Sheets are among the most basic yet valuable applications. They can store, manipulate, and even visualize massive amounts of data. However, spreadsheets can also be overwhelming. The rows and rows of information can seem daunting, especially if you’re not an expert in formulas or pivot tables.
That’s where tools like Notion come in. With its sleek and user-friendly interface, as well as colorful labels, Notion appears to be more approachable than a traditional spreadsheet.
If you use both applications, keeping them in sync adds an extra layer of complexity. You could manually copy and paste data between the two, but that proves impractical when dealing with large amounts of data.
Instead, you can connect Notion and Google Sheets to automate work between the two applications. By connecting these two tools, you can present the most up-to-date data in a digestible and accessible format.
Is Notion Compatible with Google Sheets?
Google Sheets and Notion don’t have a native integration, but you can connect Google Drive and Notion. This option is ideal if you simply want to fetch file previews from Drive, including spreadsheets, into Notion, or if you want to manually link an occasional Drive file to a Notion item.
But what if you need to connect the two databases so that information flows freely between them? For example, you may need to fetch information from Google Sheets into Notion so that your marketing team can easily track your campaign’s performance without digging through mountains of data. Or perhaps your support team uses Notion to take notes on recurring customer issues, but your engineering team prefers to track bugs in Google Sheets.
Whatever your specific use case may be, manually moving information between two databases is not efficient. In such situations, you’ll need to use a tool like Zapier to automate the repetitive task of moving items between Notion and Google Sheets, which is ideal when working with a large volume of data.
Popular Methods for Connecting Google Sheets and Notion
Not sure where to start when connecting Google Sheets and Notion? Check out these popular Zap templates to see how you can easily move data between these two essential tools.
Add Rows in Google Sheets for Every New Item in Notion Databases
Need to keep your data organized? This Zap will automatically send every new item added to a Notion database to a new row in the Google Sheets spreadsheet of your choice. This ensures your data is always up to date, regardless of the tool you use to view it.
Add Items in Notion Databases from New Rows in Google Sheets
Google Sheets is great for intensive data work, but that information often needs to be rephrased before it can be shared with others.
With this Zap, you can keep projects and workflows up to date without leaving your spreadsheet. It will automatically create an item in a Notion database whenever new information is added in a new row in Google Sheets.
Alternatively, you can use this Zap, which can also be triggered by updated rows in Google Sheets, so any changes to your data seamlessly reflect in Notion.
And if you’re working with a Google Team Drive, this Zap eliminates the need for copying and pasting between your spreadsheets and Notion.
How to Connect Google Sheets to Notion
With Zapier, there are many ways to connect Notion to Google Sheets. To make things easier to understand, we’ll focus on one of the examples mentioned above: Adding Items in Notion Databases from New Rows in Google Sheets.
Before You Begin
Before you can create a Zap to connect Notion and Google Sheets, you’ll need to sign up for a free Zapier account. You’ll also need to have Google Sheets and Notion accounts set up.
Once logged into Zapier, you can create new Zaps by clicking the “Create a Zap” button or going to zap.new.
Step 1: Connect Your Trigger App
A Zap always consists of two parts:
- The trigger: an event that starts a Zap.
- The action: an event that a Zap performs after being triggered. A single Zap can perform multiple actions.
When connecting Google Sheets and Notion, your trigger app can be either one, depending on which application you want to start the automated workflow with.
In this case, Google Sheets will be our trigger app. Every time a new row is added in Google Sheets, we want to create a new item in Notion. While this is the trigger we choose for our example Zap, you can choose from several different triggers, such as new subscribers or clicked links.
You can select your trigger app by searching for its name after clicking the “Create a Zap” button.
Next, you’ll need to select your trigger event. If your trigger app is Google Sheets, you have many trigger event options, but for this example, we’ll choose “New Spreadsheet Row.”
Once you’ve selected your trigger event, click “Continue.”
You’ll then need to connect your trigger app account to Zapier.
For this example, we’ll connect to “Google Sheets.” You’ll need to give Zapier permission to access your account by clicking “Sign in.” Once you’ve connected your account, select it from the dropdown menu and click “Continue.”
Next, you can set up your trigger step by filling in the fields in the trigger step. These fields will be slightly different depending on your trigger app and event. In this example, we need to select the spreadsheet that, when a new row is added, triggers this Zap.
You’ll also need to select the “Sheet” inside the spreadsheet where you want the Zap to trigger. Then, click “Continue.”
It’s now time to test your trigger. Click “Test Trigger” and Zapier will look for a row in your Google Sheets spreadsheet, just to ensure your trigger is properly configured. Once the test is successful, click “Continue.”
Step 2: Connect Your Action App
Now, it’s time to choose your action app. Remember: an action is the event that a Zap performs after being triggered. A single Zap can perform multiple actions.
When connecting Google Sheets and Notion, your action app can be either one, depending on which application you want to do something with once the Zap is activated.
In this case, we’ll choose Notion as our action app. Just like the trigger app, you can choose the action app by searching for its name.
Now, you’ll need to choose your action. There are many actions that your Zap can perform in Notion, like creating a page or even executing an API request. But for this example, we’ll choose “Create a Database Item.”
Once you’ve selected your action, click “Continue.”
You’ll then need to connect your action app account to Zapier. Click “Sign in” and follow the instructions to connect your action app account – in this case, we’ll be connecting to Notion.
When you connect your Notion account, Zapier will allow you to choose the pages you want to grant access to. This is great if you want to avoid accidental edits to important (or private) content.
Once you’ve connected your Notion account, click “Continue.”
After connecting your Notion account, you can configure your action by filling in the fields in the action step. Depending on your action app and event, you’ll have different fields to customize.
For this example, we need to first choose the “Database” we want to update when there’s a new row in Google Sheets.
Next, you’ll need to map the fields, so the Zap retrieves the correct data from the Google Sheets row and formats it to match the fields in your Notion database.
In this example, we want the Zap to use the book titles in the column to fill in the “Name” field in Notion.
We’ll also set up the “Author” field in Notion for this example, but you can match multiple fields, including timestamps and scores.
Finally, you’ll need to test your action step to ensure it’s working correctly by clicking “Test.” Zapier will then send test data to your action app. In our example, Zapier will create a new item in my Notion reading database with the book title and author taken from my Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Integrate Notion and Google Sheets to Keep Your Data Up to Date
Although the example we presented is a personal workflow – updating a reading list in Notion from a Google Sheets spreadsheet – connecting Notion and Google Sheets can be invaluable in a professional context. Notion is a very user-friendly way to publish information, so it’s crucial to seamlessly move information into the app from a spreadsheet to give your team a clear view of the most recent data in an easy-to-read manner.
For more exciting tips and tricks on Google Sheets and other productivity tools, visit Crawlan.com. Let’s level up your workflow together!
