What is an Action?
An automation action is a step that performs a task, activity, event, or change. Think of a action as:
When Something happens (the Trigger) and These Conditions are true, then This Event (the Action) occurs.
SmartSuite's Add Row action for Google Sheets allows you to automatically add a row in Google Sheets based on a SmartSuite trigger. If you haven't already, we also recommend that you check our our articles on creating an automation and managing automations for more information about setting up new workflows.
Setup
Prerequisites
To use Google Sheets you will need to have an existing Google account. Google Sheets actions are part of SmartSuite's automations system, which all account types have access to. Simply click the Automations option in the Solution drop-down menu (see image below).
Note: This action requires Solution Manager permissions or the Administrator role. To learn more, please see our article on roles and permissions.
Accessing the Automations configuration interface:
Create a New Automation
Once the Solution Automations dialog is displayed, click Add Automation to begin creating an automation that will interact with Google Sheets.
Choose a Trigger
You will need to set up a trigger to tell the Automation when to run and which record to use as the source of data for your Google Sheet actions.
For example, you might be tracking user-submitted help requests in SmartSuite. If you wanted to create a new row when a project is created, you would select a When a Record is Created trigger to initiate the automation when the SmartSuite record is added.
Select the Google Sheets Action
After creating your automation and selecting your Trigger, you can select Google Sheets from the Integrations section of the Add Actions list. You can then select the Add Row item. It looks like this:
How to Add a Row
Whenever your automation trigger fires and the conditions are met, the Google Sheets Add a Row action will create a new row in Google Sheets based on a SmartSuite trigger. Configuring it just requires a few clicks.
You will be prompted to select or connect your Google account.
Click Sign in with Google to get started:
If you are not authenticated you will be prompted to log in to your Google account. You will see a screen like this:
Provide the credentials you would like to use to connect to Google Sheets, making sure you check the additional boxes. Then accept the request to connect:
When your account is connected, you will be returned to the connection screen. Click the toggle and select a sheet you'd like the automation action to map to, and then click the X in the top left to continue.
Note: You can disconnect your account from the automation at any time by clicking the Disconnect button on this screen.
After this initial account configuration has been completed, you can then specify the details for the row you want to create. Customizable fields include:
Worksheet (Required)
Any columns with headings from the selected worksheet.
You can add either static values to each of these fields, or map values from the triggering record as their value. Continue adding fields until you have populated everything you need in the row that will be created in Google Sheets. When you're done, click Save Automation at the bottom-right corner of the screen to save the automation and its configuration.
Note: You will be prompted to switch the automation on. If you click Yes, switch it on the automation will be active and will trigger when its criteria are met. You can also choose to keep it off if you're not yet ready to start creating new rows in Google Sheets.