Spreadsheets 101: Frequently Asked Questions

The day has finally arrived… it’s time to wrap up the Spreadsheets 101 series and move on to other things!

And what better way to wrap things up than by answering all of your burning questions?

Prefer to listen instead of read? Scroll to the bottom for the audio version of this post!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

HOW DO YOU SAVE A GOOGLE SPREADSHEET SO IT’S YOURS?

If you’re accessing a Google Sheet that you don’t own, whether that’s because it’s a template you purchased, a freebie someone shared with you, or a sheet someone else created while you were working with them, you may want to resave that Google Sheet so you own it.

To do this, start by clicking FILE in the upper lefthand corner of your Google Sheet. Scroll down and select MAKE A COPY.

A box will pop up that allows you to copy the document, renaming it as you want, choosing where it will be saved, and adding it to your own Google Drive. Once you’ve done this, you will be the owner of that newly copied spreadsheet document!

Note: This is different from saving a document someone shares with you to your Google Drive. That gives you easy access within your Google Drive, but the original creator still has ownership over the document and can revoke your access, delete/archive the document, lock it, or make changes without your permission.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FUNCTION/SET UP?

Good news! I did an entire post on this where I dive into six of my favorite features, along with examples of how I use them in my own spreadsheets in my life and business! You can check it out and get all the details here!

HOW DO I INCORPORATE THEM INTO MY BUSINESS?

In oh so many ways! You can use spreadsheets for financial stuff, planning, client tracking, and more! Check out this blog post to get more details on eight different ways you can start using spreadsheets in your business today!

HOW DO YOU CREATE FORMULAS THAT CARRY ACROSS SPREADSHEETS?

Depending on exactly what you’re going for, there are a few different ways to get information to carry and transfer from one sheet to the next within a spreadsheet.

If you want to have one master cell that auto-updates several other cells on different sheets throughout the document, you can use the Auto-Fill feature. To enable this, all you have to do is type the name of the sheet (ex: Budget), with an exclamation point and the cell number into the cell you want to auto-fill.

EXAMPLE: =Budget!A2

If you type this into, say, the March sheet in cell C5, that means any time you make updates or changes to the A2 cell in the Budget sheet, it will automatically update in the C5 cell on the March sheet and anywhere else you’ve used that same formula in your spreadsheet.

If you want to pull information from multiple cells in one sheet and aggregate them or process them on another sheet, that’s where things can get a little more complicated, depending on what you’re aiming for, but the principle is generally the same — you’ll need to specify the parameters for the cells you’re pulling from, whether that’s 10 cells in a row or cells under certain conditions in various columns.

The key in being able to pull across sheets is identifying the sheet the information originates from, which you will always do by typing the exact name of the sheet, followed by an exclamation point and the parameters of those cells.

Note: I know this feature is on the complicated side, and it’s easy to mess things up when you’re just getting started, especially if you’re not careful! My advice is always to take it slow and be patient with yourself! 

WHAT ARE SOME SPREADSHEET HACKS?

Truthfully, it would take ages to plum the depths of the different hacks and cool things you can do with spreadsheets, but this post dives into seven different things you probably had no idea a spreadsheet could do!

HOW DO YOU USE PIVOT TABLES?

Full disclosure: pivot tables are not my greatest area of expertise. I used them a whole lot in my very first job right out of college, but sometimes it feels like it’s been a lifetime since that happened!

If you’re not familiar with them, a pivot table is a tool that allows you to narrow down information from a large set of data and see relationships between two data points. For example, which package or product brought in the most revenue for a certain month or throughout the entire year.

Basically, it takes a lot of information and makes it more digestible for you so it’s easier to use!

To start using pivot tables, the first thing you need to do is select a range you’re pulling data from. This could be on a financial tracker where you’re pulling numbers related data, or it could be on a sales or client tracker where you’re pulling information related to the referral source or most-booked package.

Once you’ve set your data source, you can create your pivot table!

You do this by adding rows and columns to specify what data you want to pull from your larger set. For example, you could set a row for clients that booked or didn’t book and a row for each referral source, which would give you an easy way to see what referral sources you should be putting more time and energy into!

Once you’ve decided on your Rows and Columns, you choose the Values, which designates the numbers actually shown on your pivot table. For the most part, these values are going to match your Columns.

Finally, you have the option to filter your data set for whatever you want. If you want to remove a particular client or a specific service, you can do that.

You also have the option to quickly create a chart based on the data in your pivot table, giving you another way to easily digest the information at hand!

Well, there you have it, friend! The Spreadsheets 101 series has officially come to an end!The truth is, I could keep this series going on pretty much endlessly, because there is so much more we could discuss when it comes to spreadsheets, but hopefully this series has been helpful in getting you started and shown you spreadsheets do not have to be scary! Happy spreadsheeting!