Google Sheets
A huge share of customer-onboarding work still starts with a spreadsheet. Customers send you a master list, a price book, or a user roster as a Sheet, and your team has to do something with it. Askel connects directly to the source so changes there flow into your product automatically, without anyone exporting a CSV.
What you can do
Read named ranges and full sheets
Pull a specific range like Pricing!B2:E50 or an entire tab. Askel handles pagination across large sheets and returns typed values where the cell format makes the type unambiguous.
React to new and changed rows
Poll a sheet on a schedule or listen via Drive push notifications. When a row is added or a cell in a tracked column changes, Askel triggers the downstream workflow in your product.
Write results back to the spreadsheet
Append rows, update cell values, or fill a dedicated output tab with data from your product. Customers see the results without leaving the tool they already work in.
Resolve spreadsheet identity from Drive metadata
Askel can list the spreadsheets the authorizing user owns or has access to, so customers can pick the right file from a dropdown rather than paste a raw URL.
Map columns to your data model automatically
Askel reads the first header row, proposes mappings to your product's fields, and flags any that need a human decision. The customer approves the mapping once and it holds for every subsequent sync.
Audit every read and write
Every API call Askel makes is logged with the spreadsheet ID, sheet name, range, payload, and response. Your team can inspect or replay any operation.
Syncing a customer's product catalog from a master spreadsheet
You sell an e-commerce operations platform. A mid-market customer, Harborfield Supply Co., maintains a master product catalog in a Google Sheet that their merchandising team updates weekly. They want your platform to reflect those updates without any manual re-import.
- 1
Connect once
Harborfield's Google Workspace admin clicks Connect Google Sheets inside your product. The OAuth consent screen opens on Google, they approve the Drive and Sheets scopes, and Askel stores the refresh token.
- 2
Pick the spreadsheet
Askel lists the spreadsheets the admin has access to. They select the master catalog file and choose the Products tab as the source range.
- 3
Map the columns
Askel reads the header row and proposes mappings: SKU to product_id, Display Name to title, Unit Price to price. One column, Supplier Code, does not auto-map; Harborfield's ops lead picks the correct target field from a short list.
- 4
Dry-run the import
Askel reads the full sheet in read-only mode and shows which products would be created or updated in your platform. Harborfield's team reviews the preview and confirms.
- 5
Go live
Activate the workflow. Askel polls the sheet nightly and any row added or changed since the last run triggers an upsert in your product's catalog. Harborfield's merchandising team keeps working in the Sheet they already know.
OAuth 2.0
Customer's Google admin (or the user owning the target Drive) clicks Connect inside Askel and approves the Drive/Sheets scopes on Google's consent screen. Askel stores the refresh token; access is scoped only to spreadsheets the customer explicitly authorizes.
How Askel sits between your product and the customer's system
FAQ for Google Sheets
Does the customer need a paid Google Workspace plan?+
What scopes does Askel request during OAuth?+
What happens if the customer renames a column or adds new columns?+
Can we connect to a spreadsheet that is owned by a shared Drive rather than a personal Drive?+
catching drift before it breaks, and hitting go-live dates.
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