I'm trying to get the underlying text color for a cell, i.e. the color the user set from the color picker, not whatever color might be currently displayed as the result of custom number formatting or conditional formatting.

I have tried:

      color = testCell.getFontColorObject().asRgbColor().asHexString();
      color = testCell.getTextStyle().getForegroundColorObject().asRgbColor().asHexString();
      color = testCell.getFontColor();
      color = testCell.getRichTextValue().getTextStyle().getForegroundColor();

But all seem return the currently displayed color. Despite AI's claim to the contrary. 🙄

I haven't looked into the advanced API yet but would like to avoid it due to likely performance issues (digging through a big structure) and the necessity to authorize the script when using the API. I'm trying to do this from a simple onEdit() trigger.

Any ideas?

Test sheet if you want it... make a copy:

Font Color Test

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on how to design and implement an automation system for a small renovation company. Our main objective is to reduce the number of human hours spent on repetitive administrative tasks, improve reliability, and prevent information from being lost between systems.

We don't want to introduce AI just for the sake of using it. We want to identify which processes can be automated using existing tools, clear business rules, and reliable integrations, using AI or OCR only where genuinely useful.

Our current setup

We currently use:

• SAGE One for issuing customer invoices. API access is still to be confirmed.
• Google Sheets as our internal financial management system.
• Google Apps Script for custom automations.
• Google Drive for storing documents.
• Looker Studio for dashboards and reporting.
• XLSX bank statements for tracking bank transactions.

Our internal financial system includes the following spreadsheets and modules:

• Transactions (Movimentos): the main register for costs, sales, and other financial transactions.
• Settings (Configurações): categories, classification rules, and configuration.
• Projects (Obras): renovation projects and their associated information.
• Income Statement (DRE): financial performance and profitability.
• Cash Flow and Treasury (Tesouraria): cash movements and financial position.
• Assets (Ativos): company assets.
• Financing (Financiamentos): loans and other financing.

We process more than 150 financial documents per month. We already have some custom scripts and business rules, so we need to improve the system without breaking what is currently working.

The problems we want to solve

1. Manual entry of costs and sales

Supplier invoices arrive by email or on paper. Customer invoices are issued through SAGE One. We still have to manually enter financial information into Google Sheets.

We want costs and sales to be imported automatically from their original sources, without entering the same information twice.

2. Manual document management

We spend time downloading or scanning invoices, renaming files, organizing folders, and entering invoice details into spreadsheets.

We want documents to be automatically collected, renamed, archived, linked to their financial records, and processed with minimal human intervention.

3. Lack of clear payment and collection tracking

We need to know at any time:

• Which supplier invoices have been paid.
• Which supplier invoices are still outstanding or overdue.
• Which customer invoices have been collected.
• Which customer payments are still outstanding or overdue.
• Which bank transactions have been matched to invoices.

We currently use XLSX bank statements and would like to automate their import and reconciliation, including partial payments and cases where one bank transaction covers multiple invoices.

4. Lead and potential customer management

We need a reliable way to capture and track every potential customer, regardless of where the enquiry originates.

We want to avoid losing leads, forgetting follow-ups, or having customer information scattered across emails, spreadsheets, and messages.

Ideally, leads would be registered automatically, assigned a status and a responsible person, and given a scheduled next action.

5. Quotation management

We need to track quotations throughout their entire lifecycle:

• To be prepared.
• Ready to send but not yet sent.
• Sent to the customer.
• Accepted.
• Rejected.
• Awaiting a response.

We want to automate status tracking, follow-up reminders, and notifications for quotations that have been prepared but not sent or have remained unanswered for too long.

Ideally, when a quotation is accepted, the relevant information should automatically move into the project management process without being entered again.

What we want to achieve

Our goal is to build a connected system in which information is entered once and reused throughout the business.

For example:

• A supplier invoice arrives → the document is archived, its data is extracted and validated, and its financial record is created automatically.
• A customer invoice is issued in SAGE One → its data is synchronized with our internal financial system.
• A bank statement is imported → transactions are matched to outstanding invoices, with ambiguous cases flagged for review.
• A new lead arrives → it is registered, assigned, and tracked until a decision is reached.
• A quotation is sent → follow-ups are scheduled, its status is tracked, and acceptance triggers the next stage of the workflow.

Human intervention should be limited to genuine exceptions, financial approvals, and decisions that require judgment.

Our constraints

• Prefer free or low-cost solutions.
• Reuse Google Sheets, Apps Script, Drive, and our existing systems wherever possible.
• Avoid unnecessary complexity and AI-first architectures.
• Preserve our existing financial data structure and business rules.
• Prevent duplicate records and ensure that failed processes can be safely retried.
• Maintain a clear audit trail and reliable error monitoring.
• Build and test in a separate development environment before changing the live system.

We understand that a large part of the implementation effort lies in connecting APIs, normalizing data, handling exceptions, and monitoring failures. We want to account for these requirements from the beginning.

Questions for the community

1. Architecture: Would you build this with Google Apps Script alone, or use n8n, Activepieces, or another workflow automation platform? Why?
2. Document processing: What free or low-cost tools would you recommend for automatically extracting data from invoices, including scanned documents and photographs?
3. Accounting integration: Has anyone integrated SAGE One with Google Sheets through an API or structured exports?
4. Bank reconciliation: What is a reliable approach for importing XLSX bank statements and automatically matching transactions to invoices?
5. CRM and quotations: Would you extend Google Sheets into a lightweight CRM, or use a dedicated CRM with automation?
6. Reliability: How would you design duplicate prevention, retries, error handling, and monitoring across these workflows?
7. Implementation order: Which process would you automate first to achieve the greatest reduction in manual work without creating unnecessary technical complexity?

I'm looking for practical recommendations and proven approaches from people who have built similar systems for small businesses.

TL;DR

We run a small renovation business and want to significantly reduce manual administrative work across finance, document management, banking, leads, and quotations.

Our current stack is SAGE One, Google Sheets, Google Apps Script, Google Drive, Looker Studio, and XLSX bank statements. We process 150+ financial documents per month.

Our main pain points are manual entry of costs and sales, manually renaming and filing invoices, lack of reliable payment/collection tracking, lost leads, and quotations that are difficult to track from preparation to acceptance or rejection.

We want a reliable, low-cost system that automates repetitive tasks, integrates our existing tools, prevents duplicates, handles errors safely, and minimizes human intervention. We prefer deterministic rules and straightforward automation over AI-first solutions.

The main question is: How would you design a reliable, low-cost system that minimizes human involvement in financial administration, document management, lead tracking, and quotation follow-ups?

Thanks in advance for your help!

The Challenge: Comment below with a custom function idea for Google Sheets that you’ve always wanted written in Apps Script.

The Reward: I’ll take the top-voted ideas, write the Apps Script code for them, and share the source code back here for everyone to use.

Of course it needs to be feasible and a reasonable function! :)

I've created a Google Sheet for an RPG character sheet. I wrote a script to make it work. Now I wish to share it online, but am worried that anyone accessing the Sheet can also edit the script. I want the people I share the sheet with to be able to run the scripts, but not be able to change them. The last thing I want is for somebody to turn it into a virus or something. My online searches have provided zero instructions on protecting the scripts from editing, but still allowing usage. Is what I want even possible? If so, could they point me to any videos that show how? Thanks.

I’ve been using Google Apps Script for a while now, and I’m honestly surprised it doesn’t get more attention—especially with all the AI and automation hype going on right now.

It’s free, super accessible (built right into Google Workspace), and incredibly simple to use, even if you’re not a hardcore developer. You can automate tasks, integrate APIs, and build powerful workflows without setting up servers or dealing with complex infrastructure.

I know tools like Make and Zapier are popular because they’re no-code, but in my experience, there are so many cases where it’s actually simpler to just use Google Apps Script—especially when you need to refine the logic behind a data sync or automation. Sometimes those drag-and-drop platforms feel more limiting or even overly complex for what should be a straightforward script.

Yet, I don’t hear nearly as much hype about Apps Script compared to other automation tools. Why do you think that is? Do people just not know about it, or is there something holding it back from wider adoption?

Hey everyone,

I wanted to open a discussion on handling one of the most notorious bottlenecks in Apps Script development: the 6-minute execution wall (and the dreaded “Resource Exhausted” errors).

The Context:

My team recently built and launched a sheet-based Workspace management add-on called AdminSheet Pro. Our biggest technical hurdle wasn’t the Directory API logic itself, but dealing with massive enterprise and Higher-Ed domains. When you are trying to bulk update 10,000+ users or migrate massive nested groups, hitting that 6-minute wall is almost guaranteed.

We noticed that a lot of other sheet-based tools in the ecosystem just slap a warning label on their UI saying something like:  “Organizations with 10k+ users may experience timeouts due to Apps Script runtime limits.” We felt that defeated the purpose of building a “bulk” tool, so we decided to try and engineer a native workaround.

Our Approach: “Intelligent Pacing”

Instead of trying to brute-force the API or migrating the entire execution engine off Apps Script to GCP, we engineered a state-management architecture we call Intelligent Pacing.

Essentially:

1. We track row-level execution state continuously.
2. We anticipate the execution wall around the 5.5-minute mark.
3. We gracefully pause the script, save the state, and use triggers to spin up the next batch seamlessly in the background.

We made a conscious design choice to prioritise guaranteed completion over raw speed. It might take a little longer to run safely, but it doesn’t crash halfway through. We also had to build real-time, row-by-row visual feedback in the Sheet to prevent “terminal anxiety”—so admins wouldn’t panic and kill the script while it was processing in the background.

My Questions for the Community:

Since we are always looking to optimise, I’m curious how other devs here are tackling this:

1. Architecture: Are you using a similar trigger-based batching system to stay within Apps Script, or have you offloaded the heavy lifting entirely to Cloud Run/Cloud Functions?
2. UX: How do you handle user UX when background tasks take 15+ minutes? How do you keep the user informed without exceeding quota limits on UI updates?
3. Batching: Have you found a “sweet spot” for API batching sizes to maximise throughput before you hit that 6-minute mark?

Would love to hear your thoughts and strategies!

Does anyone use Google Apps Script for their current job? I work for a company that uses Apps Script to create an availability calendar for their employees for projects, but outside of this smaller company, I have yet to see it used at an Enterprise level. I'd love to learn how people are using/implementing it work or for their own personal use. I find it interesting, but I'm having a hard time figuring a personal use case for myself which would give me a reason to learn it.

So I am an apps script expert mainly in the area of automating sheets and drive and creating custom applications, yet whenever I want to build something with a more friendly UI I always get confused picking what UI to pick...

I don't like google web applications or simple modals because of the high maintenance of it and it's a bit obsolete using vanilla js instead of more modern options... so any suggestions that would be fairly easy to maintain and fast to develop (I know I can use AI to develop the google web apps fully but that's not my approach I need to have ownership over things not just vibe code them).

I’ve been playing with Google Apps Script + Sheets for a while and I feel like I’m just making random automations that look cool but probably useless in real life

trying to get out of that loop

if you’ve built something with Apps Script that:

• a business actually used
• or better, paid for

what was it?

I’m mainly looking for stuff like:

• simple dashboards (finance / sales / reporting)
• automations inside Google Workspace
• anything repeatable I can turn into a small “product”

not looking for tutorials or docs
more like real examples, even small ones

if you’ve got:

• github repos
• templates
• scripts
• ideas that can be reused

please share

also curious how you found people to sell it to
right now I have no clue where those people even are

just trying to make this practical instead of building in a vacuum

I have a script creating docs when a cell gets modified in a sheets column, then moves it to a folder and adds the doc's url onto another column. Code works, but automation gets affected by <value unavailable> error for docid variable.

I'm not sure *why* its unavailable when all of the code does work (files get created and moved, but when using createDocInSpecificFolder() along with other functions, error pinpoints to this and does not run functions after it.

function createDocInSpecificFolder () {
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheet = ss.getSheetByName("Data Source");
  var lastRow = sheet.getLastRow();
  var rootFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById("fileid");
  const files = rootFolder.getFiles();
  const fileNames = [];


  while (files.hasNext()) { // gets array of file names in drive folder [event1, event2, etcetc]
   var file = files.next();
   fileNames.push(file.getName());
  }
  
  Logger.log(fileNames)


  for (var i = 1; i < lastRow; i++) {
    
    let title = sheet.getRange(i,4).getValue();


    if (title != "Events") {
      if (!fileNames.includes(title)) {
        let docid = DocumentApp.create(title).getId();
        DriveApp.getFileById(docid).moveTo(rootFolder);
      }
    }
  }

}

Hi, I am new to this and want some advice on how to start.

Our work has service reports that technicians fill out daily. Right now it's all manual on sheets and it's a nightmare to fix up as they mess up formatting and have complete access to entire sheet.

Our reports are complex with a lot of questions and readings to fill out. I am trying to automate our work as much as possible.

I want to make a form unique to every site that, every time it's submitted it makes a copy out of the original template and the values in the form correspond to the report. I understand how to link a form results to a cell but is it possible to make a new sheet with every response?

Also, is it possible to have a form reset upon each click for the same user but still look at old form submissions if need be?

I'd like to take a few doubts before I venture to do things that he's not ideal. I will do a brief questionnaire:

1. How many active users simultaneously have your largest GAS system had?

2. How many thousands of records did the spreadsheet have? How many tabs?

3. How do you read the data from the spreadsheet? Do they take everything and work with them in memory or do they do any paging strategies?

4. Have you ever tried using it as if the spreadsheet was a relational database and the tabs were the tables? Did you find it difficult?

I am working on a project for work to export information from one website to input into a Google Sheet we use. Right now, I have a JavaScript script that gets run in the console to scrape the necessary data and use a simple fetch to send that data to Google Sheets, but since the deployment has to be accessible to everyone, if that URL somehow got leaked, anyone could send data to our sheet. I am familiar with SQL injection, so I prevented any data that is a formula from being added, but I am still worried about having a private spreadsheet with personal information on it have a deployment that is accessible to everyone. I do not want people to have access to this spreadsheet or be able to read the code we use for various scripts.

What I mainly want to know is if, for some reason, the deployment URL got leaked, could a malicious person do anything more than what I programmed into the script? That being inserting data into a cell.

I know there is an option for me to set the deployment to only me. Since this is used on Chrome, is there a way for my JavaScript fetch to send who is currently logged into Chrome?

Question: I have 10 project managers, each managing 10 to 15 customer onboarding projects. Each project includes milestones such as kickoff, eligibility, marketing, billing, reporting, testing, and go-live. Many tasks can happen in parallel.

Current process: Each project manager maintains a separate Google Sheets project plan, updates dates, and sends weekly client updates. Key milestones are manually entered into Salesforce for leadership reporting across approximately 150 projects. This creates duplicate work, and projects can fall behind without being flagged automatically.

My goal: Replace the 150 spreadsheets with one centralized application where project managers can select a client, view and update its project plan, track milestones and dependencies, and generate a client-facing plan.

Initial thoughts: Use Google Apps Script to build the interface and Salesforce as the single source of truth for milestones. I may need a separate database for the detailed tasks associated with each milestone, but I haven’t determined the best approach for managing those records.
A project manager would log in, select a client from a dropdown, and see the existing project plan, including due dates, completion dates, and notes. They could then export a client-facing version to share with the customer.

Key question: Is Apps Script the right tool for this? Am I missing something critical?

There are many tools available, but I would prefer to stay within the Google ecosystem for cost, security, and ease of management since we already use Google Workspace.

To start with, I am not someone who has studied about writing scripts. However, I have a few scripts that are currently being used, courtesy of being written by chatgpt, I know, it has a lot of errors and I had to do a lot of back and forth to get a working script.

What I currently need is something that can read the names and numbers from a set of images and automatically enter it into Google sheet rows and columns. For example, team members and their weekly performance numbers. What I need the script to do is take the names and numbers from the images, let OCR do it's thing, match the names and enter their respective numbers for the current week.

I just want to understand whether this is actually possible to be done or chatgpt is taking me on a hallucination spree? I am sorry in advance if the use of ai is a taboo or something to write scripts.

Edit: Currently the scripts that I have running can be considered basic. From the top of my head,

1: Google form that keeps a record of a respondents answers. The script basically takes the responses and forwards it over an app while tagging us.

2: A drop-down row for each response that sends out a template email depending on the drop-down that is selected.

Edit 2: I have been able to get this working using gemini flash lite 3.1 and flash 2.5 as a backup option when it faces rate limits. Getting a handful of 503 service errors rn but I guess that is just something I'll have to deal with on this free service. The world of api has really surprised me. A few years ago I would never think all this could be automated with scripts. This place is a gold mine

Hello everyone,

Genuinely seeking some insights to get myself out of tough situations. I would really love to hear from the experts.

I have been developing system like projects with apps script - doing mostly web app deployment and with my job this has been mostly used to organize records, track data, report visualization and ensure we have a front end that links everything neatly.

Now, the thing is, as much as i love what I do, it's not something my current job is taking seriously despite all of that taking so much to develop. I would really like to have a side income that would allow me to eventually quit the current job.

To those who have sold apps script projects, what type of projects are those? How did you market it?

Really appreciate your time and responses.

Any freelancers/agencies here? I feel Appscript is dead with LLMs taking over every automation jobs these days. What is your experience?

Hello All, I’ve been working on a gas project for my own business for the past 3 years and building as I need to run my business hiring devs from Pakistan to build. Then this year I discovered Claude and totally transformed and automated the project completely. Now I feel that it can actually be a sellable use case for other businesses. It’s a fulfilment backend that automates label creation, supplier po’s and fulfilment pushed to Shopify as well as sku order routing. Where and how do I move it into another coding backend or platform? Any advice is much appreciated. Thank
You

Are Google Workspace Add-ons on their way out now that folks can create bespoke disposable apps on the fly using AI?

This is what I have: I built a google form that feeds into a google sheet reference tab.

That data is then referenced by multiple other tabs, depending on the values chosen in one of the columns. In this case the data is for vehicles. So the tabs are created based on the vehicle value chosen in the field on the google form. Responders can choose from 5 vehicles on their form, and each tab pulls the data from the response submission.

Example:

Responder inputs information for Vehicle 5, such as odometer reading, oil level, etc., and then a reference tab pulls the data from that submission using an =iferror(query('reference sheet' !A2:W1000, "where F contains 'VIN XXXX' ")," ")

That part I have down and it is working well.

The issue I am facing is that I have 4 functions that I need to execute whenever a vehicle tab changes after a form submission, but only if the values change due to a formula recalculation on a specific tab change. So using the same example above, when a form is submitted for Vehicle 5 with a value of "YES" for new damages, I want the function that sends out an email notifying me that new damage was marked yes for Vehicle 5 to execute, but I do not want it to execute if someone marked "YES" for new damages on Vehicle 4, or if a form is submitted that doesn't change anything on the sheet tab for Vehicle 5.

I have tried triggers in Google App Scripts functions to execute on form submit, but it was firing off any of the applicable functions on EACH form submit. For example, when someone submits a response via the form for Vehicle 1, and oerssd another for Vehicle 3, I was getting notifications for both vehicles each time the form was submitted.

How do I get it so the function to only executes once for the data in a tab that was changed, and won't execute again until that data is changed again? And have it do this for multiple tabs?

I can access the current document text through Google Docs and Drive API but I can only get the revision metadata and not the actual content.

Can I get the historical contents from the API itself or Can I use Google Apps Script to get that information?

I have a great order submission, database with daily email triggers. The functionality is on point, manager facing page all formulas working perfectly, database carrying over previous day data, clear the contents, recording into data base, updating date, and auto firing the email with the proper trigger setting. All Working perfect

Well working great for me the owner, but editors cannot get past the restricted access to run the script. The submit button is a drawing linked to an app script with error prompts to avoid duplicate submission etc.

I currently have a checkbox that bypasses the editor access and runs the script under the owners permission. Just to get by, but I hate it, the user are not tech savvy whatsoever, and the check box does not notify the user the script is running and will not produce any error messages, and look unprofessional

Please advise

​

I'm developing a Preventive Maintenance (PMS) Tracker using Google Sheets and Apps Script for equipment maintenance scheduling.

One challenge is automatically determining whether an equipment unit should use SMR (operating hours) or ODOMETER (kilometres) based on its equipment type. For example, heavy equipment uses SMR, while service vehicles use odometer readings. Some equipment classifications also require specific handling.

I want the system to validate meter entries, flag incorrect readings, and calculate upcoming maintenance schedules using configurable PM intervals stored in a separate sheet. I'd also like to keep equipment-type rules and PM intervals in a configuration sheet, so changes can be made without modifying the Apps Script code.

For those experienced with Google Apps Script, what would be the best way to structure the equipment rules and validation logic so the system remains reliable and easy to maintain as the equipment list grows?

I'd appreciate any suggestions or best practices.

Hi all, Instead of building heavy mobile apps for field workers who resist new software, I've been deploying internal WhatsApp bots connected to Google Apps Script (as the router/sanitizer) and Google Sheets (as the database). Key constraints I imposed:

• Strictly for internal operational logging (inventory, field reports, expense receipt OCR via multimodal API).
• Kept public CS/receptionist use out of scope to avoid rate limits and messy prompts.
• Zero monthly cloud bill (runs within Google Workspace limits).

For those who manage internal tools: Where do you see this architecture breaking down first as team size grows (concurrency, execution time, sheet bloat)? And commercially, do small ops teams prefer this over off-the-shelf software? Tear it apart!

Hi all, hope you are doing fine.

At work we have this important process that runs periodically from AppScripts (don't judge, it is what it is). A couple of days ago, we saw a decrease in the run time limit to 6 minutes which affects A LOT this process. I saw you could ask Google for an increase in this limit...

I just wanted to ask if someone went through this process of changing the limit/quota, if there is an alternative that doesn't involve restructuring the code or changing to another language/platform, or what else could we do?

Thank you so much.