Sheetgo's append feature adds new rows to the destination without replacing existing data. Over time, this creates a historical database.
How does append work?
In Sheetgo, append replaces the default behavior for data transfers. By default, transfers replace existing information in destination files. But if you turn on append this new data is placed in new rows, and existing data is never lost.
This allows you to:
Keep old data entries.
Track changes in a dynamic data set.
Create historical charts and reports.
Monitor ever-changing values.
Create a new automation with append
Open Sheetgo.
Create a Blank workflow or a New automation.
Under Select a source, configure where you want to fetch information from.
Under Select a destination, choose one of the files that support append (Google Sheets, Excel, CSV or TSV).
Turn on Append data.
Note: To use append, your source file must contain a header.
Tip: If your source sheet has a "date" column, you can use append together with filter to transfer data from a specific time period, such as the current day or month.
Add append to an existing automation
Open the workflow and find the automation you need to change.
Click the automation in the workflow and select Edit.
Go to Destination.
Enable Append data.
Click Finish and save.
Run the workflow to update all the automations.
Avoid duplicates when appending data
If your source has the same information every time you transfer data, it is easy for append to generate unwanted duplicates.
One way to avoid this is to include a date column in the source file to indicate when a new row was added. Afterward, you can use a filter to append only the data added since the last workflow run.
The append feature in action
Let's say we want to track team members' weekly spending. Each user is given a budget, and we record their spending periodically.
Because we want to monitor how much spending increases as the month goes on, we will use the append feature to track historical information weekly.
After a week, when we update the list and add more users, our spreadsheet will look like this:
With this feature, tracking the particular timestamp makes a lot of sense. You can do this under Advanced Settings of the Source step by turning off the Identify Data option:
Once enabled, every transfer will timestamp every row so you can have a more detailed history of your data as it grows. In the end, your spreadsheet will look like this:
Now, using this information, we can manipulate the data by creating dashboards and more.
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