Sheetgo's append feature adds new rows to a destination sheet without replacing existing data. Instead, new information is added at the bottom. Over time, this will create a data log which is useful to create 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, use append and filter together to transfer specific data related to a period of time, 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. Afterwards, you can use a filter to append only data that was added since the last workflow run.
The append feature in action
Let's say we want to track weekly spending by team members. Each user is given a budget and we record their spending periodically.
Because we want to keep track of how much spending increases as the month goes on, we will use the append feature to track historical information on a weekly basis.
After a week, when we update the listing (and add more users), our spreadsheet looks like this:
With this feature, it makes a lot of sense to track the particular timestamp. You can do this by directly adding the TODAY or even NOW formula to your original sheet, where the live data is, or you can find, under Advanced Settings of the Source step, the Identify Data option:
Once this is enabled, when the transfer happens, it creates a timestamp with the date and time so you can have a more detailed history of your data as it progresses! 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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