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Sometimes work routines make it necessary to have an application that facilitates internal management. But, there is not always the economic possibility to hire developers to help fulfill this purpose.

So from the hand of Google an option called AppSheet, which allows you to create applications for mobile devices without the need to know how to program, in a short time and that you can develop for free.

 

What is AppSheet?

 

 

It is a platform that allows you to create an application from a spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel or SmartSheet)or an SQL data source, without the need to generate lines of code. The environment is very friendly and you only need to perform a few steps to have your application available.

AppSheet is a paid resource, but it allows you to create applications with the free account for an unlimited time, although you can only share it with a maximum of 10 people. However, if it is a small business, it can be fully functional for whatever you decide to do.

 

How to Create an APP From a Spreadsheet?

As an example, we are going to create an application that allows us to record travel expenses for our vendors. For this we are going to work with Google Sheets in Drive and connect with the AppSheet application later.

In this example we register through the application the date of the expense, the concept, the total amount paid and the customer being served. These fields must be located in the header of the spreadsheet table for AppSheet to recognize them as such.

So the first thing is to enter Google Sheets and create the fields.

 

 

In this case, we have created the table and linked column A of the Data sheet to the Customer field through data validation in Google Sheet. The validation is located in column D2 of the Expenses sheet.

This will serve to force the application to select the clients that are previously designated on this sheet.

 

 

Once you have your table ready, you must go to the Tools option, select AppSheet and finally Create application.

 

 

Once there, it will ask you to select the Google account you want to work with, which must be the same one you have open in Drive. Then it will ask you to give AppSheet permission to access Drive and modify the tables.

 

 

Click on the Allow option to start configuring. Then, the platform will take you to the AppSheet environment where we will begin to shape the application.

 

 

As you can see in the upper left region, the application takes the name that we have assigned to the spreadsheet. In the right region you can see how the application looks with the data and adjustments that we will make later.

For now, an Expenses form has been loaded with the fields that we previously included. As you can see, that sheet appears selected by default and the platform created an option that will show statistics.

We are going to add some per diem data so you can see how it works.

 

 

We have added the date of the expense, the amount, the concept and the customer data. When you include this last field, those established in the Data sheet appear by default.

 

 

Once you have selected the Client, press the Save button. With this you will be able to observe the data saved both within the application and in the spreadsheet,

 

 

Here you see the data in the spreadsheet.

 

 

Now we will include other data so that you can better observe the functionalities of our app.

 

How to Create a New Option in the APP?

Now we will create a new application option. For this we will go to the UX option that is in the left bar. Then, we will select the option New view or New view.

 

 

We will give this view the name of Report, for which we will select the Type of Table View, and we will choose Center so that this option appears in the middle of those already defined.

 

 

Now we group the data by Customer and add the amounts to get an idea of ​​what we have spent with each customer.

 

 

Then, we will proceed to save the changes in the blue button in the upper right region.

 

How to Change the Appearance of the APP?

Next, we will apply a little color and style to the application, for this we will select the Brand option right next to Views.

First we will apply a dark theme, we will choose the light blue color to give a little contrast. Then, we will select the calculator icon that will be the identifier of this App.

 

 

Later, we will activate the option to show the name of the view in the header, show the logo in the header and we will choose the Colored option so that the light blue tone dominates more.

 

 

Finally, save the changes again.

 

How to Access the APP from the Mobile?

The first thing you must establish is the way in which the users of this application will be authenticated. For this you must choose the Security option and select from all the possible options.

We will define that the user must enter with a Google account.

 

 

After this we will select the Users option and immediately Links. These are the links that you must distribute so that users can access it either via the web or by downloading the application on their mobiles.

 

 

This is the appearance of the application when it is accessed from the web on the mobile device.

 

 

Conclusion

AppSheet is a platform that allows you to create applications from spreadsheets such as Excel, Google Sheets and SmartSheets as well as from a SQL source. You do not need to know how to program because it only requires establishing the connection and making some adjustments.

This platform is ideal for small businesses that need to reduce costs and time in application development. It has a free version with which you can do unlimited projects but you can only share them with a maximum of 10 people.

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