Getting Started with Google Sheets

Creating a New Calendar

You can quickly add a new calendar based on a Google Sheet. Here's how.

1. Copy the URL of your Google Sheet

Find the sheet you're interested in and copy the whole URL from your browser's window. 

2. Click "Add New Calendar" in DayBack

Navigate to DayBack's admin settings ( https://app.dayback.com/#/settings) and click on "Google Sheets" in the left-hand sidebar, turning its visibility to "on" if it's not already.

Now click "Add New Calendar" and give your calendar a name. Paste the URL into the field labeled "Google Sheet URL".

Don't see "Google Sheets' in the settings sidebar? Be sure you're logged into DayBack as an administrator.

3. Enter Your Date & Time Format

There are a number of optional fields below the sheet URL that you can use to specify just part of a sheet. Enter those if needed and then find the DayBack setting named "Sheet Date Format". Look at the date format used in your sheet and enter the matching format here. For example, if your sheet shows dates like 2020-04-26, you'd enter YYYY-MM-DD. A list of all the available formats can be found here.

Remember, this isn't the format you wish to see in the calendar: this is how the dates are showing up on your Google Sheet. You're telling DayBack how to interpret your dates.

Once you have the date format done, move to the next field, the "Sheet Time Format." 

4. Enter your sheet's column names into DayBack

Click on "Field Mapping" at the top of the screen and for each calendar field in DayBack, enter the heading of the column for that field. Column names are letters like A or BD.

Do the same on the next tab, creating any custom fields you'd like to see in the calendar. For example, this is where you'll include currency fields to track money.

That's it!

Click "Back to Calendar" in the upper-left of DayBack settings and you should see the rows from your Google Sheet as events on your calendar.

Who Can See Your Sheet?

DayBack respects the sharing options you've assigned to your sheet in Google. So if you want other users in your DayBack group to see your calendar, be sure to edit the sharing options for your sheet and share it with everyone in your G-Suite group.

Note that you don't need to make the sheet "public" in order to share a read-only version of it with DayBack. The sharing feature built into DayBack essentially exports the information visible on the calendar so share recipients don't need access to the original source--your Google Sheet. More here: Publish & Share Your Calendar.

Going Further: Adding Images

If cells in your Google Sheet include the URLs to images, DayBack can render those as thumbnail and featured images for each event. Learn more: Featured Images & Thumbnails.