Every business I’ve seen eventually runs on one massive Google Sheet. It starts simple — leads, inventory, clients — and then it becomes mission-critical. The problem? Once that sheet needs to talk to another system (like HubSpot, Airtable, Notion, or a custom backend), most teams hit the same wall: 1️⃣ **Zapier / Make**: quick, but expensive and unreliable at scale. 2️⃣ **Manual exports**: cheap, but kill hours every week. 3️⃣ **Custom scripts**: need dev time, and break when the sheet structure changes. 📊 **A bit of data:** * A Zapier report found the average employee spends **3.6 hours/week** just moving data between tools. * 64% of those automations break at least once per quarter. * And 40% of users cancel automation platforms because of cost creep. That’s *a lot* of time and money for copy-paste. # What worked for us We stopped treating Sheets as a “dead end” and started treating it like an **API gateway**. Here’s the concept anyone can replicate: 1. Use **Google Apps Script** to watch for edits in your Sheet. 2. On every change, send that row (in JSON) to your backend’s `/ingest` endpoint. 3. Handle mapping, dedupe, and retries server-side. It’s surprisingly fast, and because it runs inside your own Google account, it’s secure and free. # Why this matters If you automate where the data lives (Sheets), you remove: * The subscription middlemen * The latency * The fragility of third-party workflows Your Sheet becomes a live interface for your CRM or product database. I’ve open-sourced the small bridge we use internally to make this work (FastAPI backend + Apps Script). If you want to study the architecture or fork it for your own use, the full explanation and code are here: ➡️ **Originally posted here:** [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13TV3FEjz\_8fTBqs3UcoIf2rnPBOPBfb5k0BPjtNIlBY/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13TV3FEjz_8fTBqs3UcoIf2rnPBOPBfb5k0BPjtNIlBY/edit?usp=sharing) # Takeaway You don’t need Zapier or Make to keep your spreadsheets in sync. You just need a webhook, a few lines of Apps Script, and one habit: automate where your team already works. 🧠 Curious — how are you currently handling data updates between Sheets and your CRM? Are you exporting CSVs or using a third-party tool? Let’s compare notes — I’m happy to share the Apps Script logic if anyone’s building something similar.