What the integration does
It works in both directions. Most businesses start with WhatsApp to Sheets, then add the other way once they see the rows arriving.
From WhatsApp into your sheet
- New enquiries become rows. The chat asks a few questions (name, what they need, area, budget) and writes one tidy row per lead, with the WhatsApp number and time.
- Orders and bookings are logged. What was ordered, for when, and whether the Paystack or Yoco link was paid.
- Form answers land in columns. Answers from a WhatsApp Flow, such as a quote request or a survey, go into one column each instead of a wall of chat text.
- Free text gets sorted. With Claude in the conversation, a rambling message can be tagged ("complaint", "new order", "quote") and the useful details pulled into their own columns.
From your sheet back to WhatsApp
- Status updates. Change a status cell to "Ready" or "Dispatched" and the customer gets a WhatsApp message.
- Scheduled reminders. A timer checks the sheet each morning and sends reminders for tomorrow's appointments or overdue balances.
- Lookups in the chat. A customer asks for a price, a stock level or an opening time, and the answer is read from the sheet while they wait.
How we build it
Our platform has no ready-made Google Sheets connector. What it has is two general tools: it can call any web address from inside a WhatsApp conversation, and it can receive authenticated webhooks that start or continue a conversation. We connect your sheet to those in one of two ways.
| Apps Script web app | Google Sheets API | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A short script attached to your sheet, deployed as a web app that accepts a POST request | Google's REST API, signed in as a Google service account you share the sheet with. We run these calls through n8n or a small relay that holds the Google sign-in |
| Writing a row | The script's doPost function receives the data and appends the row | The spreadsheets.values.append method adds the row after your existing table |
| Sheet to WhatsApp | An installable trigger (on edit, on form submit or on a timer) calls our webhook | Needs Apps Script, or a scheduled check that reads the sheet |
| Good for | Most sheets, especially when the sheet should also send messages | Write-only logging, or when you'd rather not have a script in the sheet |
Apps Script doesn't pass request headers to a web app, so we protect the web app URL with a shared secret in the request itself, and the script ignores anything without it. Going the other way, the script calls our webhook with its own key. That key sits in the script, so anyone who can edit the sheet's script can read it. Keep edit access to the sheet small.
Sources: Apps Script web apps · spreadsheets.values.append · Apps Script triggers
Google's limits to plan around
| Limit | Google's figure |
|---|---|
| Sheets API writes | 300 a minute per project, 60 a minute per user per project |
| Apps Script URL fetch calls | 20,000 a day (consumer account), 100,000 a day (Google Workspace) |
| Apps Script run time | 6 minutes per execution |
| Trigger run time | 90 minutes a day (consumer), 6 hours a day (Workspace) |
These are generous for a business sending hundreds of messages a day. Lookups need to be quick: our platform waits up to 10 seconds for an answer and reads up to 8 KiB of it. So the script returns one price or one status, not the whole sheet.
Sources: Sheets API usage limits · Apps Script quotas
What Meta charges
A sheet doesn't change what WhatsApp costs. Meta charges per delivered message, by category, and bills you directly. We add nothing.
- Replies while the customer is chatting (inside the 24-hour customer service window) are service messages. Each number gets its first 1,000 a month free, then US$0.0095 each.
- Messages the sheet starts, like "your order is ready" or tomorrow's reminder, go out as approved templates when the window is closed. A utility template to a South African number costs US$0.0095; a marketing template costs US$0.0379. Since 1 October 2026 a utility template is charged even when the window is open. Either way, Meta requires the customer's opt-in before you message them first.
Source: Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (South African rates from 1 October 2026). See our pricing page for worked examples in rand.