Google Sheets Setup & Data Management
Understand how WalletMap uses Google Sheets and how to manage your data directly.
Table of Contents
1. How Auto-Creation Works
When you sign in for the first time, WalletMap automatically creates a new Google Sheets spreadsheet in your Google Drive. This happens seamlessly in the background using the Google Sheets API. The spreadsheet is named "WalletMap" and is located in your Drive's root folder.
2. Understanding Sheet Structure
Your spreadsheet contains separate sheets (tabs) for bank accounts, stock holdings, crypto holdings, and transaction history. Each sheet has a header row defining the columns, followed by one row per record. The column structure matches the fields you see in the app — bank name, balance, stock symbol, shares, etc.
3. Viewing Your Raw Data
Open Google Sheets from your Google Drive to see exactly what data the app is reading. This transparency is a core feature — there are no hidden databases or server-side copies. What you see in the spreadsheet is the single source of truth for your asset records.
4. Manual Editing Tips
You can edit your data directly in Google Sheets if needed. Be careful to maintain the column structure and data formats. Avoid inserting or deleting columns, as this may break the app's ability to read your data. Adding or editing rows within the existing structure is generally safe.
5. Backup Strategy
While Google Drive provides its own version history and redundancy, you can create additional backups by using File > Make a Copy in Google Sheets. You can also use the Excel Export feature in WalletMap to download a local copy. We recommend periodic backups, especially before making manual edits to the spreadsheet.
Common mistakes and pro tips
Deleting or renaming sheet tabs
Tab names and column order in Google Sheets are the "interface contract" WalletMap uses to find your data. Deleting a tab or renaming it (e.g., "股票" to "Stocks") makes the app fail to read its data and the dashboard breaks. If you want to experiment, work on a copy of the sheet — don't touch the original.
Inserting columns in the middle
If you want to add a custom "notes" column, add it on the right edge — never insert in the middle of existing columns. Our parser reads by column position, so a middle insertion shifts every following column. Balance gets read as currency, currency as type, and the whole sheet goes sideways.
Editing manually but forgetting cache invalidation
If you edit a balance directly in Google Sheets, the next refresh in your browser may still show the cached old value (within 5 minutes). To see the change immediately, sign out and sign back in, or wait 5 minutes for the cache to expire. This is because WalletMap caches quote data on our backend — not a Sheets issue.
Skipping Google two-factor authentication
WalletMap's zero-storage architecture protects our side, but your Google account is where the data actually lives. If your Google account gets compromised via a weak password or phishing, the attacker sees all your Sheets content — that's outside our control. Enabling 2FA on your Google account is strongly recommended for anyone storing data in Google Drive.
Related reading
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