Move between Google Sheets and Excel

Move a spreadsheet that uses SheetsFinance between Google Sheets and Excel without rebuilding it.

• Google Sheets to Excel: convert Google's Excel download with the converter on the Tools tab of your account page, so your SF formulas keep working in Excel.

• Excel to Google Sheets: upload the workbook to Google Drive, save it as a Google Sheet and refresh. No converter is needed.

Google Sheets to Excel

Google's own Excel download keeps your formatting but breaks SheetsFinance formulas, so convert it first. Your SF formulas, their results, formatting and charts come across, and the formulas keep refreshing live data once the SheetsFinance Excel add-in is connected.

Before you start, you need:

• A SheetsFinance account. The converter is only available when you're signed in.

• The SheetsFinance add-in installed in Excel, connected with your Connection ID. See Microsoft Excel.

Download the sheet from Google Sheets

The converter reads each formula's last results in your download to work out how many cells it fills in Excel, so every result needs to be loaded first.

1. Open the spreadsheet and go to Extensions > SheetsFinance > Refresh > Refresh All.

2. Wait until no cell is still loading or showing an error.

3. Go to File > Download > Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).

Convert the file

The file is converted in memory and sent straight back to you. We don't store it.

1. Sign in and open the Tools tab on your account page.

2. Under Move a Google Sheet to Excel, drop the .xlsx file on the upload box, or click the box to choose the file.

3. Click Convert to Excel.

4. Click Download .xlsx.

The converted workbook keeps your file name with "(Excel)" added. Alongside the download, the converter lists anything that needs your attention in Excel, described in Review what the converter reports below.

Open the workbook in Excel

The workbook shows your Google Sheets results as soon as it opens, before the add-in has refreshed anything.

1. Open the downloaded file in Excel. It asks to load the SheetsFinance add-in. If it doesn't, install SheetsFinance from Home > Add-ins.

2. Sign in to the add-in with the Excel Connection ID from the Dashboard tab of your account page.

3. Refresh the workbook. Its formulas recalculate with live data.

If a cell shows #NAME?, the add-in hasn't loaded in that workbook yet. See Fix #NAME? errors in Excel and Google Sheets.

What the converter changes

Excel reads each SF formula in Google's download as a single value, and the rest of every table becomes plain numbers. The converter fixes those parts of the download and leaves the rest as it is.

• SF formulas become spilling formulas over the cells their results filled in Google Sheets. The last results stay in place until the add-in refreshes them.

• The add-in is linked, so Excel offers to load SheetsFinance when the workbook opens.

• Charts are pinned to the cells they covered in Google Sheets, so they don't drift.

• Newer functions such as XLOOKUP, FILTER and UNIQUE get the markers Excel needs to recognise them.

What doesn't come across

A few things don't work in Excel or aren't part of Google's download.

• Google-only functions such as GOOGLEFINANCE, QUERY and IMPORTRANGE keep their last values but don't recalculate until you replace them.

• SPARKLINE cells are cleared, because Excel has no SPARKLINE function.

• Apps Script and pivot tables aren't included in Google's Excel download.

Review what the converter reports

After converting, the Tools tab shows how many SF formulas were converted and lists what to check before you rely on the workbook.

• Formulas that only work in Google Sheets: each Google-only function, the cells that use it and what to use in Excel instead. For example, replace GOOGLEFINANCE with an SF formula such as =SF("AAPL"), and rebuild QUERY with FILTER and SORT.

• Worth checking in Excel: spill areas the converter trimmed or that contain other formulas, which show #SPILL! in Excel, and labels it left out of a spill area.

Spill areas are worked out from the results in your download. If a label sits right next to a result, check that cell after the add-in refreshes the workbook.

Converter limits

• Files up to 5 MB.

• Up to 100,000 cells across the workbook.

• Up to 200 charts and images.

• Up to 30 conversions an hour per account.

If a conversion doesn't work

Excel to Google Sheets

Google Sheets opens Excel workbooks directly, so your SF formulas come across without the converter. You need the SheetsFinance add-on installed in Google Sheets and connected to your account. See Google Sheets.

1. In Google Drive, click New > File upload and choose the Excel workbook.

2. Open the uploaded file in Google Sheets.

3. Go to File > Save as Google Sheets. Google Sheets creates a copy you can edit, and the add-on works in that copy.

4. In the copy, go to Extensions > SheetsFinance > Refresh > Refresh All on each sheet.

If a cell still shows #NAME? after refreshing, Google Sheets hasn't loaded the add-on in the new file yet. See Fix #NAME? errors in Excel and Google Sheets.

A workbook made with the converter shows #NAME? in every SF formula when you open it in Google Sheets. To go back to Google Sheets, use your original Google Sheet instead.