Google Sheets gives you total flexibility—which is both a gift and a curse. If you’ve ever opened a Sheet and found a broken formula, duplicate data, or a random column someone added last week, you’re not alone.

By applying basic database principles to your spreadsheets, you can clean up your process, reduce errors, and close the books faster.

A database is designed to handle structured data at scale. Unlike a spreadsheet, it enforces consistency—every column has a defined purpose, and in most cases, every row has a unique ID, and data types stay clean. You can’t just type “???” in a column meant for dates or “check later” in a column meant for a number.

Databases use strict rules: entries are validated before being saved, formats are enforced, and relationships between tables are clearly defined. You can also control who sees what, who can edit specific rows, and even apply logic to check new data before it’s imported.

This structure is what makes databases so reliable—and by applying some of the same principles in Google Sheets, you can get many of the same benefits.

Use these practical tactics to enforce data integrity, validation, and clean relationships across your Google Sheets.

Appending rows at the bottom of a sheet feels easy, but it’s unreliable. Source systems don’t guarantee row order, so if a correction gets inserted in the middle of the dataset, you’ll miss it. That breaks reconciliations and introduces silent errors.

Instead, reload the full dataset every time. Build your formulas to run on the current state of the data, not on a partial snapshot.

Example: Payroll Clearing
Your payroll system (e.g., Rippling) pushes entries into the GL, which you reconcile against bank deposits. If Rippling backdates a correction, it won’t show up at the bottom where you’re appending—it’ll land in the middle. Only a full refresh ensures you catch it.

Dragging formulas down a column works—until someone forgets to extend them, pastes over a cell, or inserts a new row in the middle.

ARRAYFORMULA eliminates that risk. It applies your formula to an entire range automatically, so every row—past, present, and future—is covered.

Example: instead of manually dragging this down:

You’d write:

Now the calculation runs across the whole column, and any new rows are included automatically. No dragging, no gaps, no missed data.

For more information on ArrayFormula please check out this article:

👉 I’ve written a separate article that dives deeper into ARRAYFORMULA—check it out here.

Bank feeds in Xero/Quickbooks (and other accounting systems) aren’t always 100% reliable - even in this day and age. Missing or duplicated entries still happen, and when you’re dealing with a high volume of lookalike transactions—like 50 Facebook charges for $800 each—it becomes very time consuming to figure out which one is missing or extra if the bank feed doesn’t have a unique reference for each transaction.

The fix is to generate a composite unique ID that acts like a fingerprint for every transaction. By combining key fields—such as bank account, date and amount — you can make each line distinct.

Once you have a unique id, it becomes much easier to compare transactions. You can utilize MATCH method of finding duplicates.

👉 Make your own copy of the spreadsheet for an example.

In a database, you don’t duplicate data to get a different perspective—you create a view. The same principle can apply in Google Sheets: don’t copy and paste subsets of data into new tabs. Instead, build dynamic views with formulas like FILTER() or QUERY().

Example: Department Spend
If your tracking 1,000+ (or even more) transactions sitting in one master sheet, it’s tempting to copy Marketing’s rows into a new tab for easier analysis. But as soon as new data comes in, your copy is out of sync.

Instead, you can create a live Marketing-only view:

Now every new Marketing transaction automatically flows into that tab.

This mirrors how databases operate: one clean dataset, multiple filtered perspectives. It keeps your data consistent, prevents duplication errors, and saves time.

👉 Make your own copy of the spreadsheet for an example. Look at the yellow cells - that’s where formulas are stored.

By borrowing a few core principles from databases—full table refreshes, ARRAYFORMULA instead of dragging, unique IDs for reliability, and dynamic views instead of copy-pastes—you transform your spreadsheets into something you can trust.