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Use cases → Admin and governance

Track onboarding checklist completion for new employees

Monitor and record progress on onboarding tasks for each new joiner by updating a shared checklist automatically using domain-wide delegation.

Who it is forIT or HR teams responsible for onboarding new staff at scale.
APIsSheets API, Admin SDK
Typical scopesadmin.directory.user.readonly, spreadsheets

The problem

Manual onboarding checklists in spreadsheets quickly fall out of sync with reality, especially when multiple departments contribute. Tracking completion across dozens of new starters becomes a matter of chasing email threads and missed updates, leading to lost equipment, missed training, and compliance gaps.

How it works

  1. Detect new accounts in the domain using the Admin SDK.
  2. For each new user, create or update a row in a central onboarding spreadsheet.
  3. Track checklist items as columns, updating them as automated or manual steps are completed.
  4. Allow department-specific automations to write progress directly to their columns via delegated access.

What changes

The onboarding status for every new joiner is available in one place, with real-time updates as tasks complete, so nothing slips through the cracks.

The trap in this one. Sheets API batch updates can silently drop writes if two automations update the same row at once—no error, just missing data. If you rely on the spreadsheet row index to identify users, row order changes (from sorting or deletions) will cause updates to land on the wrong user. Always use a unique identifier (like primary email) as the key and re-fetch the sheet after every update to confirm changes landed where intended.

Watch it explained

“Automate onboarding of company resources from a Google Sheet” — Google Workspace on YouTube. Third-party video, included because it covers this ground well. We are not affiliated with the channel.

Questions people ask

Why not assign onboarding tasks in a task management tool?

Most organisations already have onboarding checklists in Sheets and need to integrate with existing processes and reporting, not introduce a new system.

How do we handle manual steps?

Department leads can update their columns directly or via their own automations, but the central tracker ensures visibility and accountability.

Want this built?

This is a pattern we run in production. We will set up the delegation and build this on top of it — $500 per hour, most of it working the same day.

Talk to us Or read the setup guide

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