Connecting Google Drive and Sheets

Connecting Google Drive and Google Sheets unlocks a bunch of lightweight automation superpowers inside TrailerBase. The most popular use is letting your AI agent append booking records to a running spreadsheet in Sheets — but you can also use it to store contract PDFs, customer uploads, and export reports.

What it enables

Once connected, TrailerBase can:

• Read from Google Sheets your agent has access to — for example, an inventory list you still maintain in Sheets.
• Append rows to Sheets automatically — think "bookings log" or "weekly review" tracker.
• Save files (contracts, photos, receipts) to a specific Drive folder instead of only keeping them in TrailerBase.
• Pull spreadsheet-backed data into your AI knowledge base.

Scopes requested

When you click Connect, Google will prompt you to approve two scopes:

• Drive — files.read — so TrailerBase can read files you explicitly share with it or create with it.
• Sheets — sheets.write — so TrailerBase can create and update spreadsheets under your account.

TrailerBase does not request full Drive access. It can only touch files you share with it or it creates, which is intentional — you stay in control of what is visible.

Step 1: Connect

1. Go to Settings > Connectors > Google.
2. Click Connect Google Account.
3. Sign in to the Google account that owns the Drive or Sheets you want connected (usually a company Workspace account).
4. Approve the scopes on the consent screen.
5. You will land back in TrailerBase with status set to Connected.

You can disconnect any time from the same page — revoking here also revokes Google's token on their side.

Step 2: Pick a default folder

TrailerBase will ask where it should save any files it creates. We recommend creating a folder called "TrailerBase Data" inside your Drive and selecting it here. Everything the system creates — spreadsheets, exported CSVs, contract PDFs if you choose — will land there and stay organized.

Step 3: Wire up a bookings log

This is the most common workflow. To have every new booking append a row to a Sheet:

1. In TrailerBase, go to Automations > New Automation.
2. Trigger: "Booking created."
3. Action: "Append row to Google Sheet."
4. Pick the spreadsheet (or click Create New and TrailerBase will generate one with the right columns).
5. Map TrailerBase fields to columns (customer name, trailer, pickup date, total, source, etc.).
6. Save and enable.

From that point forward, every new booking writes a row. If you want to backfill, click Run Now once; the automation will fill in the last 90 days.

Step 4: Use Sheets in your AI agent

To give your AI access to a Sheet (for example, a custom FAQ or a list of partner discount codes):

1. Share the Sheet with the service account email shown in Settings > Connectors > Google.
2. Go to Settings > Chat > Knowledge Base.
3. Add a Linked Sheet source and paste the Sheet URL.
4. Pick the tab and the column(s) the AI should treat as knowledge.

The AI re-reads the Sheet every 15 minutes, so changes propagate quickly without any manual reingestion.

Tips

• Keep one spreadsheet per purpose. Do not jam bookings, expenses, and customer data into the same sheet — downstream automations get brittle.
• Use a service account email (shown in settings) for shared spreadsheets so access does not break when a staff member leaves.
• If you ever see "permission denied" errors, re-share the Sheet with the service account email.