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Use Google Sheets as a bridge to import actuals from accounting systems Francis does not natively support. Francis creates a synced sheet in your Google Drive, you paste your data into it, and your chart of accounts becomes available in the Mappings view, where you map accounts to line items in your model.

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Connect Google Sheets

Go to Settings > Integrations > Google Sheets > Connect. A prompt asks you to choose a template:
  • Monthly totals: upload monthly trial balances (high-level).
  • Detailed entries: upload journal entries (detailed).
Francis creates a sheet in your Google Drive that’s live-synced to Francis on every refresh. Francis must create the sheet for it to be live-synced. You cannot create your own sheet and then connect it. Enter your data into the sheet Francis creates.
Francis can only view, edit, create, and delete the specific Google Drive files it creates. It does not access any of your other Google Drive files.
To share the sheet with team members, update permissions under Share in Google Sheets, or move the sheet to a shared drive.

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What Francis sources

Francis pulls data from Sheet 1, which must follow the template format. You are free to use Sheet 2, Sheet 3, and so on for your own working data. What Francis pulls depends on the template you chose.
  • Monthly value
  • GL accounts

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Required data format

Francis flips signs on import, so upload values using the debit/credit sign convention:
  • Income accounts: negative (-) values
  • Expense accounts: positive (+) values
  • Asset accounts: positive (+) values
  • Liability accounts: negative (-) values
  • Equity accounts: negative (-) values
Francis accumulates balance sheet accounts automatically on import. Provide delta values, not cumulative totals.

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Adjustments

Francis automatically adjusts imported data in two ways.
Francis flips the sign for income, expenses, liabilities, and equity accounts to follow the Francis sign convention:
  • Positive (+): Income (I), Asset (A), Liability (L), and Equity (EQ)
  • Negative (-): Expense (EX)
To enable these adjustments, turn on Treat as entity under the Google Sheets settings. This tells Francis the data represents accounting information and triggers the adjustments.
Connecting Google Sheets as an entity counts toward your plan’s limit on active data sources.

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Settings to enable adjustments

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Account categories

Francis applies its adjustments based on account categories (Income, Expense, Asset, Liability, or Equity). Francis detects unique GL account names from the import, and you assign a category to each. To set account categories:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Google Sheets > Chart of accounts.
  2. Set a category for each line item.
  3. Click Save at the bottom.
If Francis detects new accounts later, it prompts you to categorize them.

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Status checks

Francis runs tests on each sync to flag formatting issues before they distort your numbers. The checks depend on the template you chose.
Month headers must begin at cell B1 and follow the YYYY-MM format. This check fails when the headers start in the wrong cell or use a different format. Reformat the affected headers and sync again.
Every account name must be unique. This check fails when the same account name appears more than once. Merge the duplicate rows into one before syncing.
Every row must have an account name. This check fails when an account name is left blank. Fill in the account name for each row before syncing.
Amounts must be in numeric format. This check fails when a value contains text, currency symbols, or other non-numeric characters. Remove the formatting so each amount is a plain number.

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Microsoft users

If you use Microsoft 365, create a Google account with your Microsoft email address to connect Google Sheets to Francis.
Excel Online support is coming soon. Reach out at support@francis.app with questions.