How To Integrate Salesforce With Google Sheets [API Tutorial]

Salesforce is one of the world’s most popular customer relationship management platforms. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to connect the Salesforce REST API to Google Sheets in 6 steps:

Install the Apipheny Add-on
Create a Salesforce API app
Obtain an API access token
Choose a Salesforce API endpoint
Enter your Salesforce API request into Apipheny
Run the Salesforce API request in your Google Sheet

Step 1.) Install and open the Apipheny add-on for Google Sheets

Apipheny is an API connector for Google Sheets. You can use Apipheny to connect your Google Sheets to unlimited API data sources, make unlimited API requests, and more. There is a 30 day free trial included.

1.) Install Apipheny by opening the following link on desktop and then clicking the Install button in the Google Marketplace: https://apipheny.io/install

2.) After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Extensions dropdown in the menu at the top.

In the dropdown list you should see Apipheny. Click Apipheny then click Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheet.

Tip: you can open a new Google Sheet by entering this URL in your browser: sheet.new

Step 2.) Create a Salesforce API app

Login to salesforce. In your account Dashboard, from Setup, enter and search for “Apps” in the Quick Find box, and then select App Manager:

Select "App Manager" — Select “App Manager”

Then on the next page click New Connected App

Click "New Connected App" — Click “New Connected App”

Enter the connected app’s name, which displays in the App Manager and on its App Launcher tile, check the Enable OAuth Settings checkbox and write the callback URL:

Fill in the details on the "New Connected App" page — Fill in the details on the “New Connected App” page

4. Choose the scopes you want to use:

5. Click the Save button to finally create the app:

Click "Save" to create the app — Click “Save” to create the app

6. Change the IP Relaxation Setting:

Go to Apps = > App Manager and find your app. Click the corresponding arrow and choose Manage from the drop-down menu:

Click "Manage" next to your app name — Click “Manage” next to your app name

Click the Edit Policies button:

Change the IP Relaxation setting to Relax IP restrictions:

Click "Relax IP restrictions" and save — Click “Relax IP restrictions” and save

Step 3.) Obtain an access token

Open up a command prompt window (for Windows OS) or a terminal (for Mac OS) and write the command below to obtain a token:

curl -s -X POST -F grant_type=password -F client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID -F client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET -F username=YOUR_USERNAME -F password=YOUR_PASSWORD https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/token

You’ll need to fill in a few parts:

YOUR_USERNAME and YOUR_PASSWORD are your credentials for Salesfsorce
YOUR_CLIENT_ID and YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET are the consumer key and consumer secret values of the app that you created in Step 2

Note: For Mac OS you may need to use single quotes ( ' ) instead of double quotes ( " ).

Executing this command will return your access token in the response:

Copy and paste your new token to safe place because you’ll need it in the next steps.

Note: If the token/key that you generate has an expiration time, you will need to complete this same process again to get a new token when the old one expires.

Step 4.) Choose a Salesforce API endpoint

In this section, we’ll show you how to browse the Salesforce API documentation to find the Salesforce API URL that retrieves the information you need from your Salesforce account. If you already know your URL, or you want to use the same example URL as us, just skip to Step 5.

First, open the Salesforce API documentation page: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api_rest.meta/api_rest/resources_list.htm

The main part pf the page contains the basic URL that you should use, a table containing the endpoints, and a short description for each endpoint:

An example endpoint is Resources by Version, that lists available resources for the specified API version, including resource name and URI. This is the corresponding URL for that endpoint:

https://yourInstance.salesforce.com/services/data/v54.0/

If you use this URL, don’t forget to replace yourInstance with your domain name.

The documentation for each endpoint contains a short description of the endpoint’s purpose, the URI, the response format (JSON, XML), the endpoint’s HTTP method (GET), the authentication method, and a list of the accepted API parameters:

Salesforce API endpoint documentation example

Note: Salesforce changes the version of their API often. Check their documentation to confirm the latest version and update the version number in the URL if necessary.

Step 5.) Enter your Salesforce API request into Apipheny

Now go back to your Google Sheet and make sure that the Apipheny add-on is open on the “Import” tab. With the Import tab open, enter these details into the add-on:

Method: At the top of the Apipheny sidebar, select the HTTP method (GET or POST) required by your API endpoint. For this example, we are using the GET method.

API URL: In Step 4, we explained how you can find the Salesforce REST API endpoint that you need. Now copy and paste your complete Salesforce API URL into the Apipheny add-on, where it says API URL Path, followed by any parameters required for your query (if applicable).

For this example, we are using the Account Info endpoint, that retrieves basic information about an Account object. This is what the whole URL looks like:

https://YOUR_INSTANCE.salesforce.com/services/data/v54.0/sobjects/Account/

If you’re following this same example as us, just replace YOUR_INSTANCE with the domain you are using.

Headers: In the Headers section of the Apipheny add-on, add two API header rows with the following keys and values (if you’re following the same example as us):

Header 1
Key:
Authorization
Value:
Bearer your_token

Header 2
Key:
X-PrettyPrint
Value:
1

Don’t forget to replace your_token with the value of the token you obtained previously, in Step 3. There should be a literal space between Bearer and your_token.

Salesforce API request entered into the Apipheny add-on, including an API URL and two sets of header keys and values

Step 6.) Run the Salesforce API request

Finally, the last step is to click the Run button at the bottom of the Apipheny add-on and then wait for the Salesforce API data to be imported into your Google Sheet.

Salesforce data imported into Google Sheets using the Salesforce API and the Apipheny add-on

After making a successful request to the Salesforce API, try querying a different Salesforce API endpoint, or try using one of the more advanced features in the Apipheny add-on, such as:

Save and schedule your Salesforce API request
Make a POST request to the Salesforce API (if available)
Use the custom =APIPHENY() function to call the Salesforce API request inside your spreadsheet
Create an API request by referencing the value of a cell in your Salesforce API URL with three curly braces eg. {{{Sheet1!A1}}}