Managing clients’ folders can consume a significant amount of time and be frustrating when you’re in a hurry but can’t find the file you’re looking for in Drive.
This automation is created to make your life easier.
It creates folders for your clients with a single click:
- Using a customized folder structure
- Sharing them with your collaborators
- Organizing them in a sheet for easy access
The image below shows an example of a folder structure defined in the sheet and the structure of the generated folder after the automation.
Let me show you how to set up this automation.
1. Define your folder structure
First, make a copy of the Clients’ Folders Manager. Then navigate to the Folder Structure sheet and design your desired folder structure in the grid. All the project folders of your clients will follow this structure and you can edit it whenever you want.
The grid is divided into seven levels, allowing you to create nested folders up to seven layers deep. You can specify the type of file or folder you want to create using four keywords:
- Folder for a new folder,
- Docs for a Google Doc,
- Sheets for a Google Sheet, and
- Slides for a Google Slides.
The format to enter in a grid cell is Keyword || Name of folder or file. The script will color-code cells based on the keyword for easy visualization.
To optimize the structure’s visualization, enter files before folders at each level. These two examples can guide you in building your folder structure.
You can create a simple structure like this one:
Or a larger structure like this one:
2. Specify the parent folder URL
Next, you need to provide the URL of the parent folder that will contain all generated client folders. To do this, open the desired folder in Google Drive and copy the URL from your web browser’s address bar. Then paste the URL into the CLIENTS FOLDER field in the Clients sheet.
3. Input client information
Fill out the Clients sheet with the names of your clients and the email addresses of the collaborators. By default, the CLIENT FOLDER NAME will match the client’s name, but you can manually edit this if needed. Then select the clients for whom you want to create a new project folder.
4. Run the script and watch the magic unfold
Finally, run the automation using the custom menu. If a folder already exists for a client, a new project folder will be created within it. If no folder exists for a client, one will be created before the new project folder is added.
The first time you run the automation, you will be prompted to grant certain permissions. Follow the prompts and grant the necessary permissions to Google.
Here is the result
This spreadsheet creates folders for selected clients, each based on a defined folder structure, and subsequently shares them with designated collaborators. The generated folder’s links are inserted in the spreadsheet.
