Creating and opening spreadsheets in Google Sheets - Business Scenario Walkthrough

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are an office assistant at a small company.

📋 Request: Your manager asks you to create a new spreadsheet to track monthly expenses and then open it for data entry.

📊 Data: You have no existing data yet. You need to start a new spreadsheet with columns for Date, Category, Description, and Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: A new Google Sheets spreadsheet with the correct columns set up and opened ready for entering expense data.

Sample Data

Date	Category	Description	Amount

1

Step 1: Open Google Sheets by going to sheets.google.com in your web browser.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Google Sheets homepage opens showing your existing spreadsheets and an option to create a new one.

2

Step 2: Click the blank (+) button to create a new spreadsheet.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

A new untitled spreadsheet opens with a blank sheet.

3

Step 3: In the first row, enter the column headers: Date in A1, Category in B1, Description in C1, and Amount in D1.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

The first row shows the headers: Date, Category, Description, Amount.

4

Step 4: Rename the spreadsheet by clicking on 'Untitled spreadsheet' at the top and typing 'Monthly Expenses'.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

The spreadsheet title changes to 'Monthly Expenses'.

5

Step 5: Save the spreadsheet. Google Sheets saves automatically, so no manual save is needed.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Spreadsheet is saved in your Google Drive and ready for data entry.

6

Step 6: To open this spreadsheet later, go to sheets.google.com and click on 'Monthly Expenses' from your list of files.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

The 'Monthly Expenses' spreadsheet opens ready for editing.

Final Result

Monthly Expenses Spreadsheet

| Date       | Category   | Description       | Amount  |
|------------|------------|-------------------|---------|
|            |            |                   |         |
|            |            |                   |         |

✓You successfully created a new spreadsheet with the correct columns.

✓You renamed the file for easy identification.

✓You know how to open the spreadsheet later for data entry.

Bonus Challenge

Add data validation to the Category column to allow only these options: Food, Transport, Utilities, and Other.

Show Hint

Select the Category column cells, then use Data > Data validation, choose 'List of items', and enter the options separated by commas.