Automated Financial Reporting System with Google Apps Script – ██FR█████ █INTELL███████████

This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding – Medium and was authored by Dilip Kashyap

Managing financial data is one of the most time-consuming tasks for finance and accounting teams. Every week or month, professionals spend hours collecting data, preparing reports, formatting sheets, and emailing stakeholders. But what if all of this could be automated?

That’s where an Automated Financial Reporting System built with Google Apps Script comes into play. This system can fetch data from multiple sources, generate financial summaries, create professional charts, and automatically deliver reports to your team’s inbox.

In this article, we’ll walk through how you can build such a system, its use cases, and provide working Google Apps Script code.

Why Automate Financial Reporting?

Traditional reporting involves:

Copying numbers from multiple sheets.
Running manual calculations.
Preparing P&L, balance sheet, or cash flow reports.
Formatting data and creating charts.
Emailing final reports to different stakeholders.

Automation solves all of this. With Google Apps Script, your finance team can:

Save dozens of hours every month.
Reduce human errors in calculations.
Ensure on-time delivery of reports.
Get customized insights (charts, summaries, highlights).

Features of the Automated Financial Reporting System

Fetch Data from Multiple Sources

Pull raw data from different Google Sheets.
Integrate with external APIs (ERP, CRM, or accounting tools).

Auto-Generate Financial Statements

Profit & Loss (P&L)
Cash Flow Statements
Balance Sheet Summaries

Conditional Formatting & Charts

Highlight overspending or revenue dips.
Create trend charts (weekly/monthly).

Email Reports as PDF

Automatically convert reports to PDF.
Send to CFO, finance managers, or auditors.

Use Cases

Weekly Financial Dashboard — Automatically send a snapshot of weekly revenues and expenses to department heads.
Monthly P&L Statements — Generate detailed Profit & Loss reports and share with management.
Cash Flow Tracking — Monitor inflow and outflow, with conditional highlights for negative balances.
Board Meeting Reports — Send a professional PDF report with charts before scheduled meetings.
Audit Readiness — Keep clean, auto-generated monthly statements for compliance.

Google Apps Script Code Example

Below is a simplified version of how you can build the Automated Financial Reporting System using Google Apps Script.

function generateFinancialReport() {
  try {
    // === Step 1: Fetch Data from Multiple Sheets ===
    var sheet1 = SpreadsheetApp.openById("SHEET_ID_1").getSheetByName("Expenses");
    var sheet2 = SpreadsheetApp.openById("SHEET_ID_2").getSheetByName("Revenue");
    
    var expenses = sheet1.getDataRange().getValues();
    var revenue = sheet2.getDataRange().getValues();
    
    // Example: calculate totals (ignoring headers)
    var totalExpenses = expenses.slice(1).reduce((sum, row) => sum + row[1], 0);
    var totalRevenue = revenue.slice(1).reduce((sum, row) => sum + row[1], 0);
    var profit = totalRevenue - totalExpenses;
    
    // === Step 2: Create Report Sheet ===
    var reportSheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("Report") 
                      || SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().insertSheet("Report");
    reportSheet.clear();
    
    reportSheet.appendRow(["Financial Report"]);
    reportSheet.appendRow(["Total Revenue", totalRevenue]);
    reportSheet.appendRow(["Total Expenses", totalExpenses]);
    reportSheet.appendRow(["Net Profit", profit]);
    
    // Apply conditional formatting (highlight negative profit)
    var range = reportSheet.getRange("B3");
    var rule = SpreadsheetApp.newConditionalFormatRule()
      .whenNumberLessThan(0)
      .setBackground("#f4cccc")
      .setRanges([range])
      .build();
    reportSheet.setConditionalFormatRules([rule]);
    
    // === Step 3: Insert Chart ===
    var chart = reportSheet.newChart()
      .setChartType(Charts.ChartType.COLUMN)
      .addRange(reportSheet.getRange("A2:B4"))
      .setPosition(6, 1, 0, 0)
      .build();
    reportSheet.insertChart(chart);
    
    // === Step 4: Export as PDF ===
    var pdfBlob = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getAs("application/pdf");
    pdfBlob.setName("Financial_Report.pdf");
    
    // === Step 5: Send Email ===
    MailApp.sendEmail({
      to: "finance-team@example.com",
      subject: "Automated Financial Report",
      body: "Hello Team,\n\nPlease find attached the latest financial report.\n\nBest Regards,\nFinance Bot",
      attachments: [pdfBlob]
    });
    
    Logger.log("Report generated and emailed successfully!");
    
  } catch (err) {
    Logger.log("Error: " + err.message);
  }
}

How This Works

Data Fetching — The script reads from two different Google Sheets (expenses and revenue).
Calculations — Totals are computed for revenue, expenses, and net profit.
Report Generation — A clean financial report is created in a “Report” sheet.
Formatting & Visualization — Negative profits are highlighted, and a bar chart is added.
Report Delivery — The sheet is converted to PDF and sent to the finance team via email.

You can extend this script by:

Adding API calls to fetch real-time financial data.
Scheduling the script with a time-driven trigger (weekly/monthly).
Sending different versions of the report to different stakeholders.

Final Thoughts

An Automated Financial Reporting System built with Google Apps Script is a game-changer for finance teams. It not only saves time but also ensures accuracy and consistency in reporting. By automating repetitive reporting tasks, your team can focus more on strategic decision-making instead of manual number-crunching.

If you’re managing finance at a startup, SME, or enterprise, building this system can save hours of work every month and provide real-time financial insights that keep everyone aligned.

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Automated Financial Reporting System with Google Apps Script was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding – Medium and was authored by Dilip Kashyap