I dont disagree with your position fundamentally but many of the arguments you use to make your point arent completely true. For example, when saying that you would need mutiple sheets or workbooks of data to store mutiple versions of your data, implying that you would have to maintain all these sheets / workbooks separately isn't exactly true. If you are using excel you could very easily create a single table which is the "single source of truth" and use power query to read from that table data, transform it to the required output necessary for whatever system it needs to go to and then output it to a different sheet or workbook. This implementation would only require a single button click to refresh all the "other" sheets/workbooks and therefore you only have to maintain the original Table of data. Another example you use is when you said spreadsheets cannot export data in a different format that is required for other systems (ie shopify, amazon, etc..), which is also not completely true. If using google sheets you could, similarly to the power query implementation above, have a single table in your workbook with all your products and use google scripts to not only format the data but also send it to a systems REST api, using urlFetchApp for example.
Hey, you bring up a lot of valid points, but you'd still need to be a more advanced spreadsheet user to do most of the things you've mentioned. Also, it might be good if you have a few products, but a lot of companies are dealing with thousands of products with variations and managing hundreds of attributes per product that might change per channel. When dealing with so much data, your single source of truth sheet will probably be overloaded and not very easy to sift through. I know you can always use filter views and things like that (which we even mention in a separate video) but-and I speak from experience when I say this- it's very easy to accidentally mess things up even when using filter views. I do agree that it's an option, but I wouldn't say it's the best option. As for Google scripts and APIs, you'd need a specific set of skills to get that set up and maintained. I'm not saying it can't be done, but why complicate something when there's already something made for it. 😊
Very relevant, glad for the yt recommendation.
more sheets more problems, couldn't agree more!
I dont disagree with your position fundamentally but many of the arguments you use to make your point arent completely true. For example, when saying that you would need mutiple sheets or workbooks of data to store mutiple versions of your data, implying that you would have to maintain all these sheets / workbooks separately isn't exactly true. If you are using excel you could very easily create a single table which is the "single source of truth" and use power query to read from that table data, transform it to the required output necessary for whatever system it needs to go to and then output it to a different sheet or workbook. This implementation would only require a single button click to refresh all the "other" sheets/workbooks and therefore you only have to maintain the original Table of data. Another example you use is when you said spreadsheets cannot export data in a different format that is required for other systems (ie shopify, amazon, etc..), which is also not completely true. If using google sheets you could, similarly to the power query implementation above, have a single table in your workbook with all your products and use google scripts to not only format the data but also send it to a systems REST api, using urlFetchApp for example.
Hey, you bring up a lot of valid points, but you'd still need to be a more advanced spreadsheet user to do most of the things you've mentioned. Also, it might be good if you have a few products, but a lot of companies are dealing with thousands of products with variations and managing hundreds of attributes per product that might change per channel. When dealing with so much data, your single source of truth sheet will probably be overloaded and not very easy to sift through. I know you can always use filter views and things like that (which we even mention in a separate video) but-and I speak from experience when I say this- it's very easy to accidentally mess things up even when using filter views.
I do agree that it's an option, but I wouldn't say it's the best option.
As for Google scripts and APIs, you'd need a specific set of skills to get that set up and maintained. I'm not saying it can't be done, but why complicate something when there's already something made for it. 😊