Correct Date Formatting for Google Sheets to Google Calendar Integrations via Zapier

Integrating Google Sheets with Google Calendar through Zapier streamlines the process of scheduling events and managing your calendar. However, to ensure a flawless integration, it's crucial to understand the correct way to format dates in Google Sheets before they are sent to Google Calendar.

Google Sheets accepts a variety of date formats, but when it comes to Zapier transferring that data to Google Calendar, the format must be one that Google Calendar can recognize. The most widely accepted and straightforward date format for this purpose is ISO 8601, which is 'YYYY-MM-DD' for the date, combined with the time 'hh:mm:ss' for a complete datetime stamp, if needed.

For example, to represent January 20th, 2023, at 10:30 AM, you would format the date as '2023-01-20' and the time as '10:30:00'. When combining both, it should appear as '2023-01-20T10:30:00' where 'T' acts as a delimiter between the date and the time.

However, just formatting the date correctly in Google Sheets isn’t always enough. In Zapier, when setting up the action step for Google Calendar, be explicit about the format. Choose 'Custom' in the date field options of your Calendar event action and enter a corresponding date-time format that matches your Google Sheets format.

It's essential to ensure that the date and time columns in your Google Sheets are formatted as 'Plain text' before creating a Zap. This step will prevent Google Sheets from changing your carefully formatted date into a different configuration during the data transfer process through Zapier.

Following these tips will ensure that your dates transfer correctly from Google Sheets to Google Calendar, enabling an efficient and accurate sync of events between the two platforms.