How to turn Google Calendar into a timesheet in Google Sheets

1. First, put the client in the event

A timesheet needs to know who each hour was for. Whatever you use, make the client easy to find in Google Calendar™:

• In the title, the same way every time: [Acme] Design review at the start, or Design review #acme.
• Or one calendar per client, or one event colour per client.

It takes a few characters per event and saves sorting the rows out later.

2. The manual way: export the calendar

1. In Google Calendar on a computer, click the gear icon → Settings.
2. Choose Import & export → Export. Google downloads a .zip file with one .ics file for each calendar you own. For a single calendar, open it under Settings for my calendars and choose Export calendar.
3. Unzip the file. An .ics file is plain text, one field per line: BEGIN:VEVENT, DTSTART:20261116T140000Z, DTEND:…, SUMMARY:[Acme] Design review and so on.

Google Sheets™ cannot open an .ics file as a table. To get rows, you convert it with another tool, or import it as text and rebuild each event from its lines with formulas. Either way, expect clean-up:

• Everything, every year. The export holds all events of the calendar, not one month, so you filter by date first.
• Times are often in UTC, such as 20261116T140000Z, not in your own time zone.
• Recurring events are one entry with a repeat rule (RRULE), not one row per meeting.
• No hours and no clients. You add a duration column, round it, and work out the client from each title.
• Next month, again. The export is a copy. When the calendar changes, you export and clean up again.

It works once, for a small calendar. For a timesheet you keep every week, a script is less work.

3. The Apps Script way

1. In your spreadsheet, add a tab named Timesheet.
2. Choose Extensions → Apps Script, replace the code with the script below and click Save.
3. Click Run. The first time, Google asks you to allow the script to see your calendar and your spreadsheet.

function calendarToTimesheet() {
  const cal = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar();             // your main calendar
  const from = new Date(2026, 10, 1), to = new Date(2026, 11, 1);   // November 2026
  const rows = cal.getEvents(from, to)
    .filter(function (e) { return !e.isAllDayEvent(); })
    .map(function (e) {
      const hours = (e.getEndTime() - e.getStartTime()) / 3600000;
      return [e.getStartTime(), e.getEndTime(), hours, e.getTitle()];
    });
  const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName('Timesheet');
  sheet.clearContents();
  sheet.getRange(1, 1, 1, 4).setValues([['Start', 'End', 'Hours', 'Event']]);
  if (rows.length) sheet.getRange(2, 1, rows.length, 4).setValues(rows);
}

The Timesheet tab now has one row per event of November, with its start, end, hours and title. getEvents returns each occurrence of a recurring event separately, so a weekly call appears once a week. Change the two dates for another month.

4. Where the simple script falls short

• No clients. The client is still inside the title. Splitting [Acme] off, and adding rules for events without a tag, is more code.
• No rounding. A 52-minute meeting is 0.8666… hours. To bill in 15-minute steps, round in code or with =CEILING(C2*4)/4 in the sheet.
• It rebuilds the sheet. clearContents wipes the tab on every run, so a note, a “not billable” mark or a corrected hour you typed is gone the next time. Keeping them means matching each row to its event by ID.
• One calendar. For another calendar, use CalendarApp.getCalendarById, and run it once per calendar.
• Declined events count. A meeting you said no to still has hours. Filter with e.getMyStatus().
• Time zones. The two dates are read in the script’s own time zone (Project settings), and the times are shown in the spreadsheet’s (File → Settings). If either differs from your calendar’s, the period or the times shift by the difference.
• No totals. Hours per client per month need a pivot table or SUMIFS on top.

None of this is hard on its own. Together, it is a small program to keep up every time the way you bill changes.

5. With an add-on: HourLane

HourLane is our Google Sheets add-on for this job. It is not on Google Workspace Marketplace yet. It does what the script above leaves to you:

• One row per event in a Timesheet tab: date, start, end, hours, client, event, calendar, billable, notes, attendees, location and a link to the event. Times are in your main calendar’s time zone.
• Any calendars you tick, and a period: this week, last week, this month, last month, the last 30 days or your own dates.
• The client from [Acme] or #acme in the title, or from rules by title, calendar, guest email domain or event colour.
• Rounding to 6, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, to the nearest step or always up. All-day and declined events are skipped unless you want them.
• Refresh keeps what you typed: Billable, Notes, a client you changed and hours you corrected. Rows outside the period stay, so the sheet becomes a running log.
• A Summary tab with hours and billable hours per client and month.
• It only reads your calendar. It never creates, changes or deletes an event.
• The timesheet is free. Pro, for $4.99 a month or $39 a year, adds hourly rates and amounts, a statement per client and month by email, and an automatic refresh every morning.

How to set it up: HourLane help.

HourLane — Calendar to TimesheetCalendar to timesheet without a script. Not on the Marketplace yet.

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