Why solve spreadsheet collaboration? Google already did it.
Gsheets is Google's way of solving spreadsheet collaboration. To do that, Google built a real-time collaboration environment, where everyone can edit your (master)sheet at the same time and the changes are reflected in the master sheet immediately.
There is still no way for Spreadsheet Owners to assign deliverables to their collaborators. They still have to chase them on email or slack.
You can't share granular data ranges from your sheet or hide sensitive data. Spreadsheet owners can't review the changes being made to the master file. They can only look back at the version history and try to figure out who changed what.
Layer's founders imagined a better way of collaborating on spreadsheets, where the spreadsheet owners have full control over what they share and what changes they accept. They should be able to assign data requests to collaborators and not have to chase them via other channels. And so, they set out to build Layer.
What is Layer
A new way to collaborate on spreadsheets, where spreadsheet owners have full control over the changes made.
- Granular sharing - Spreadsheet owners can share parts of a spreadsheet via Excel or Google Sheets. In case they have some sensitive data in their sheet, they can hide it from their collaborators.
- Review and approve changes - Sheet owners can review each and every change made by their collaborators to the shared data. They can accept all or partial changes, or reject the submission. This adds an extra layer of auditing before merging with the main spreadsheet and avoiding human error.
- Automate and schedule - Layer lets you schedule recurring data consolidation and distribution tasks, giving you more time to focus on more important tasks.
- Talk to your team - Sheet owners can send feedback to the collaborators on the changes made. Sheet owners can also chat with each other.
How it works
Meet Anna! She's the CFO of a 250 employee company. Among her primary responsibilities is running these processes on Google Sheets:
[ ] Quarterly Budgeting
[ ] Cost Forecasting
[ ] Monthly Top-Line
[ ] Investor Reporting

- She needs to gather data from different sources. Some data is available in tools (e.g. accounting data), and other data needs to be collected from colleagues (e.g. marketing assumptions).
- It is imperative that her files don’t break or contain inaccurate data. On top of that, most planning, forecasting, or reporting processes follow a strict timeline, and it is important to meet deadlines.
- She wants to make her life easier as a CFO and to spend more time on what matters most — shaping and making decisions based on solid data and models.