Looker Studio

The Looker Studio connector is coming soon. We are building it and it is not available yet, with no date. Looker Studio cannot connect to OpenBoxes Lift directly today: it cannot send the API key header the Reporting API needs, and a key is never accepted in a web address.

What works today is by hand: download a CSV file from a scheduled CSV export and add it to Looker Studio with Google's own CSV file upload connector. There is no API key and no code. Nothing refreshes by itself: to bring newer figures into a report, you download the next export and upload its file again.

This works on every plan (Shared, Dedicated and Enterprise).

1. Get the CSV files#

  1. Set up the scheduled CSV export (the account owner or an admin chooses daily, weekly or monthly), and turn on Send me the export for yourself.
  2. When the email arrives, select Download from the portal and unzip the file.

The zip holds one CSV file per dataset, named after it, for example openboxes-stock-on-hand-2026-09-27.csv. The columns are the same as the Reporting API's, listed in the field reference. The files are UTF-8, with one header row, which is what Looker Studio's upload expects.

2. Upload a file to Looker Studio#

Google's page for this is Upload CSV files (Google's documentation currently calls the product Data Studio). In short, from that page:

  1. In Looker Studio, select Create, then Data source.
  2. Select the CSV file upload connector.
  3. Select Add data set and upload one CSV file from the zip (or drag the file in).
  4. Select Connect.

Make one data source for each dataset you want to report on. Each dataset's date column works as the report's date: captureLocalDate on most datasets, monthStart on monthly rows, periodStart on stock-value-history, and activityDate on daily activity.

3. Bring in newer figures#

Google adds each new file to a data set; it does not replace what is there, and it does not remove duplicate rows ("Uploaded data is appended (added) to existing data, not merged with it", from Google's page above). All files in one data set must have the same columns in the same order. So it depends on the file:

  • Stock history and activity cover the export's own period (the day, week or month), so adding each new export's file to the same data set builds up your history, as long as each period is uploaded once.
  • Stock on hand, expiring lots and the summary are a snapshot of the latest daily check. Adding a new one keeps the old rows too, so filter on captureLocalDate, or put the new file in a new data set.
  • Stock value history is the whole stored series every time. Adding a new one repeats every earlier row; put the new file in a new data set instead.
  • Open purchase orders is a snapshot, like stock on hand.

If we add a column to a dataset (we only ever add columns at the end), a newer file no longer matches the old ones, and Google needs a new data set for it.

What to know#

  • Values. Stock value, prices and order amounts are in the files only if the person who downloaded them may see values (the account owner and admins, or everyone if the owner has switched on Show stock and order values to all teammates on the Reports page; see Stock values and prices). A report built on a file with values shows those values to everyone you share the report with. If the report is for a wider audience, upload a file downloaded without values, or remove the money columns from the report.
  • Formula protection. A text cell that begins with =, +, - or @ starts with an apostrophe in our CSV (a lot number -A12 appears as '-A12), so spreadsheet programs do not run it as a formula. This is rare and affects text only, never numbers.
  • Google's limits apply, among them 100 MB per data set, 2 GB of uploads per user and 100 uploads per data set per day. Google's upload also refuses a line break inside a cell. See Google's page for the full list.
  • Your uploads belong to you. Google says the data sets you upload are yours alone, while reports and data sources built on them can be shared like any other.
  • Exports are kept for 7 days in the portal. Download each one within a week of its email.

Not available yet#

  • The Looker Studio connector is coming soon: being built, not available yet, with no date. Until then, Looker Studio cannot read the Reporting API, and there is no supported way to refresh a Looker Studio report automatically. A Google Sheet or a script in between is not a supported route.
  • For automatic refresh today, Power BI and Excel can read the Reporting API through a Power Query recipe.

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Watch: Expiry, Lots and Reports1 min video

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