How to Install Derrick on Google Sheets

Installing Derrick on Google Sheets takes about thirty seconds. Once done, you can enrich emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn URLs and company data from inside the spreadsheet your list already lives in, with no copy-paste and no second tool.

That last point is the reason the add-on exists at all. Most enrichment projects lose their afternoon to the round trip: export the list, upload it somewhere, wait, download a CSV, reconcile the columns that came back in a different order, re-import. Running the enrichment where the list already is removes every step in that sentence.

Below is the full setup, what each permission actually grants, what the free plan does and does not cover, and the four errors that account for most first-run problems.

Step-by-step guide for 2026.

Step 1: Install the add-on

1. Open any Google Sheet
2. Go to Extensions → Add-ons → Get add-ons
3. Search "Derrick" in the marketplace
4. Click Install + accept the OAuth permissions
5. Reload your sheet - Derrick appears under Extensions menu

Required permissions: Sheets access (to read your data and write enrichment columns) and outbound network calls (to reach the Derrick API). No access to other Google services.

The OAuth screen is worth reading rather than clicking through, because the scope is narrower than most add-ons ask for and it is easy to miss. Sheets access is scoped to the document you have open, not to your Drive. There is no Gmail scope, no Calendar scope and no Drive-wide scope, which matters if you are installing this on a work account where someone will eventually audit what you granted.

If your organisation restricts Marketplace installs, the add-on will not appear in the search results at all rather than failing on install. That is an admin setting, not an error on your side, and it is the single most common reason step 1 goes nowhere.

Step 2: Activate your account

1. Extensions → Derrick → Activate
2. Sign in with your work email (Google or Microsoft SSO)
3. Free plan auto-activated: 100 credits per month, no card required
4. Verify your email if prompted (5-second confirm click)

Note: no credit card is required for the free plan, and it is not a trial that expires. You get 100 credits every month for as long as you keep the account.

What those credits reach is the part worth knowing before you plan a workflow around them. Credit cost differs per feature and so does availability by plan:

• Available on the free plan: LinkedIn profile and company enrichment at 1 credit per row, the LinkedIn URL finder, French SIRET and SIREN enrichment at 1 credit per company, Sales Navigator import, and the data cleaning tools. That is a genuinely usable workflow at 100 rows a month.
• Paid features, from the MINI plan at 9 EUR per month: Email Finder at 5 credits per email found, Email Verification at 1 credit per address, Phone Finder at 150 credits per number found, website scraping and the AI enrichment features.

Two details that change the arithmetic. The finders are billed per result found, so a row that returns nothing costs nothing. And unused credits roll over on paid plans, which means an uneven month does not evaporate.

Step 3: Run your first enrichment

The fastest way to know the install worked is to run something small and watch it come back. Ten rows is enough, and if you are on the free plan, use LinkedIn profile enrichment rather than Find Email: enrichment is included at 1 credit per row, while the Email Finder is a paid feature.

Test workflow with 10 leads:

1. Paste a list of 10 LinkedIn URLs in column A
2. Select the cells
3. Extensions → Derrick → Find Email
4. Choose target column (B)
5. Hit Run - enrichment runs in ~30 seconds

Results populate column B as they come back, row by row, so you can watch the hit rate build rather than waiting for a batch to finish. Email Finder is billed at 5 credits per email actually found, and a row that returns nothing is not charged at all. That per-result billing is what makes a speculative list safe to run: you find out what the segment yields without committing budget to finding out.

A first run that comes back mostly empty is almost always an input problem rather than a coverage problem. LinkedIn URLs need to be complete, starting with https, and names need to be split into a first and a last name rather than sitting in one cell. Running the cleanup formulas from our guide to Google Sheet formulas over the input column before you enrich typically moves the hit rate more than any setting in the sidebar.

Choosing Where to Run the Enrichment

The add-on is one of three surfaces, and the right one depends on the shape of the job rather than on preference.

• Google Sheets when you have a list. This is the case the add-on is built for: a column of inputs, a column of outputs, and a hit rate you can see.
• An MCP client such as Claude or ChatGPT when you have a question rather than a list. Asking for one company's details in the middle of a conversation does not need a spreadsheet.
• The REST API when the enrichment belongs inside something else: a CRM workflow, a signup pipeline, a nightly job. Available from the STANDARD plan.

The same credits and the same per-result billing apply across all three, so moving a workflow from one to another later costs nothing.

What to Do Right After the Install

The install is not the milestone. The first column that comes back full is. Three things get you there faster.

Clean the input column first. Trailing spaces, mixed casing and half-formed URLs are the top cause of empty results, and they are invisible on screen. One pass of =TRIM(CLEAN(A2)) costs nothing and changes the hit rate.

Start with the feature your plan actually includes. Running Find Email on a free account returns an upgrade prompt rather than data, which reads like a broken install when it is a plan boundary. Profile enrichment is the free-plan equivalent and proves the pipe works.

Enrich into a new column, never over the source. You want to compare what came back against what you sent, and you want the original list intact if you decide the input was the problem.

Reading the Results Column Without Fooling Yourself

A first enrichment run produces three kinds of cell, and treating them as two is how teams end up with a list they trust more than they should.

A value. The lookup found something and it is charged. This is the only outcome that costs a credit on the finders, which is why the hit rate and the bill move together rather than independently.

An empty cell. Nothing was found for that input. It is not an error and it is not charged, but it is worth reading as a question about the input rather than a verdict on the person. A profile URL that redirects, a company that rebranded, a name stored with its middle initial: all of them return empty for reasons you can fix in the source column.

A value you should not act on yet. This is the one people miss. An email address that was found is not the same as an email address that will deliver. Finding and verifying are separate operations at Derrick precisely because they answer different questions, and running verification as a second pass over a found column is a 1-credit-per-row step that removes most of the bounce risk before a campaign starts.

The practical habit: enrich into one column, verify into the next, and filter on the verification result rather than on the presence of an address. Two columns instead of one, and the list that leaves the sheet is one you can put a sender reputation behind.

Keeping the Sheet Usable Once Other People Touch It

An enrichment sheet that one person runs is simple. The same sheet with three people in it develops predictable failure modes within a week.

The first is double enrichment. Two colleagues run the same range on the same day, and the credits are spent twice for the same values. A status column written at enrichment time, even something as crude as a date stamp, removes the ambiguity entirely and costs nothing.

The second is a source tab that stops being a source. Someone edits the raw import to fix a typo, and from that point the sheet has no clean reference to fall back to. Keeping the import read-only and doing every correction in a working tab is the convention that survives contact with a team.

The third is silent plan boundaries. A colleague on a different account runs a paid feature, sees an upgrade prompt, and concludes the tool is broken. Writing which features the team's plan includes into the header of the sheet takes one line and prevents that conversation from happening three times.

When the Add-On Is Not the Right Surface

Two cases where the sidebar is the wrong tool, and knowing them early saves a rebuild.

The enrichment needs to fire without a human. If the trigger is a new CRM record or a form submission rather than someone opening a spreadsheet, the enrichment belongs on the API, which is available from the STANDARD plan. Building it in Sheets and then scheduling something to open the sheet is a workaround for a problem that has a direct answer.

The question is a one-off. Looking up a single company to answer a question in a conversation does not need a spreadsheet at all. An MCP client such as Claude or ChatGPT reaches the same enrichment conversationally, on the same credits.

The add-on is the right surface for exactly one shape of work, and it happens to be the most common one: a list that exists, a column that is missing, and a person who wants to see it fill in.

Where the Sheet Goes Next

Once enrichment runs reliably, the spreadsheet stops being a staging area and becomes the working surface. Two follow-ons cover most of what teams build next: exporting the enriched sheet to a CRM without a manual reconciliation step, and wiring the sheet to Zapier, Make or n8n so the enrichment fires on new rows instead of on a human remembering.

If several people work the same list, collaborating on an enriched sheet covers the permissions and the conventions that keep two colleagues from enriching the same rows twice.

Troubleshooting + Key takeaways

Common issues

• "Add-on not loading" - usually a browser cache issue. Hard reload (Cmd+Shift+R) + reopen the sheet.
• "Permission denied" - re-accept OAuth: Extensions → Add-ons → Manage → Derrick → Options.
• "Quota exceeded" - you have used the month's credits. Paid plans roll the unused balance forward, so this is usually a sign the workflow outgrew the plan rather than a mistake.
• The add-on never appears in the Marketplace search - your Workspace admin restricts third-party installs. Nothing on your side will fix it; it needs an admin approval.
• A feature returns an upgrade prompt instead of data - that feature is not on your plan. Email Finder, Email Verification and Phone Finder start at MINI; profile and company enrichment are on the free plan.
• "Empty results" - check the input format (URLs should be full https://, names should be First + Last).

Key takeaways

• Installation is 30 seconds: Extensions → Add-ons → search "Derrick" → install.
• Free plan: 100 credits per month, no credit card, no expiry. Enough to validate the workflow on real prospects using profile and company enrichment at 1 credit per row.
• Unused credits roll over on paid plans, which absorbs an uneven month.
• The finders are billed per result found: Email Finder at 5 credits per email, Phone Finder at 150 credits per number. A row that returns nothing costs nothing.
• First enrichment in <2 minutes - paste 10 URLs, hit Find Email, watch results populate.
• OAuth scope is minimal: Sheets + outbound API calls only. Zero access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar.