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Why Google Groups?

Google Groups acts as an identity primitive across Google’s ecosystem. One group email grants access to:
  • Looker Studio dashboards (viewer or editor)
  • BigQuery datasets (query access)
  • Google Sheets (config sheets, exports)
One group email = unified access control. Add a teammate to the group once, and they automatically get access to all shared resources.

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Quick Start: Create a Group

1

Go to Google Groups

Navigate to groups.google.com and sign in with your organization account.
2

Click Create Group

Create Group button
3

Configure group details

  • Group name: Descriptive name (e.g., “Acme Analytics Team”)
  • Group email: [email protected]
  • Description: Who should be in this group and what they access Group details form
4

Set privacy settings

Choose who can find and join the group. For internal teams, “Only invited users” is recommended.Privacy settings
5

Add members and create

Enter email addresses for initial members, then click Create group.Add members

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Managing Group Members

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Add members

Click Add Members at the top of your group page. Add members button

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Adjust permissions

Go to Group Settings to modify who can post, view members, or join. Group settings

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Allow external members

If you need to add people outside your organization, enable this in Group Settings: External members setting

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Sharing Resources with Your Group

Once your group exists, use the group email to grant access across Google products.

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Looker Studio Dashboards

  1. Open your dashboard and click Share (top right)
  2. Enter the group email address
  3. Choose permission level:
    • Viewer: Can view and interact with filters
    • Editor: Can modify the dashboard
Share dashboard
Recommendation: Grant Viewer access to most users. Editor access can lead to accidental changes that break dashboards.

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Google Sheets (Config Sheets)

  1. Open the sheet and click Share
  2. Enter the group email
  3. Choose permission level:
    • Viewer: Read-only
    • Commenter: Can add comments
    • Editor: Can modify content
Share sheet

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BigQuery Datasets

For BigQuery access, your SourceMedium team will configure IAM permissions using your group email. Contact support if you need to grant BigQuery access to additional team members.
For most teams, we recommend two groups:
GroupPurposeTypical Access
company-sm-viewersDay-to-day dashboard usersDashboard: Viewer, Sheets: Viewer
company-sm-adminsAnalytics leads, data teamDashboard: Editor, Sheets: Editor, BigQuery: Query
Start with one group for simplicity. Split into viewer/admin groups when you have 5+ users with different needs.

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Troubleshooting

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”You don’t have access” error

Verify the user is actually in the group at groups.google.com.
Permission changes can take time to propagate across Google services. If you just added someone to the group or shared a resource, have the user sign out and back in, then try again.
Ensure the resource was shared with the group email (e.g., [email protected]), not an individual.
If adding external users, ensure “Allow members outside your organization” is enabled in Group Settings.

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Dashboard shows “No data”

This usually means the data source permissions are separate from dashboard permissions. Contact SourceMedium support to verify data source access.