Use cases → Admin and governance
Synchronise an external contact directory into Google Workspace
Keep an external or master contact directory in sync with Google Workspace global contacts using a delegated service account.
| Who it is for | Admins responsible for keeping Workspace contacts aligned with a central HR or CRM system. |
|---|---|
| APIs | Admin SDK |
| Typical scopes | admin.directory.customer, admin.directory.user, admin.directory.domain |
The problem
Many organisations have a canonical contact source outside Workspace. Users expect autocomplete, address book and sharing to reflect it, but manual imports fall out of date and point-in-time scripts miss removals or updates.
How it works
- Extract the authoritative contact list from the master system, including unique external identifiers.
- Fetch the complete existing Workspace directory using the Admin SDK, paginating through all contacts.
- For each contact: create new, update changed, or delete removed entries to match the source.
- Log every mutation with the external identifier and result for audit and reconciliation.
- Schedule regular runs and alert on API quota or sync failures.
What changes
Workspace users see a live, accurate contact directory that matches the master source, with changes reflected automatically and traceably.
Watch it explained
“Odoo Google Integration | Sync Users, Contacts & Tasks with Google Workspace” — echoBitz IT Solutions Private Limited on YouTube. Third-party video, included because it covers this ground well. We are not affiliated with the channel.
Questions people ask
Can I rely on the Admin SDK to de-duplicate contacts?
No. You must track your own external identifiers, as the API does not prevent silent duplication if two runs create the same contact in parallel.
How can I handle large directories efficiently?
Page through the directory with exponential backoff for rate limits, and batch writes where possible to avoid throttling.
Want this built?
This is a pattern we run in production. We will set up the delegation and build this on top of it — $500 per hour, most of it working the same day.
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