Micro App Template: Group Decision Helper (Dining, Meeting Time, Vendor Choice)

Stop wasting time arguing in chat — use a tiny, reliable app instead

If your team still decides dinner, meeting times, or vendor choices by a long, noisy chat thread, you’re losing time and goodwill. The Micro App Template: Group Decision Helper is a plug-and-play Sheets + Web App that gives groups a fast, auditable way to vote and rank options. Built with Google Sheets and an Apps Script UI, it’s designed for non-developers who want a polished voting tool without hiring engineers.

What this micro app template gives you (summary)

• Instant polls for dining, meeting time, and vendor choices that anyone can join from a link.
• Ranked voting (Borda / Instant-Runoff), weighted options, and tie-breakers built-in.
• Sheets-based backend so data is visible, auditable, and easy to extend.
• Apps Script UI web app to host a clean voting interface without coding a separate frontend.
• Integration hooks for Slack, Teams, Zapier, Calendar invites, and email notifications.
• Privacy and access controls so you can run anonymous or authenticated votes.
• Plug-and-play: install the template, configure settings, deploy web app, share link.

Why micro apps and non-dev templates exploded in 2026

Late 2025 and early 2026 accelerated a trend that began earlier: teams prefer small, focused applications that solve one problem well. Media coverage — including profiles of creators like Rebecca Yu who built a dining app in days — highlighted how AI-assisted tools and low-code platforms let non-developers ship useful tools fast. The result: more organizations are comfortable buying or building micro apps (personal or team-specific apps) rather than overengineering a single, monolithic system.

“Vibe-coding” and AI-assisted development made it possible for non-devs to build apps tailored to their group’s workflow in hours or days, not weeks.

For operations, small business owners, and buyers, that means a sweet spot: inexpensive, customizable templates that are quick to deploy and safe to manage inside your existing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 environment.

How the Sheets + Apps Script Web App actually works

Think of the micro app as three layers: a Sheets backend for master data and results, an Apps Script server-side layer that runs decision logic and handles authentication, and an HTML/CSS UI served from Apps Script that everyone uses in the browser.

Sheet structure (what’s in the template)

• Config sheet: poll settings (title, description, anonymous vs authenticated, deadline).
• Options sheet: list of choices (restaurant names, vendors, time slots), metadata, and IDs.
• Votes sheet: raw submissions with timestamp, user identifier (if enabled), and rankings or scores.
• Results sheet: pre-calculated summaries for quick dashboards (counts, rankings, tie-breaks).
• Audit sheet: app events, deploy logs, and webhook history for governance.

Apps Script UI and backend

The Apps Script project includes:

• A server-side script that exposes endpoints via doGet/doPost and serves the voting UI.
• Form handlers that validate input, prevent duplicate votes, and write to the Votes sheet.
• Decision logic functions that compute Borda scores, Instant-Runoff (IRV), or weighted totals depending on configuration.
• Utility functions for exporting results (CSV/PDF), sending notifications, and triggering webhooks.

Deploying the web app (quick steps)

1. Make a copy of the template Google Sheet and open Extensions > Apps Script.
2. Review the Config sheet and update settings: title, anonymous vs authenticated, allowed email domains.
3. Authorize the script the first time it runs (it needs permission to access Sheets, send emails, and possibly external webhooks).
4. From the Apps Script editor, select Deploy > New deployment > Web app. Choose who can access (Anyone with link or only users in your org).
5. Share the web app link or embed it in a Google Site, Slack message, or company intranet.

Time estimate: you can be live in about 15–30 minutes for a basic poll; customizing results or integrations adds 1–3 hours.

Decision methods included — and when to use each

Different choices call for different voting systems. The template ships with multiple algorithms so you can pick what fits the decision context:

• Simple majority — Best for binary choices or when the group is small and decisive.
• Borda count — Good for ranked preferences when you want to reward broader consensus.
• Instant-Runoff Voting (IRV) — Use when you want to eliminate the least popular options and find a majority-supported winner.
• Weighted voting — Assign different weights to voters (e.g., stakeholders vs observers).
• Pairwise / Condorcet — For rigorous comparisons between vendors or candidates when pairwise wins matter.

Practical tip: default to Borda for dining or meeting time polls (fast consensus), and use IRV or Condorcet when the choice has significant downstream impact (vendor selection).

Integrations and automations that save time

One of the template’s biggest advantages is how easily it plugs into your existing workflows. Common integrations:

• Slack / Microsoft Teams: post poll links and summary messages via incoming webhooks when a poll is created or closed.
• Zapier / Make / Pipedream: trigger follow-up tasks (create a calendar event, notify finance) when a winner is selected.
• Gmail & Calendar: send calendar invites automatically for the winning meeting time, or email the selected vendor list to procurement.
• Google Workspace Add-ons: optionally install within Drive to surface polls inside Docs or Meet.

Example automation: when a dining poll closes, the script posts the top three restaurants to Slack and creates a calendar invite for those who voted yes. That takes one webhook and a short Apps Script function.

Security and governance — how to keep votes trustworthy

For small teams, a shared link and anonymous votes are fine. For vendor selection or formal procurement decisions, apply stronger controls:

• Authenticated access: require sign-in (restrict web app to domain users) to tie votes to user emails.
• Audit trail: enable the Audit sheet and keep a copy of the raw Votes sheet before and after a poll closes.
• Limited OAuth scopes: only grant scopes the script needs (Sheets, Gmail/send if used). Review scopes during authorization.
• Voting windows: set a closing time and lock results automatically when the window closes to prevent late edits.
• Duplicate prevention: store a hashed user token per vote to prevent repeat submissions while preserving pseudonymity for anonymous polls.

Advanced customizations for power users

If you have the appetite to tweak the template, here are high-value customizations:

• Brand the UI: change colors, logos, and text in the HTML served by Apps Script for a polished look.
• Machine-suggested options: integrate an AI suggestion endpoint (LLM) to propose restaurants or vendors based on a short prompt or past choices.
• Analytics dashboard: add a Data Studio / Looker Studio report that reads the Results sheet for deeper trend analysis.
• Role-based weighting: implement dynamic weights from an external HR sheet to reflect decision rights.
• Server-side caching: for large groups, use cached computations to keep the UI responsive.

Template vs off-the-shelf voting tools — a quick comparison

When deciding to use a template or a commercial voting product, weigh these tradeoffs:

• Cost: templates are usually a one-time fee; SaaS charges recurring subscriptions.
• Customization: Sheets + Apps Script templates are highly customizable; commercial tools may restrict workflows.
• Privacy: keeping data in your Google Workspace gives more control than many third-party SaaS tools.
• Maintenance: you or your team own the template; a SaaS provider owns availability and updates.
• Support: premium template packs can include support hours; SaaS usually has SLA-backed support tiers.

What you get in a premium marketplace pack (what to look for)

If you’re in the market to buy a polished micro app template from a marketplace, expect the following in a premium pack:

• Multiple pre-built decision methods (majority, Borda, IRV, Condorcet).
• Pre-configured integrations (Slack, Zapier, Calendar) with setup steps.
• Themeable UI and example branding for internal use.
• Documentation and step-by-step install guide, including screenshots and a troubleshooting section.
• One year of updates and email support; optional paid support blocks for customizations.
• Licensing terms suitable for small businesses (single-site or team licenses).

Real-world examples: how teams use the Group Decision Helper

1) Dining with friends

Problem: group chat devolves into multiple suggestions and opinions. Solution: create a 3-minute ranked poll with 8 restaurants, let members rank their top 3, and pick the Borda winner. Outcome: faster consensus, no negotiation post-selection.

2) Finding a meeting time

Problem: Doodle threads and bounced calendar invites. Solution: list 4 time slots, let people score availability (1–5), and use weighted averaging. Outcome: pick the slot with highest average availability and auto-create a Calendar invite for attendees.

3) Vendor shortlisting

Problem: procurement committee with different priorities (price, reliability, speed). Solution: run a ranked survey with weighted roles and pairwise comparisons. Outcome: a defensible shortlist with an audit trail you can attach to vendor selection documents.

Quick start checklist — get a poll live in 15 minutes

1. Copy the template Sheet (2 min).
2. Open Apps Script and run the provided setup script to create default options (3 min).
3. Edit Config: title, deadline, auth (3 min).
4. Deploy web app and authorize (5–10 min).
5. Share link in chat; collect votes (you’re live!).

Troubleshooting & best practices

• If votes aren’t recording, check that the script has Sheets API permission and that the sheet ID in the script matches your copy.
• Use domain-only access for sensitive polls to keep voting within your organization.
• For anonymous polls, record a hashed token instead of email to block duplicates while preserving anonymity.
• Keep the Options sheet small (under 200 rows) for performance; paginate or archive older polls.

Future developments to watch (2026+)

Micro apps will continue to improve in 2026. Expect:

• AI-generated polls: conversational prompts that create pre-filled polls from a short description (already seeding late 2025).
• Stronger identity integrations: single sign-on (SSO) for tighter provenance of votes in organizations.
• Federated micro apps: micro apps that run inside chat platforms as embeddable widgets (reducing friction even more).
• Marketplace growth: curated template marketplaces offering audited, enterprise-ready micro apps with security reviews.

Comparison note: why this template fits operations and small business buyers

Operations teams and small business owners need tools that are predictable, auditable, and fast. The Sheets + Apps Script approach maps directly onto those needs: you get transparency (data in Sheets), control (scripts you can read and modify), and cheap hosting (served from Google). For buyers ready to pay, premium template packs combine the time savings of a SaaS with the privacy and flexibility of in-house tools.

Case study: inspired by Where2Eat

Rebecca Yu’s story of building a dining app in a week captures the micro app spirit: small scope, focused value, and user-driven design. Our template channels that same approach — it’s meant to be friendly, extendable, and good enough to solve recurring decision fatigue without a long procurement process.

Final thoughts

If your team is stuck in long threads or clumsy polls, a lightweight group decision app built on Sheets and Apps Script is often the fastest path to better decisions. The Micro App Template: Group Decision Helper gives you a reusable, secure, and customizable starting point — whether you’re choosing dinner, scheduling a meeting, or shortlisting vendors.

Call to action

Ready to stop arguing and start deciding? Download the free starter template, try the live demo, or choose a premium pack with integrations and support. Get the Micro App Template now — deploy in minutes, customize in hours, and reclaim the time your team spends debating.

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