Get your Google Maps key

This is the one fiddly step in setup. Ten minutes, once. The key lets Route Companion put your clients on a map and use real road drive times. It is your key on your Google account, so your addresses never pass through anyone else.
Two parts, both needed: the key (steps 1 to 8), then Turn on updates (steps 9 to 14) in the same project. Do not stop after the key: without part two, your copy can never update.
One Google account, in a private window. Signed in to more than one Google account in this browser? Do this guide in a private window (Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+N; Safari: File › New Private Window) signed in to only the account that owns your Route Companion copy. Then check the account picture at the top right of the Google Cloud console before each step: the key and the project must belong to that account.
What it costs. Google gives every account a free monthly allowance: about 10,000 address lookups and 10,000 drive-time lookups. Looking up your addresses happens once per client, so that part is free. Real drive times are priced per pair of stops, which adds up fast on a big round, so most businesses should not buy them for every leg: Settings, Drive times fits your own roads from a small sample instead, and that stays inside the free allowance at any size. Google does ask for a card. The workbook stops buying at Google’s free monthly allowance unless you set a Monthly Google Budget in Settings. Step 7 sets a budget alert so you would hear about anything unusual long before it mattered. Running more than one workbook? Give each its own key in its own Google Cloud project: each workbook counts only its own use.
Easier option: in your Route Companion spreadsheet, open Route Planner › Set up › Workbook › How to get a Google Maps key…. It walks you through making the project, switching on Geocoding and Routes and creating the key, one step at a time, with a box at the end that saves the key for you. It does not cover billing (step 4), restricting the key (step 6), the budget alert (step 7) or Turn on updates (steps 9 to 14), so come back to this page for those.
1

Go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in with the same Google account that owns your Route Companion spreadsheet.

2

At the top, next to the Google Cloud logo, click the project dropdown, then New project. Name it Route Companion. Wait a few seconds, then make sure it is the one selected in that dropdown.

3

Left menu → APIs & Services → Library. Search for Geocoding API and click Enable. Then search for Routes API and enable that too.

A box may pop up as soon as you enable Geocoding: “Get Started on Google Maps Platform”, with Your API Key in it. That is your key, made for you. Click the copy icon next to it and paste it somewhere safe (a note on your computer). Then close the box with the X or press Esc. A second box, Protect your API key, may follow with Select restriction type: click Maybe later. Those restriction types (websites, IP addresses, apps) all block Route Companion. Step 6 restricts the key the right way. You do not need Go to Google Maps Platform; if you clicked it, go back to console.cloud.google.com and carry on here. Enable Routes API as well.

Geocoding turns addresses into map pins. Routes gives real road drive times and draws the route along real streets. Nothing else is needed for routing.

4

Google will ask you to set up Billing the first time. Follow the prompt and add a card. This switches on the free allowance; it does not start charging you. Leave billing on: without it Google refuses both address lookups and drive times.

5

APIs & Services → Credentials. Already got a key from the pop-up in step 3? It is listed here (usually called Maps Platform API Key): do not make another, go to step 6. Otherwise: + Create credentials → API key. Copy the key that appears. It starts with AIza.

6

Click the key's name to edit it. Under Application restrictions leave None. Route Companion runs on Google's own servers, which have no fixed address, so a Websites or IP addresses restriction blocks every call, even though Google's own page suggests one. Under API restrictions choose Restrict key, tick Geocoding API and Routes API only, and Save. Now the key cannot be used for anything else, even if it leaks.

7

Optional but smart: Billing → Budgets & alerts → create a budget of $10 a month with an email alert.

8

Easiest: on the route page, More › Set up, paste the key at step 6 and tap Look up addresses on the map at step 7. The same two things are also in the spreadsheet under Route Planner › Set up › Workbook › Set Google Maps Key (private) and Route Planner › Set up › Bring in › Look Up Addresses on the Map. When you save the key, Route Companion tests it for both address lookups and drive times, and tells you if Google refuses either one (it is almost always step 3, 4 or 6). Then the pins appear.

Concierge and Implementation: save the key (step 6 on Set up, or the menu item above), but do not tap Look up addresses on the map: I look up the addresses once your clients are in. Do not stop here: carry on with Turn on updates below, steps 9 to 14. It is in your own Google Cloud project, so only you can do it.

DO NOT SKIP THIS

Turn on updates (same project, about 15 more minutes, once)

Without these steps, your copy never gets fixes or new features. When Everjade releases a new version, the Update button will not work until this is done. Do it now, while you are already in Google Cloud.

Stay in the Route Companion project you just made.

9
IN GOOGLE CLOUD (console.cloud.google.com)

Left menu → APIs & Services → Library. Search for and Enable each of these two: Apps Script API and Google Drive API. Search can miss them, so use these direct links (check your project name at the top first): console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/script.googleapis.com and console.cloud.google.com/apis/library/drive.googleapis.com. Click Enable on each; the button turns into Manage.

IN A NEW TAB: script.google.com/home/usersettings
One more switch, on your Google account rather than the project: open script.google.com/home/usersettings, signed in as the same account, and turn Google Apps Script API to On. It is off on every new account, and updates cannot install without it. That page has only this one switch. Everything after it happens back in Google Cloud, then in your spreadsheet.

10

BACK IN GOOGLE CLOUD (the console.cloud.google.com tab)
Left menu → APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen (it may be called Google Auth Platform) → Get started. App name: Route Companion. Support email: yours. Audience: External (or Internal if your email is on Google Workspace with your own domain). Contact email: yours. Agree, then Create.

11

STILL IN GOOGLE CLOUD
Only if you chose External: Audience → Publish app → Confirm. It should now say In production. Skip this and Google later says “Access blocked: has not completed the Google verification process”. If Publish app is greyed out with “complete your configuration on the Branding page”: open Branding, fill in Application home page https://everjade.store, Privacy policy https://everjade.store/privacy, Terms of service https://everjade.store/terms, add everjade.store under Authorized domains, check the support and developer emails, Save, then come back to Audience and publish. No logo needed. You do not need Google to verify anything; ignore that notice.

12

STILL IN GOOGLE CLOUD
Left menu → Cloud overview (or the Dashboard). Copy the Project number: the long number made only of digits, not the project ID.

13

IN YOUR ROUTE COMPANION SPREADSHEET
Open your Route Companion spreadsheet → Extensions → Apps Script → Project Settings (the gear) → under Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Project, click Change project, paste the number, then Set project. Close the Apps Script tab.

14

IN YOUR ROUTE COMPANION SPREADSHEET
Reload the spreadsheet and use any item in the Route Planner menu once (Set up › Which Version Am I On? is a good one). Google asks for permission again: the same screens as when you first set it up (Advanced, Go to Route Companion, tick Select all, then Continue or Allow).

You should see: nothing new yet. The next time Everjade publishes a version, your route page says so, and Route Planner › Set up › Updates › Check for Updates… installs it.
If step 3 or 4 feels like too much: email info@everjade.store with a screenshot of the step you are on, and I will help you through it.
Route Companion guide · updated 2026-10-06