“Zaps” and “Recipes” are usually associated with electricity and cooking, not The Cloud.
So were going to teach you a little bit about Zaps and Recipes when it comes to operating your business in the cloud.
If you’re already using some cloud software tools then you’ll understand that when two systems integrate with one another they can share data between them. For example, Receipt Bank can talk to Xero in that it can create expenses/purchases in Xero based on the information contained in Receipt Bank.
Introducing APIs
The two systems do this in the back ground using what’s called an Application Programming Interface (more commonly referred to as an API). Put simply, and API allows one systems to talk to/share information with another system by using a set of definitions, rules and protocols.
When two systems are designed to talk to one another, integrating them usually takes a couple of clicks, authorise your login and you’re done. We call this a native integration e.g. the two systems are already designed to talk to one another (at least, in the way they’ve been designed to….).
Connect your Apps & Automate Workflows
So what happens when you have a system that’s not designed to talk to another system but you wish they could….or two systems are integrated but not exactly how you’d like them to be?
That’s where things like Zaps & Recipes can REALLY help you automate your business processes. Zapier & Workato are two online tools that allow you to relatively easily create automate workflows between two system that aren’t typically designed to talk to one another.
A workflow in Zapier is called a “Zap” and a workflow in Workato is called a “Recipe”.
The basis of any zap or recipe is:
When this happens in system X, do this in system Y
There are thousands of pre-made Zaps and Recipes available that might help you solve problems/inefficiencies within your business, or you can play around with your own customised Zaps/Recipes to meet your needs.
In our business, we use Slack as a communication tool for our team and we use Teamwork to manage our projects, tasks and time. By creating a few Zaps I was able to integrate Teamwork with Slack to create a live feed of the tasks being completed and time being allocated to those tasks. A great way to keep my eye on who is doing (not doing) what.
Another great Zap we use is to automatically download Gmail email attachments to a specific Google Drive folder.
Both Zapier and Workato have a lot of similarities but they don’t integrate with all the same systems and they don’t always integrate in the same way. If you’ve tried to create a Zap to achieve something and just can’t get it to work it’s definitely worth giving a Workato Recipe a try – and vice versa.
Trial it for yourself
I can’t recommend enough signing up for a free Zapier and Workato account and have a play around – you’ll quickly find some cool things you can achieve and automate.