Introduction

In today’s fast-paced business environment, finding ways to enhance productivity and streamline workflows is essential. This is where Zapier comes in. Zapier is a powerful automation tool that seamlessly connects various apps and services to automate repetitive, mundane tasks. According to a Zapier report, automation makes knowledge workers happier by eliminating tedious data entry, document management, and other routine jobs. By leveraging Zapier to create customized automations, called Zaps, you can save countless hours and skyrocket productivity.

In this post, we will explore 10 brilliant Zapier automations that can radically optimize your workflows. From automatically saving email attachments to effortless meeting scheduling, these Zaps will free up more time for high-value strategic tasks. Read on to uncover how Zapier can help you work smarter, not harder.

1. Automatically save email attachments to Google Drive or Dropbox

One of the most powerful Zapier automations is the ability to automatically save any email attachments you receive directly to cloud storage. This eliminates the need to manually download and organize a deluge of files from your inbox.

Here’s how it works: Simply create a Zap that connects your email account (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) to Google Drive, Dropbox, or the cloud storage provider you prefer. Then set up a trigger so that whenever you receive an email with an attachment, the file gets automatically saved to the selected folder in your cloud storage. For example, you could configure it to save all attachments to a “Work Documents” folder in Google Drive.

According to research, 25% of corporate emails contain attachments, amounting to 76 billion messages per year. That’s a staggering number of files that must be manually managed! With this Zapier automation, your attachments are seamlessly stored the moment they hit your inbox.

The productivity benefits are immense. You no longer waste time downloading attachments one by one. The files are instantly accessible in the cloud whenever you need them. And keeping them organized is effortless since they are saved to a designated folder automatically.

2. Create Trello Cards from Gmail

One of the most powerful Zapier automations involves integrating Trello with Gmail to effortlessly create new task cards based on important emails. By simply starring or labeling key emails in Gmail, you can automatically trigger the generation of cards on your specified Trello board without any additional clicks or effort.

This integration drastically boosts productivity by seamlessly converting pivotal emails into actionable tasks in Trello. No longer will you have to manually create cards for follow-ups or projects discussed over email – the card creation happens instantly and autonomously. You can even customize details like the card title, labels, members assigned, etc. based on data from the Gmail message.

According to Trello’s website, this integration helps “keep your boards and inbox connected for maximum productivity.” Users praise how it streamlines workflows and cuts down on administrative work. With this automation in place, you can focus on high-value priorities rather than manually managing cards and tasks.

For guidance on setting up this integration, see Trello’s Gmail Power-Up page.

3. Get Slack Notifications from Forms

One of the most useful Zapier automations involves setting up notifications in Slack whenever someone submits a form you’ve created. This works seamlessly with Google Forms, Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and many other popular online form builders. The benefits of this integration are twofold:

First, you can instantly get notified when a new form response comes in, rather than having to manually check for new submissions. This is perfect for lead generation forms, contact forms on your website, or any other important form where prompt notifications are essential.

Second, you can fully customize the notifications to your liking. Choose which Slack channel should receive the alerts, customize the message format, and specify exactly what details to pull from the form response. For example, you may want notifications to include the respondent’s name, email, and any key details they provided.

By setting up automated Slack notifications for form submissions, you can react to new leads faster and never miss an important response. This helps you provide excellent customer service and respond promptly whenever prospective customers reach out (cite: Creating a form, Automations: Collect information using a simple form).

4. Add Facebook Leads to Email Lists

One of the most powerful automations you can create is to seamlessly add new Facebook leads to your email marketing lists. This integration works with all the top email service providers (ESPs) like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, and more.

The benefit is that as soon as a new lead comes in from your Facebook ads or Instagram promotions, they are automatically added to your email list so you can start engaging with them right away. This is huge for improving conversions because it allows you to nurture leads while interest is hot.

With this Zapier integration, leads don’t slip through the cracks and you don’t have to worry about manually exporting and importing contacts from Facebook. It’s a massive time saver that helps you scale your business faster.

According to a recent Zapier article, setting up this automation can 2x your leads and increase revenue up to 5x. The key is prompt follow up while leads are still warm. This integration facilitates that perfectly.

5. Create Invoices from PayPal

Alleviate the burden of administrative tasks by linking PayPal with your preferred invoicing software, such as QuickBooks or Xero. Each new sale processed through PayPal will automatically generate a comprehensive invoice, replete with all necessary payment information.

This automation saves significant time by removing the need to manually create invoices for each PayPal payment received. It also increases accuracy by pulling payment details directly from PayPal to populate invoices, avoiding typos or missing information.

According to recent research, invoice automation can help businesses handle busy sales seasons more efficiently. By setting up recurring invoices or scheduling payments, automation increases productivity and cash flow.

As noted by Zapier, “Compiling your sales data in one spot with an automated workflow is also an easy way to create a backup of your records in case anything happens on PayPal’s end.”

With integrations like Make’s PayPal and QuickBooks integration, you can seamlessly connect your sales and accounting to create this time-saving automation.

6. Sync Shopify to QuickBooks

Keep your accounting in perfect harmony with your sales by automating the transfer of new Shopify orders directly into QuickBooks. This Zap not only saves time but also reduces the potential for human error in your financial records.

The integration between Shopify and QuickBooks Online allows for a seamless syncing of order information. As soon as an order is placed in Shopify, it will automatically be imported into QuickBooks with all the relevant details like products purchased, customer information, totals, etc. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and duplication of efforts (https://quickbooks.intuit.com/partners/shopify/).

With the Shopify-QuickBooks sync, order information flows directly into your accounting system. You no longer have to manually enter orders into QuickBooks or worry about accuracy issues. The automation ensures your sales records are up-to-date and error-free. Ultimately, this gives you more time to focus on growing your business while knowing your finances are organized.

Some key benefits of syncing Shopify and QuickBooks include:

• Automates order transfers from Shopify into QuickBooks
• Saves time spent on manual data entry
• Increases accuracy of sales and accounting records
• Provides real-time synchronization of order data
• Gives a complete view of business finances and performance

With this powerful integration, ecommerce businesses can streamline operations, reduce workload, and make smarter data-driven decisions (https://apps.shopify.com/quickbooks-sync-connector). The automation between Shopify and QuickBooks is a game-changer for optimizing back-office workflows.

7. Share Instagram Photos

Amplify your social media presence by sharing your latest Instagram content across other platforms. This automation takes your new Instagram photos and posts them to your Twitter feed or Facebook page, maintaining your brand’s visibility and engagement with minimal effort.

According to Sprout Social, Instagram automation allows you to “expand your reach by sharing Instagram posts to other social channels.” By connecting your Instagram account with tools like Zapier or IFTTT, you can easily set up an automation to cross-post your Instagram photos to Facebook and Twitter. This is an excellent way to increase the exposure of your visual content and grow your audience across multiple networks.

As Sprinklr notes, cross-posting Instagram content provides “wider distribution of top-performing posts” and allows you to “target different audiences” on each platform. While your Instagram followers may differ from those on Facebook or Twitter, cross-posting gives your content another chance to resonate with each distinct audience.

Overall, automating the sharing of your Instagram photos is a smart tactic to boost engagement and build your presence. With just a few clicks in Zapier, you can save time while expanding your social media reach across platforms.

8. Schedule Meetings with Calendar

Scheduling meetings can be a major drain on productivity. Juggling emails back and forth to find a time that works for everyone often results in a frustrating game of calendar ping pong. Fortunately, Zapier integrates seamlessly with popular calendar apps like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar to automate meeting scheduling and eliminate this hassle.

By connecting your favorite scheduling tool like Calendly or ScheduleOnce to your calendar, any new appointments booked through those services can be automatically added to your calendar. This ensures your schedule is always up to date and you’ll never miss an important meeting again.

Some key benefits of automating meeting scheduling include:

• Works with different apps – Zapier connects to all the top scheduling and calendar apps so you can customize your workflow.
• Keeps calendar updated – New bookings are added instantly so your calendar is always current.
• Reduces double bookings – Automation helps avoid accidentally overlapping meetings.
• Saves time – No more wasted time on email tag for scheduling.

If you frequently book client calls, sales meetings, or team huddles, automating your scheduling with Zapier provides a huge productivity boost. Meeting invites slide effortlessly into your calendar so you can focus on the meeting rather than coordinating it.

For even greater efficiency, use Zapier to connect your calendar app to other platforms like Slack, Trello or Asana. Updates made in your calendar can automatically create tasks and reminders in your project management tools. This 360 degree integration helps keep your entire workflow running smoothly.

Take the pain out of scheduling by letting Zapier handle meeting coordination for you. Say goodbye to the back-and-forth emails and calendar confusion. Automation provides the simplest way to seamlessly manage your meetings across apps.

9. Automate Documents with WebMerge

One of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks is creating customized documents like contracts, invoices, and reports. However, with WebMerge’s document automation, you can significantly speed up document creation and improve consistency.

By setting up a Zap between WebMerge and your data collection apps, you can instantly generate documents tailored to each client or situation. For example, sales contracts can pull in information on pricing, products, and other order details automatically from your CRM. The document is dynamically populated with the relevant data, eliminating the need to manually create each contract from scratch.

WebMerge integrates with various business apps like Salesforce, HubSpot, and QuickBooks. It also connects with data sources like Google Sheets to pull information. With document templates created in Microsoft Word, you can generate PDFs, Word docs, Excel sheets, PowerPoints and more at the click of a button.

Automating documents through WebMerge integration not only speeds up document creation but also improves consistency. You can ensure that all documents follow the same format and contain the necessary information for each situation. This creates a more professional and streamlined process for document generation.

10. Track Time in Sheets with Toggl Integration

For those who need to monitor time spent on various projects, integrating Toggl with Google Sheets can automatically record your work hours in a spreadsheet. This provides a clear overview of your time management and can help with project billing and productivity analysis.

Toggl Track is a powerful time tracking tool that allows you to track time across different projects and tasks. With the Toggl Chrome extension, you can easily start timers for any task you’re working on in your browser. Toggl then compiles this time data into reports and timesheets.

By integrating Toggl with Google Sheets using Zapier, you can automatically populate a spreadsheet with your time entries from Toggl. This gives you a centralized place to view and analyze your time spent on work. Some key benefits of this integration include:

• Automatic time tracking – Set it and forget it. Time is logged effortlessly in the background.
• Real-time updates – As soon as you stop a timer in Toggl, the data flows into Sheets.
• Custom reporting – Build customized reports and dashboards visualizing time usage.
• Billing support – Easily generate invoices from the tracked hours.

With this powerful automation, you eliminate manual time tracking and gain greater visibility into how your time is spent. Contact me to help set up this integration or other productivity automations using Zapier.

Conclusion

In summary, automating workflows with Zapier provides numerous benefits such as saving time, reducing errors, improving productivity, and streamlining business processes. By connecting your favorite apps and services, you can create powerful automations that eliminate tedious manual work.

The possibilities with Zapier are endless thanks to over 3,000 app integrations. You can customize Zaps tailored to your unique needs and automate virtually any process imaginable. Whether you want to sync data between apps, trigger actions based on events, or create documents automatically, Zapier makes it easy and efficient.

To get started with automating workflows using Zapier, contact me for a free consultation. With my expertise in Zapier and other automation tools, I can help you identify areas for automation and implement customized solutions to boost your productivity and streamline operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most common questions and answers about using Zapier for workflow automation:

What is Zapier?

Zapier is a platform that allows you to integrate and automate workflows between different apps and services. It acts as a bridge between your apps by passing information between them based on certain triggers and actions. For example, you can create a Zap that automatically adds new email subscribers to your CRM.

How much does Zapier cost?

Zapier has both free and paid plans. The free plan allows you to create up to 5 Zaps with limited functionality. Paid plans start at $20/month and allow unlimited Zaps plus access to premium features.

What apps and services can I connect with Zapier?

Zapier connects with over 3,000 different apps and services including popular ones like Gmail, Slack, Trello, MailChimp, Shopify, and more. You can browse the full directory here.

How do I create a Zap?

Creating a Zap involves just 3 easy steps – choosing a trigger app, an action app, and customizing your workflow. Zapier provides templates and step-by-step guidance to set up any type of integration.

Can I create complex workflows?

Yes, you can create multi-step workflows by adding more apps and actions to your Zaps. With Zapier’s code functionality, you can even build highly customized automations.

Is Zapier secure?

Zapier uses industry-standard 256-bit SSL encryption to keep your data secure as it moves between apps. It also provides enterprise-level security and uptime with ISO 27001 certification and 99.9% uptime guarantee.

About the Author

Justin Adamski is an automation integration expert with over 10 years of experience helping businesses optimize workflows and maximize productivity. He has an extensive background in implementing tools like Zapier, Integromat, and Make to seamlessly connect apps and services for enhanced efficiency.

With a keen eye for identifying repetitive tasks and bureaucratic processes, Justin excels at developing customized automations that save time and reduce headaches. He has created integrations for companies across diverse industries, including ecommerce, marketing, finance, real estate, and more.

Justin has an engineering degree from MIT and has authored guides on workflow automation for publications like Business Insider and TechCrunch. He is an avid blogger and frequently contributes articles to sites like Zapier’s blog and The Automators.

For personalized guidance on leveraging Zapier or other automation platforms, contact Justin on Upwork. He offers onboarding sessions to assess your business needs and build the perfect automations to supercharge productivity.