Zapier lets you connect more than 7,000 apps and automatically sync data between them using a simple visual interface — no coding required. Millions of people rely on this platform to automate a large part of their daily work ¹.

In Zapier, automated connections are called Zaps, and they let you create workflows between apps that would otherwise not be possible. Each Zap begins with a trigger in one app: an event that starts in one app, and triggers one or more actions in other apps, automatically passing the data along.

For example, you could create a Zap that triggers when a new task is created in your Asana or Todoist account and immediately captures that task in your FacileThings inbox. We’ll look at this example in more detail below:

The available triggers and actions depend on how each app’s Zapier integration is implemented. In FacileThings, the following triggers are available:

• New Action: Triggered when a new item is captured in FacileThings.
• Action Updated: Triggered when an action is modified (only for the text field and the notes).
• Action Moved: Triggered when an action has been moved from one list to another (except for the Done list).
• Action Set to Done: Triggered when an action has been marked as done and moved to the Done list.
• New Project: Triggered when a new project is created in FacileThings.

Depending on how the triggers are designed, they can be instantaneous or have a 15-minute delay. All FacileThings triggers run instantly.

FacileThings also supports the following actions:

• Capture Action: Captures a new action in the FacileThings inbox.
• Update Action: Updates the data of an existing action (text and notes).
• Set Action to Done: Marks an existing action as done and sends it to the Done list.
• Create Project: Creates a new project in FacileThings.
• Add Action to Project: Adds a new action to a project’s Next Actions list.

Here are a couple of practical use cases:

Use case: Gmail integration

Imagine you receive a notification in your Gmail inbox whenever someone contacts you through your website. You want to capture these notifications so you can reply and follow up properly.

You can create a Zap that starts with Gmail. From Gmail’s available triggers, you could use New Email Matching Search if all the emails share a common characteristic, or New Labeled Email if you want the task to be captured in FacileThings when you assign a certain label to the email.

For instance, if all the emails come from the same address, i.e., “queries@mywebsite.com”. For the integration to be completely automatic, it’s better to use the New Email Matching Search trigger:

In the next step, define which emails should be captured in FacileThings. Specify that only emails from that address should be captured. To do this, create a search filter:

Then, capture a new item in FacileThings with the information from that email. Next, select FacileThings as the action app:

The only required field to capture an action in FacileThings is text. We configure the task so that text is filled with the subject of the email and the notes contain the body of the email. In this case, the external ID field isn’t needed.

Once you publish the Zap , a new item will be created whenever you receive an email from that address in your Gmail account (within 15 minutes due to the Gmail trigger delay).

Use case: Integration with Asana

Now let’s look at a practical example of integration with another task and project management application. I’ve used Asana for this example, but the case applies also for other tools such as Todoist, Trello, ClickUp, etc.

Imagine that your work team uses Asana to share projects and tasks, but you rather manage your own tasks via FacileThings. Having to duplicate the work in both apps isn’t desirable.

The simplest version of this integration uses two Zaps: one Zap that allows you to capture in FacileThings the new tasks that came in Asana, and another one that lets you complete tasks in Asana when you have finished them in FacileThings.

This way, you can work entirely in FacileThings without touching Asana, and your colleagues will know which tasks you have completed and when.

Zap 1: Capturing Asana tasks in FacileThings

Select Asana as the trigger app and choose the New Task trigger, since we want it to start every time a task is created in Asana.

To set up the Asana New Task trigger you need to specify the Workspace and Project the task belongs to. Let’s assume you create your work tasks in the Work project:

Next, connect that trigger to the FacileThings Capture Action.

Set up the action by mapping Asana task fields to FacileThings fields. It’s easy to see that the text field should contain the name of the task, and the notes field should contain its linked notes. But what is the external ID field for?

The external ID field lets you share the other app’s identifier for the task with FacileThings (it’s usually a number, and the field is called id or something similar). This will let the system know which Asana task needs update when you complete the task later in FT.

This field is only needed if you’re designing a two-way integration which uses data updates in both apps.

Once the Zap is established, each new task created in the specified Asana project will be duplicated in FacileThings.

Zap 2: Updating tasks in Asana from FacileThings

This Zap updates Asana tasks when you mark them as Done in FacileThings.

In this case, FacileThings is the starting application, and the trigger we need to use is Action Set to Done. This trigger doesn’t need further configuration, it activates every time an action is marked as Done.

In Asana, the Update Task action marks a task as complete. Therefore, this action should be the second step of the Zap.

Set the Task ID to the stored external ID, then mark “Complete”. Set the “Mark Task as complete?” question to true, and set the text field to Name, to update the task description in case it has been modified. Make sure to set the Workspace and Project fields:

The integration is now active.

¹ Zapier has a free Basic plan that only allows you to run 100 tasks per month and create two-step Zaps, and a paid Professional plan with unlimited tasks and multi-step Zaps.