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• What is Zapier?
• Why use Zapier?
• What kind of Zaps can I set up from Deputy triggers?
• What kind of Zaps can I set up that action in Deputy?

Work through some step-by-step examples of setting up a Zap:

• How to use Zapier to add Deputy shifts to your Google Calendar
• How to use Zapier to create shifts in Deputy from an Airtable account

More Zapier tips and tricks

• Deputy requires any timestamps to be received in unix format time
• Formatting text the way you want using Zapier

What is Zapier?

Zapier is a third-party service that helps you automate repetitive tasks between two or more apps. When an event happens in one app, Zapier can tell another app to perform a particular action.

Zapier calls this automated workflow a Zap. Every Zap has a trigger and one or more actions. A trigger is an event that starts a Zap and the action is what your Zap does for you. 

Why use Zapier?

Some of the automations you can configure in Zapier are already provided for free within the Deputy extension integration.  

However, if there isn't a Deputy extension (see list here) for the task you want to automate, Zapier may be able to assist, especially if you want to action another app beyond Deputy.

Zapier polls the trigger app for updated information every 1 - 15 minutes so automation can occur in near real-time.

What kind of Zaps can I set up from Deputy triggers?

You can set up Zaps using triggers in Deputy to perform actions in another app. Here are some real-life examples of Zaps:

• automatically add Deputy shifts to your Google Calendar
• send a Slack message when a new Deputy shift is added or it's someone's birthday
• create a shift in Deputy based on an action in another app

Here is a list of Deputy triggers you can work with to configure Zaps:

Deputy trigger event	Explanation
New colleague	Triggers when a new person is added to your workplace. (subject to workplace visibility permissions)
New Area/ Department	Triggers when a new Area is added in Deputy
New Post	Triggers when a new News Feed post arrives
New My Schedule	Triggers when there is a new schedule for me
New My Timesheet	Triggers when there is a new timesheet saved for me
Break started or finished	Triggers when an Employee starts or finishes their break
New location	Triggers when a new location is added to Deputy
New Employee	Triggers when a new employee is added
Forgot to End Shift (Timesheet Incomplete)	Triggers when a timesheet needs to be completed because an employee has forgotten to end their shift.
New Late Employee	Triggers when someone is late to start their shift
New Leave	Triggers when a new Leave request is submitted
New Notification	Triggers when there is a new notification for you.
New Role	Triggers when New Role/permission set
New Schedule	Triggers when there is a new schedule

Is there a Deputy trigger you'd like to see on this list? Send us feedback to see if we can add it!

What kind of Zaps can I set up that action in Deputy?

You can set up Zaps using triggers in other apps to perform actions in Deputy. Here are some real-life examples of Zaps:

• Copy new Shopify orders in Deputy Sales data
• Create sales data in Deputy from Google Sheets
• Add new employees in Deputy from Google sheets

Here is a list of Deputy actions you can work with to configure Zaps:

Deputy action event	Explanation
Create a Company	Creates a new Location in Deputy
Create Employee	Creates a new staff member in Deputy
Create Location	Creates a new Location in Deputy
Create Announcement	Creates a new News Feed Post
Create Area/Department	Creates a new area in Deputy
Create My Unavailability	Adds your unavailability in Deputy
Create Shift	Creates a new shift
Create Task	Creates a new task for the specified employee in Deputy
Create Sales Data	Creates new sales data in Deputy. Ideally, this is an invoice or a transaction at its most granular level. We overlay this data for schedule charting and other reporting.
End Shift	Ends a shift in progress in Deputy
Start Shift	Starts a shift in Deputy

Is there a Deputy action you'd like to see on this list? Send us feedback to see if we can add it!

 

Let's look at some examples of setting up a new Zap step by step.

How to use Zapier to add Deputy shifts to your Google Calendar

You can sync your Deputy shifts to your Google calendar within Deputy however Google only polls updates to its web calendars every 8-24 hours whereas Zapier polls for new data every 1-15 minutes.

Before you get started, ensure you have access to:

• your Deputy account
• your Zapier account
• your Google calendar (you may want to create a dedicated calendar for Deputy shifts)

Firstly, log in to your Zapier account and click on Create Zap.

Configure the trigger

1. Type "Deputy" into the Trigger App event field and click on the latest Deputy listed.

2. Choose the event in Deputy you would like to trigger the Zap. For this example, we will choose New My Schedule.

3. Click Continue.

4. Click Sign in to sign into your Deputy account.

5. Sign into your Deputy account with your email and password.

6. Click Allow access for Zapier to connect to your Deputy account.

7. You can see the name of the Deputy account that Zapier is connected to. For this example, the Deputy account belongs to Ed Kingsley. Click Continue.

8. You can now test your trigger to ensure Zap finds the correct information.

9. The results will be displayed. Click Continue.

Configure the action

1. Type Google into the Action App event field and click on Google Calendar as listed.

2. From the Event drop-down list, select Create Detailed Event and click Continue.

3. In the Google Calendar account field select Connect a new account to connect your Google Calendar to Zapier.

4. Select your Google account you wish to connect to Zapier and click on Allow.

5. Now you can begin to configure the Calendar action you want to create.

First, select the specific Google Calendar where you want the events to be added by Zapier. See Google help for instructions on how to create a new calendar in your Google account. For this example, we've created a calendar called "Ed's Spark and Co shifts".

6. Once your calendar has been selected, you can configure the data fields.

Click on the Summary field and in the insert data field type "activity" and select it from the list.

7. Continue to complete the remaining data fields. Some are required and the others can be left blank or configured as you see fit. The required field and the data options to be selected are summarised here:

Calendar Event Field name	Deputy data option to select from list
Summary	Activity
Location	Location
Start Date and Time	Start Time: YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+HH:MM
End Date and Time	End Time: YYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+HH:MM

Once you have selected the required data fields click Continue.

8. Click Test and review

9. Check your google calendar to see if the Deputy shift has been added as an event.

10. Click Publish Zap to publish your Zap.

The Zap is now active and will continue to create new events in Ed's Google Calendar whenever new shifts are scheduled for Ed in Deputy. Note: Zapier polls for new data every 1-15 minutes so the action may not be instantaneous.

How to use Zapier to create shifts in Deputy from an Airtable account

Firstly, log in to your Zapier account and click on Create Zap.

Create the Trigger

1. Type Airtable in the field to select the app to trigger the zap and select New Record as the Event then click Continue.

2. Click Sign in to connect your Airtable account.

3. Select from the populated list, which Airtable workspaces you wish Zapier to have access to and click Grant access.

4. Select the Base and Table that contains the data you wish to create the trigger for then click Continue.

5. Zapier will pull a test record for your trigger, if this data is correct click Continue. If not check the Record selection drop-down for other relevant records.

Create a formatting action

In the Airtable trigger created, there are shift start and end timestamps included in the data from Airtable. Airtable sends the shift start and end time in Zulu time format and not the Unix time format that Deputy needs so we need to create an extra formatting action before we can create the Deputy action to create a shift.

1. For the next action click Format.

2. In the Event field select Date/Time and click Continue.

3. In the Transform field select Format.

4. For the Input field, select the record you would like to format - in this example, the Start Time, which is displayed in Zulu (UTC) time is selected.

5. For the To Format field, select X which represents Unix time.

6.  Once you have made your selections you can test the formatting or skip the test to move to configuring the next action.

If you have multiple timestamps in your data record that need to be converted to Unix time or need to format another aspect of your data you can configure another Format action in the same way. In this example, we set up two separate format actions to format both the Start and End timestamps.

Create an action to Create a Shift in Deputy

1. Type Deputy in the search field for the Action and select Deputy.

2. In the Event field select Create Shift and then click Continue.

3. Sign in to the authorise connection of your Deputy account to Zapier (if you have not already). Otherwise, confirm the correct account is connected and click Continue.

4. In the Start Timestamp field select the relevant Date /Time Formatted by Zapier Output

Repeat this configuration for the End Timestamp field to select the relevant Date /Time Formatted by Zapier Output.

These are the only two mandatory fields that need to be completed to create the shift however you can optionally complete other fields for the shifts that are being created including:

Field	Mandatory	Data format expected
Start Timestamp (when does the shift start)	YES	Unix date time format
End Timestamp (when does thee shift end)	YES	Unix date time format
Employee ID (who is the shift for)	no	select a data record (Simon, does it want a full name or email address?)
Publish (whether shift is automatically published or not)	no	True / False
Meal Break Minutes	no	enter text for the number of minutes or select a data record from your third party app
Name of the Area / Department the shift is for	no	Zapier will pull your Deputy Location into the dropdown for you to select (Simon is this correct that it pulls Locations and not areas?)
Force Overwrite (whether you want existing shifts to be overwritten by the shifts created by this Zap)	no	Simon what format is expected here?
Open (whether you want the shift to be created as open)	no	Simon what format is expected here?
Comment (a text comment that can be added to the shift in Deputy)		enter text or select a data record to pull data from your third party app
Confirm status (Whether or not the shift has been confirmed when its created)	no	enter text or select a data record to pull data from your third party app Simon what format is expected here?

 

5. Once you have completed all the desired fields click Continue.

6. You can Test your action and then Publish the Zap.

Now when the specified data records are created in Airtable, Zapier will format the data and create a shift in the connected Deputy account.

More Zapier tips and Tricks

Deputy requires any timestamps to be received in Unix format time

If you are creating zaps that use timestamps and create an action in Deputy, please be aware that the timestamp format must be delivered to Deputy in Unix time.

If the data from the app you are trying to connect has timestamps presented in a format other than Unix then you will need to add an extra step in your Zap to format the timestamp in the original data to Unix format before it is added as a Deputy action in Zapier. 

See this example.

Formatting text the way you want in Zapier

Read this handy guide from Zapier on how to format your text, including timestamps, when moving data from one app to another.