Table of contents
How does it work?
Use Zapier to connect your Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and many other apps to Plecto. Zapier will automatically add registrations to your Plecto data sources whenever the other app updates. See the complete list of all the apps Zapier can integrate with Plecto.
Say you add a birthday in your calendar. Once the birthday comes, Zapier will trigger and add a registration in Plecto. This registration will trigger a notification and pop up on your Plecto slideshow. 🎂 You can also create notifications based on other events, such as lunch breaks, town halls, and others.
Send fun notifications to your team and maintain the office routine even if you're working from home!
Step 1: Create a manual data source in Plecto
First, you need to create a custom input manual data source. This data source will be used to store registrations sent from Zapier and to trigger the notifications in Plecto.
Go to Data management > Data sources > + New data source.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Custom input data source. Give your data source a title, adjust the permissions if necessary, then click on Save in the bottom-right corner.
Add more fields to the data source, for example, Event description. This will enable you to better configure the trigger in Zapier.
Move on to Step 2.
Step 2: Set up Zapier
To configure Zapier, you need to set up a trigger and an action. You want to trigger Zapier to create a registration in Plecto before an event in your calendar starts. The registration will then trigger a notification in Plecto, which will appear on your Plecto slideshow.
Go to this page in Zapier to quickly connect Plecto to your calendar app.
Use the search box to find your app, for example Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook.
Under "When this happens..." choose Event Start/Calendar Event Start. Click on the arrows to switch between options.
Under "automatically do this!" choose Create New Registration.
Once both options are selected, click Connect Plecto + [Name of your calendar app].
At this point, Zapier will ask you to log in to your account if you haven't already. Log in to proceed and configure the trigger and action.
Step 3: Set up the Trigger
The trigger is what prompts Zapier to perform an action in Plecto. In this case, we will set up a notification for Google Calendar. You can use other apps too. The trigger should be the starting time of the event in your calendar.
Choose app & event – Choose Google Calendar.
Trigger Event – Choose Event Start. You want to create a registration in Plecto and send out the notification at the moment when the event starts and not, for example, when the event is created in the calendar.
Choose account – Select the Google Calendar account you want to connect to Plecto. This can be the account of your organization.
Set up trigger.
Calendar – Select the name of the calendar that will trigger Zapier. This is the calendar where you create and store all the lunchtime or birthday events.
Time Before – Here, select how long before the event you want Zapier to trigger and create a registration in Plecto. Select a value and a unit, for example, 15 Minutes or 1 Day.
Search Term – Add a keyword that will filter on your event titles. For example, if you add "lunch" as a search term, Zapier will trigger from each event that includes the word "lunch" in its title.
Test trigger – Click Continue to test if the trigger can find an event in your Google Calendar.
Step 4: Set up the Action
The action is Zapier prompting Plecto to create a new registration in a data source.
Choose app & event – Choose Plecto and Create New Registration as the action event.
Choose account – Choose your Plecto organization. If you are part of multiple organizations, select the one where you created the manual data source.
Set up action.
Integration Name – Type in a name that describes what you're connecting to Plecto. This can be Google Lunch, Birthday Calendar, or others.
User ID – This field represents the user that creates registrations in your Plecto data source. Here you can type in any static value, for example, "1."
User Name – This will be the employee name in your Plecto data source. Add Zapier, Lunch, Birthdays, or any other name.
Data Source – Select the manual data source you created for your lunch or birthday reminders.
Date – Select Event Begins with the date and time format YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00. This is a date and time format that Plecto can recognize.
External ID – This will be a unique ID of each registration that gets created in Plecto. Select a dynamic value from the dropdown list called "ID: 12345" which will serve as a sample ID. Your first registration will be created with this ID, and new unique IDs will be generated with each new registration.
Test action – To test the action, click Test & Continue. If the test is successful, you will see a confirmation message. To finish the Zapier setup, click on the Turn on Zap button.
Step 5: Create a notification in Plecto
The last step is to create a notification in Plecto. Please note that notifications can only be configured by employees with admin access to Plecto.
Go to Gamification > Notifications > + New notification.
Create a notification based on a new or updated registration.
Give the notification a title, for example, "Lunch Break" or "Birthdays."
Select the data source you created in Step 1.
Enable the notification for the employee created by Zapier. The employee name is the same as the User Name you added when setting up the action in Zapier.
Select one or multiple notification actions. Here you can get creative and personalize the notification for your team. 🎨
Click Save in the bottom-right corner to finish.
Static vs. dynamic values
Static values
We recommend adding static values in the User ID and User Name fields since Zapier is the only "user" creating registrations in your Plecto data source.
Static values are fixed and the same for each registration so you will have the same user creating registrations. If you add a dynamic user ID, Zapier will generate new user IDs, and Plecto will create new employee profiles for each new ID that gets imported.
Dynamic values
We recommend selecting a dynamic value in the External ID field, for example, "ID: 12345." This will make sure to generate unique IDs for each new registration.
If you don't add a dynamic value in the External ID field, Zapier will overwrite the same registration, which can tamper with the notification trigger in Plecto.