Zapier and duplicates

Michael Ott

Hi all,

 

I'm hoping to tap into collective wisdom to sort out my problem. 

 

I'm trying out Zapier to do the following: if a row is updated with a date in the future, copy it to another sheet, only once. If the date gets updated again, I don't need to create a second copy. 

 

I created a Zap which works well, except it copies the same row every time anything is updated in the source sheet row.

 

Is there a way of making Zapier monitor for duplicates and stop the copy of this particular row if the target sheet already has it?  

 

Thank you all for your help. 

J. Craig Williams

Yes.

Zapier allows filters - so you set up the trigger to be updated row, but filter for the thing of interest.

For example, I have a "Quotes"sheets that moves the row to the "Invoices" sheet when the [Quote Accepted] column is checked AND the [Date Accepted] column is today. 

 

I can enter the quote - no zap.

I can mark the quote accept - zap!

Tomorrow, I can correct the typo in the name - no zap.

 

This article really helped with the date filters 

https://zapier.com/help/modifying-dates-and-times/#modifier-options

 

I hope that helps.

 

Craig

Michael Ott

Hi Craig,

 

thanks for your advice. This will work, however, it requires manual checking of the column and my source sheet is updated automatically. Is there a way of using Zapier to automatically tag the source raw as "copied" or get it to check the destination sheet for the identical entry and stop the process if a duplicate is found?

 

Is there a way of using Zapier to automatically tag the source row as "copied" once the zap is successful or get it to check the destination sheet for the identical entry and stop the process if a duplicate is found?

 

Azuqua can do it quite easily based on the cell history -- is there any way of doing it with Zapier?

 

Best regards

Michael

J. Craig Williams

Michael,

 

What ever you are doing to the row (for example updating it with a date) can be the trigger for Zapier.

Zapier can't check for duplicates. It does poll the sheet for changes (so it knows if there is an update) but does not do any processing unless it gets triggered.

 

I'd need to investigate to see if you could have a second Zap triggered on the additional row from the first Zap. Interesting idea. 

 

Azuqua certainly has more features but for my use cases is extremely overpriced.

I look forward to having a customer that doesn't mind the cost so I can get in and play with it more. Until then Zapier's recent updates make it much more attractive to me.

 

Craig

 

Pedro Cuberos, PMP

Hi Michael, 

There is a way of doing this. you will have to do a couple things though...

1) On the "Quotes" sheet, insert a boolean column (checkbox) - name it "row updated" and insert a column with an auto number - call it "Row ID".

2) Create a sheet called "update log" with a column called "Row ID" 

3) Use the collect function to automatically check the "row updated" field on the quotes sheet to check the box if the Row ID appears on the update log sheet. If you need additional details about how to do this let me know and ill post the formula here.

4) Using zapier, create a zap that will create the row on the "Invoices" sheet when a row is updated (or dates in the row are updated) and the "row updated" checkbox is false.