Zapier

The Backed app for Zapier connects your organisation to thousands of other tools without code. A Zap can start when something happens in Backed, such as a submitted application, and it can create or change records in Backed as one of its steps. The app connects with an API Credential your organisation creates and can delete at any time.

The app is listed in Zapier's directory at zapier.com/apps/backed/integrations when the listing is live. The Zapier card on the Details tab of Settings > Profile and terms, under Automation platforms, links to it.

What you can automate

Triggers start a Zap. Each is instant: the Zap runs within a minute of the event.

Application submitted
Application status changed
Decision made
Milestone submitted
Payment paid
Registration entity created

Actions change something in Backed:

Create or update registration entity
Add application note
Set application tags
Upload file

Searches find a record for a later step to use:

Find application by number
Find registration entity by ABN or name

The names in Zapier are fixed. They use Backed's default terms, even where your organisation has renamed a term.

Before you start

Create an API Credential for Zapier on the API Access tab of Settings > Profile and terms: see API access. Name it for Zapier, so you can tell it apart on the Webhooks tab and in record history.

Every credential can read, which is all the triggers and searches need. Each action needs a write scope, and a write scope needs an Administrator under Acts as:

Action	Scope
`Create or update registration entity`	`Write registrations`
`Add application note`	`Write applications`
`Set application tags`	`Write applications`
`Upload file`	`Write files`

Give the credential only the scopes your Zaps use. Copy its Client ID and Client Secret when it is created: the secret is shown once.

Connect Backed to Zapier

In Zapier, add a step that uses the Backed app, and choose to connect a new account.
Enter your organisation's host, the address you sign in at without https://, such as yourname.backed.giving.
Enter the credential's Client ID and Client Secret.
Save the connection. Zapier shows it under the credential's name.

You can use one connection in as many Zaps as you like.

Your first Zap

A common first Zap adds a row to a spreadsheet for each submitted application:

In Zapier, create a Zap and choose Backed as the trigger app.
Choose Application submitted and your Backed connection.
Test the trigger. Zapier shows a sample application.
Add your spreadsheet tool as the action, and map the fields you want.
Publish the Zap.

Each submitted application now adds a row within a minute. To get more than the trigger carries, add a Find application by number step and map what it returns.

What appears on the Webhooks tab

Each trigger a published Zap uses becomes a webhook endpoint on the Webhooks tab of Settings > Profile and terms, under the credential you connected with, with a Zapier badge. From there an Administrator can see its deliveries, send a test, disable or enable it, or delete it.

It can't be edited there: change the Zap in Zapier instead. See Webhooks.

Who a Zap acts as

A Zap's actions run as the Administrator the credential Acts as, with their permissions and data access rules, so a Zap can't do anything that Administrator couldn't. Each record a Zap changes shows the credential and that Administrator in its history.

When something fails

An action the credential's scopes don't allow fails in Zapier with a message naming the missing scope, such as write:applications, and changes nothing in Backed. Add the scope on the API Access tab with Edit scopes, then run the step again.
The Acts as Administrator is disabled. The credential can still read, so triggers and searches keep working, but every action fails until someone chooses another Administrator.
The credential is deleted. Every endpoint it made is disabled at once, so every Zap using it stops, and the connection in Zapier stops working. To carry on, create a new credential and reconnect.
A step ran but Zapier shows an error. If the connection dropped after Backed made the change, replaying the step makes it again, so check the record before you replay an action that adds something, such as a note.
Upload file says the file is still being scanned. Backed checks every file for malware before attaching it. If the check takes longer than about 15 seconds, the message gives an Upload ID. To recover that one file, turn the Zap off, set Upload ID to resume to it and run the step once: Backed attaches the file it already has instead of uploading it again. Then clear Upload ID to resume before you turn the Zap back on, because while it is set every run attaches that same file and uploads nothing. An Upload ID lasts about an hour.

Turn it off

One Zap: turn the Zap off or delete it in Zapier. Its endpoints are removed from the Webhooks tab.
Every Zap: delete the credential on the API Access tab.

Deleting a Zap's endpoint on the Webhooks tab stops its deliveries, but the Zap stays on in Zapier: turn the Zap off there too.