BinaryTree

Digital Literacy & Digital Entrepreneurship

BinaryTree Program – Senegal

Digital Literacy and Digital Entrepreneurship

BinaryTree

Week 9

Task Automation

What is Workflow Automation?

• Workflow automation is the use of software to automate tasks, reducing the need for manual data entry and improving efficiency.

In this lesson, we will discover how automation works and explore tools that can automate your work!

Why is Automation Important?

• In today's world, the workload of teams and businesses is constantly increasing.

• Automation acts as a force multiplier — it increases efficiency and the ability to scale operations, allowing work to run at a larger scale without proportionally more effort.

Examples of Workflow Automation

Data Entry

Automatically retrieve data from various sites and sources, and integrate it into spreadsheets or databases — no manual copying needed.

Email Sending

Automatically send an email to multiple recipients at once, saving you from sending them one by one. Used for newsletters, confirmations, and alerts.

Copy-Paste Tools

Advanced software extracts, reformats, and transfers information much faster than a human — also used in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

Automation Tools

There are many online tools that can help you automate your work:

• Zapier – Connects apps and automates tasks (e.g., automatically saving Gmail attachments to Google Drive)
• Make (formerly Integromat) – Similar to Zapier, but with more complex logic and data management capabilities
• Microsoft Power Automate – Integrates with Microsoft 365 tools to automate business processes and workflows

This Lesson

In this lesson, we'll teach you how to use Zapier to automate your work and create connections between your apps.

The Most Important Zapier Tools – 1: Zaps

• Zaps are automated workflows that connect your applications and allow them to collaborate seamlessly.

Each Zap is composed of a trigger and one or more actions:

• When a specific event (the trigger) occurs in one app, it automatically triggers an action in another app — saving time and reducing manual effort.

The Most Important Zapier Tools – 2: Tables

• Zapier Tables are flexible, automatable databases designed to help you manage and use your data.

• They allow you to track new contacts, product orders, or form submissions.

• Tables integrate with the rest of Zapier, allowing you to store, update, share, and automate processes from a single location.

The Most Important Zapier Tools – 3: Interfaces

• Zapier Interfaces let you create custom web pages, forms, and simple applications without writing any code.

• With a drag-and-drop creation tool, you can design text fields, buttons, and lists.

• These interfaces act as front-end layers that collect data, then connect directly to your automated workflows — triggering background processes when a user interacts.

When Should Work Be Automated?

Automation is most valuable when tasks are:

• Repetitive – the same steps performed over and over (e.g., entering customer info into a spreadsheet)
• Time-consuming – taking up significant hours that could be used for higher-value work
• Low-judgment – not requiring creative or critical thinking in each instance
• At scale – when a company grows large enough that manual processes create a burden on staff

When Should You NOT Automate Work?

• The task is not well-defined or lacks clear steps — it is often difficult to automate and must be modified or done manually.

• The task requires critical thinking or important decision-making — entrust these to humans.

• The task is rare or one-time, such as a one-time import of a CSV file into a database — it is best to do it manually.

What is Zapier?

• Zapier is a no-code automation platform that connects over 6,000 apps — including Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, and Notion.

• It lets you automate repetitive tasks by creating custom workflows called 'Zaps.'

• Zaps follow a trigger → action logic: an event in one app triggers a response in another.

Zapier Vocabulary

Trigger

The event that starts the automation — e.g., a new email received, a new row added to a spreadsheet, or a form submission.

Action

What happens after the trigger fires — e.g., adding a row in Google Sheets, sending a Slack message, or creating a task.

Task & Zap

A Zap is a complete automation: one trigger + one or more actions. A Task is a single automated action performed within a Zap.

Why Use Zapier?

• Saves time by eliminating repetitive manual tasks
• Reduces data entry errors and ensures consistency — human errors are far more frequent than automated ones
• Integrates with apps you already use: Google Drive, Forms, CRM, and more
• Runs 24/7 in the background — no computing performance lost on your end

Setting Up Your First Zap

• Step 1: Choose a trigger app (e.g., Google Forms). Define the event to automate — e.g., a new form submission.
• Step 2: Select your action app (e.g., Google Sheets) to store the data received from your form.
• Step 3: Securely connect your accounts and test the setup with sample data.
• Step 4: Activate the Zap and let automation take over — each new trigger instantly executes your defined workflow.

Trigger Configuration

• Select Google Forms or Google Sheets as the trigger app, depending on how your form stores responses.
• Choose 'New spreadsheet row' as the event: Zapier will act whenever a new row is added to your form's response sheet.
• Connect your Google account and select the appropriate spreadsheet and tab.
• Use an actual form submission to verify that Zapier can extract the correct data for the next steps.

Action Configuration

• Select Google Sheets as the action app.
• Choose 'Create row in spreadsheet' to tell Zapier to add new data automatically.
• Map form fields to corresponding sheet columns: Zapier will insert responses like name, email, or role exactly where you define them.
• Run a test to verify that Zapier is adding the correct data to the correct columns in your sheet.

Bonus: Connecting Zapier to Slack

• If you're working on a project as a team, you can connect Zapier to Slack to automatically notify your team when the automation runs.

• For example: when a new form submission arrives, Zapier can post a message in a Slack channel — keeping everyone in sync without anyone having to manually check the spreadsheet.