Using Zapier to integrate Turbine with your cloud applications

This article explains how to integrate Zapier and Turbine with your cloud applications.

Introduction

You can integrate Turbine with 1,000+ third-party web services using Zapier. For example:

  • You can add new requests to a Google Sheet
  • Send an SMS notification about high value purchase orders
  • Add approved requests to Xero
  • Create time off requests using a Typeform web questionnaire
  • Ping Slack with a message when someone creates a request

Activating Zapier in Turbine

  • First set up your account on Zapier itself
  • Login to Turbine as an admin user
  • Go to Features on the Settings menu
  • Click the slider to On for Integrate with Zapier

Connecting your first Zap

  • When you start building your first Zap, search for Turbine and add it where it says choose a Trigger (or choose an action)
  • Zapier will ask for your 'Zapier Token' to allow it to connect to Turbine.
  • To get this, go back to Turbine and click on your name on the top right menu (just next to the Setting menu) to get your own profile page
  • You'll find your Zapier token on that page, almost at the bottom, just above any attached files. It looks like a long string of random numbers and letters.
  • Copy that and paste it into Zapier.
  • Click Save + Continue

Here are some Zapier templates to help you get started.

Turbine Triggers

Triggers can be used to start a new Zap. Whenever they happen in Turbine, your Zaps in Zapier will fire automatically and carry out the actions you have set up. 

  • New Time Off request
  • New Purchase request
  • New Expense request
  • (Less common) When Purchases, Time off requests or Expenses are approved or rejected

You can take information from the request in Turbine that triggered the Zap and use it in connected applications. For example, you can take the number of days for a holiday request and use that in a spreadsheet. You can use the fields from the Turbine request in the destination app.

You can also use Zapier filters to add rules to your zaps. For example, only continue if the total value of a request is greater than a certain amount.

Turbine Actions

Similarly, you can use triggers created in other Zapier-connected apps to make something happen in Turbine. Actions include:

  • Create a new Time Off request
  • Create a new Expense claim
  • Create a new Purchase request

In these actions, you can use fields from other applications to populate your Turbine request.