How to Use AppConnect Recipes and Examples

Insightly’s AppConnect is an enterprise-grade workflow automation platform and provides the ease of use expected from consumer apps, enabling businesses and IT professionals to quickly build workflow automations.

AppConnect gives users the ability to build integrations with other 3rd party applications, then automate repetitive processes between Insightly and those apps with Recipes, which are highly customizable workflows utilizing steps, actions, and triggers.

• How do Recipes work?
• Insightly App actions and triggers
• Example 1: Update a Lead when an Organization is created
• Example 2: Post Slack notifications when new Leads are created
• Example 3: Calculate custom numeric fields
• Example 4: Create a Lead when you’ve received an IMPORTANT email from Gmail
• Example 5: Sync Prospects from Insightly Marketing to Leads in Insightly CRM
• Example 6: When an Organization’s owner is updated, update all Contact record owners related to the Organization
• Example 7: Recipe triggers when a custom button has been clicked

How do Recipes work?

Our AppConnect overview article covers how Recipes work and their significant role within the feature, but to give a brief recap:

Recipes are a set of steps that AppConnect will follow to get work done between your apps. Recipes have many advanced features, allowing them to handle all app integration and workflow automation scenarios, including complex data transformations, conditional triggers and actions, and duplicate detection.

After you've created a step, you can perform the following interactions on that step:

• Delete step

• Mask data

• Clone step

• Comment

• Skip block when recipe runs

Users with access to AppConnect can build their own custom Recipes or try one of the example Recipes below. 

Additionally, users can visit the Community Library, which contains user-built Recipes and user-built custom connectors, which can be searched and filtered by the different apps available.

Variables by Workato

Datapills are output data from a trigger or an action step. They are variables that you can use to map business logic into Recipe steps.

Workato variable is a user-created datapill that contains a data value. These variables are different from a standard datapill because your declared variables are mutable. The value of the variable can be changed within a Recipe. The lifetime of a variable is for the duration of a single job.

Workato variables are typed. In order to use variables, you will first have to declare it using the create variable action. To update the variable, use the Update variable action.

Example: If you want to find a particular entry within a report - the entry with the largest ARR.

1. Create a variable called ARR.

2. Run the for each action, and update ARR whenever it finds a higher value.

3. Subsequently, use the ARR value to call up that specific entry.

Insightly App actions and triggers

Recipes are built using triggers and actions. Each app will have unique automation options based on its own functionality.

Users can use the following triggers and actions when building a Recipe with the Insightly app.

Triggers

Triggers determine what event to listen to in order to execute the actions described in a recipe.

• Custom Trigger: Triggered by a custom button, workflow automation, Marketing Finish Action, or Marketing Journey Action created in Insightly

• Deleted Entity: Triggered when an existing entity is deleted in Insightly

• New Entity: Triggered when a new entity is created in Insightly

• New or updated entity: Triggered when an entity is created or updated in Insightly.

• Updated Entity: Triggered when an existing entity is updated in Insightly

Actions

Actions carry out an operation in your target app, usually a create, update, or search operation. Each action requires a set of input fields and typically returns data i.e. output data tree.

• Add a Tag to an entity: Add a Tag to an entity

• Create entity: Create a new entity

• Delete entity: Delete an existing entity

• Get list of entities: Get multiple entities by object name

• Get single entity: Get single entity by object name and ID

• Merge Entities: Merge an entity into another entity

• Remove a Tag from an entity: Remove a Tag an entity

• Search for entities: Find all entities by a field value

• Update entity: Update existing entity

Example 1: Update an Organization when a Contact is created

1. Trigger: New Contact

1. Select the Insightly app for the trigger step.

2. Select New entity. Choose a connection.

3. Select Contact from the Object Name dropdown.

2. Action: Update Organization

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Insightly app. Select Update entity.

3. Select Organization from the Object Name dropdown.

4. Enter a Record ID. Users can manually enter an ID, use a datapill, or create a formula.

Example 2: Post Slack notifications when new Leads are created

1. Trigger: New Lead

1. Select the Insightly app for the trigger step.

2. Select New entity. Choose a connection.

3. Select Lead from the Object Name dropdown.

2. Action: Post message

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Slack app. Select Post message.

3. Setup your Slack connection and click Connect. Sign into Slack and grant Insightly permission to connect to AppConnect.

4. Select a Channel ID/name. Enter the basic text that will appear in the Slack message.

5. Under Attachment message fields, add any fields that you need to appear in the message.

Example 3: Calculate custom numeric fields

In this example, we have two custom numeric fields and need to calculate their sum and 50% of their sum. Before building this Recipe, you will need to create four custom fields - Two different numeric fields, a Sum of Variables field, and a Percent Sum of Variables field.

1. Trigger: New Contact

1. Select the Insightly app for the trigger step.

2. Select New entity. Choose a connection.

3. Select Contact from the Object Name dropdown.

2. Action: Use Variables by Workato to add your first custom numeric field

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select Variables by Workato and choose Create variable.

3. Click Add a variable. Enter a label for the variable, then select Number as the data type.

4. Use the Step 1 datapill to find and add your first custom field.

    

3. Action: Use Variables by Workato to add your second custom numeric field

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select Variables by Workato and choose Create variable.

3. Click Add a variable. Enter a label for the variable, then select Number as the data type.

4. Use the Step 1 datapill to find and add your second custom field.

4. Action: Create a Sum of Variables formula

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select Variables by Workato and choose Create variable.

3. Click Add a variable. Enter a label for the variable, then select Number as the data type.

4. To create a Sum of Variables, add the variables created in steps 2 and 3 and add the + Operator between the two.

5. Action: Create a Percent Sum of Variables formula

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select Variables by Workato and choose Create variable.

3. Click Add a variable. Enter a label for the variable, then select Number as the data type.

4. To create a Percent of Sum Variable, add the variables created in steps 4, add the * Operator, and enter 0.5 (or any other percentage you wish to calculate).

6. Action: Update Contact

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Insightly app. Select Update entity.

3. Select Contact from the Object Name dropdown.

4. Enter a Record ID. Users can manually enter an ID, use a datapill, or create a formula.

5. Click +(##) optional fields available.

6. Add the custom numeric fields Sum of Variables and Percent Sum of Variables. Click Apply changes.

7. Add the variable created in step 2 to the Sum of Variables field.

8. Add the variable created in step 3 to the Percent Sum of Variables field.

Example 4: Create a Lead when you’ve received an email labeled IMPORTANT in Gmail

1. Trigger: New Gmail email

1. Select the Gmail app for the trigger step.

2. Select New email. Connect to a Gmail account.

3. Under the Label dropdowns, select Select from List and IMPORTANT.

2. Action: Create Lead

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Insightly app. Select Create entity.

3. Select Lead from the Object Name dropdown.

4. In the Last Name field, click the textbox and select the From field from the datapill.

5. In the Lead Source field, select Enter value and type Gmail.

6. In the Lead Status field, select Enter value and type New.

7. Click +(##) optional fields available.

8. Add the Description field and click Apply changes.

9. In the Description field, click the textbox and select Body as plain text from the datapill.

Example 5: Sync Prospects from Insightly Marketing to Leads in Insightly CRM

1. Trigger: New Prospect

1. Select the Insightly app for the trigger step.

2. Select New entity. Choose a connection.

3. Select Prospects from the Object Name dropdown.

2. Action: Search Lead email addresses

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Insightly app.

3. Select Search for entities.

4. Select Lead from the Object Name dropdown.

5. In the Field Name dropdown, select Email Address.

6. Enter Email for the Field Value.

3. Action: If email address is not present, create a Lead

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select IF condition.

2. Click the Data field textbox and select Search for entities from the datapill. Search for and select Email Address.

3. In the Condition dropdown, select is not present.

4. In the Yes path step, select the Insightly app and select Create entity. Select Lead from the Object Name dropdown.

5. In the Last Name field, click the textbox and select Last Name field from the datapill.

6. In the Lead Source setup, select Enter value and select Lead Source from the datapill.

7. In the Lead Status setup, select Enter value and select Lead Status from the datapill.

Example 6: When an Organization’s owner is updated, update all Contact record owners related to the Organization

1. Trigger: Organization Owner is updated

1. Select the Insightly app for the trigger step.

2. Select Updated entity. Choose a connection.

3. Select Organization from the Object Name dropdown.

4. Click +1 optional field available. Select Updated Field Name and click Apply Changes.

5. In the Updated Field Name dropdown, select Organization Owner.

2. Action: Search Contact record’s Organization field

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Insightly app.

3. Select Search for entities.

4. Select Contact from the Object Name dropdown. Under the Field Name dropdown, select Organization.

5. In the Field Value box, select Record ID from the datapill.

3. Action: Update Contact owner

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Repeat action.

2. In the Input list box, use the datapill to select Entities from under Step 2 output.

3. Click Select an app and action. Select the Insightly app.

4. Select Update entity.

5. Select Contact from the Object Name dropdown.

6. Click the Record ID textbox and select Record ID under Foreach (Step 3 output) from the datapill.

7. Click +(##) optional fields available. Select Contact Owner and click Apply changes.

8. Select Enter Value from the Contact Owner dropdown. Click the textbox and select the Organization Owner | Step 1 datapill.

Example 7: Recipe triggers when a custom button has been clicked

Recipes can be triggered by custom buttons, workflow automation processes, Marketing Finish Actions, or Marketing Journey Actions created in Insightly. If you were to create a Recipe triggered by a custom button, you would need to create the button and add it to a Page Layout after building the Recipe.

For this example, let’s build a Recipe that will create a new Contact when a Lead custom button has been clicked.

1. Trigger: Custom button has been clicked

1. Select the Insightly app for the trigger step.

2. Select Custom trigger. Choose a connection.

3. Select Lead from the Object Name dropdown.

2. Action: Create Contact

1. Click the + icon to create an action. Select Action in an app.

2. Select the Insightly app. Select Create entity.

3. Select Contact from the Object Name dropdown.

4. Enter a First Name. Users can manually enter an ID, use a datapill, or create a formula.

After your Recipe has been started, you will need to build a custom button in Insightly.

Select AppConnect Recipe for the Button Action Type, then select the Recipe.

After the button has been created, you will need to add it to a Page Layout.