3 Ways to Use the Brand New Delete Dispatch Action in Zapier

3 Ways to Use the Brand New Delete Dispatch Action in Zapier

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        ZapierNew Update Increases Task Automation 

The latest update to Canvas’s integration with Zapier is small but extremely powerful. It essentially changes how other systems interact with the GoCanvas database, by allowing them to automatically push in data that will update existing tasks within the Dispatch Manager.  If you want to learn how Zapier connects GoCanvas to over 300+ different web platforms, be sure to click here.

When you setup a connection with Zapier, or as they call it a “Zap”, one web program acts as a “Trigger” and every program connected after it is setup as an “Action”. In the case of our latest update, we added a new action to Canvas’ toolbelt.

Previously your only “Action” available for GoCanvas was “Create Dispatch”. An example of this is pretty simple.

Say you wanted your “Initial Inspection” app to automatically schedule a dispatch to your “Follow-Up Inspection” app every time you completed a job. This Zapier “Action” would eliminate the need to manually create and assign a follow-up dispatch task after each job. This could potentially save dispatchers 100s of hours in scheduling every month.

If you’re interested in setting up the “Create Dispatch” Zap, you can check out the tutorial here.

The newest “Action” added to the Zapier platform for GoCanvas is the ability to delete a dispatch. This ability can be triggered by almost every one of Zapier’s 300+ web connections and gives clients the ability to further automate the way tasks are created, scheduled, and resolved within the Dispatch Manager. All you have to do is ensure that the Item Description of the Dispatch from GoCanvas is connected with the “Trigger” of the web application you’ve connected via Zapier.

Don’t worry, this will be clearly explained and defined when you creating your zap! Click here to learn how to get started setting up this Zap.

Setting up GoCanvas in Zapier

With the addition of “Delete Dispatch” to the Zapier action list, companies now have the ability to have their existing systems interface with GoCanvas a lot more smoothly. This is because their existing systems can essentially communicate back and forth with GoCanvas, letting it know whether a dispatch needs to be created or deleted.

Here are the top 3 ways to start using the new Zapier action:

Zapier and Canvas Inspections: We touched on this a little bit earlier in terms of creating NEW DISPATCHES, but we thought it was important to highlight how deleting dispatches could be extremely beneficial during the inspection process.

In some situations, your office dispatcher may assign the same Inspection ticket to multiple employees, not knowing who is first available to get to the client’s location.

With this new Zap, whoever completes and submits the inspection will automatically trigger the Canvas Dispatch Manager to automatically delete and un-assign the duplicate tickets from the other technicians. Now the dispatcher won’t have to worry about manually going through each job and un-assigning the duplicates, and the technicians won’t show up on a job site that has already been serviced.

Zapier, Google Calendar, and Canvas

 Client Cancellations: Almost every company deals with clients who reschedule on them for one reason or another. This process of creating, modifying, and deleting appointments can cause frustration for both the office and field staff. With the new “Delete Dispatch” functionality, you can connect the GoCanvas Dispatch Manager with your company’s Google Calendar to help streamline the appointment modification process.

This Zap is perfect for any situation where a client needs to reschedule their appointment to a new date. Instead of having to manually change both the Google Calendar event and the GoCanvas Dispatch Manager task, all you have to do now is change the event date on your calendar and GoCanvas will automatically delete the current task assigned to you.

Now you or the office can reach back out and re-confirm with the client before setting up the new Dispatch task.

Zapier, QuickBooks, and Canvas

 Accounts Payable: Zapier already provides you the ability to quickly connect your backend systems with your GoCanvas mobile apps and forms, but now it also gives you the ability to integrate them with your Dispatch manager as well!

The perfect use case for this zap is a situation where the office has assigned a dispatch to a technician in order to perform routine service, with a follow-up dispatch to collect payment. After the service is performed, the client informs you that they would like to pay immediately. They call the office and an invoice is created within your company’s QB system.  Now, with the new Zapier “Action”, GoCanvas will delete the scheduled dispatch that matches the customer’s name on the QB invoice that was generated.

This will help avoid any unnecessary trips by your technicians and eliminate the need for your office staff to reconcile dispatches with paid invoices. 

The best part about our integration with Zapier is that the possibilities are endless. You can use any of your GoCanvas apps or mobile forms as the “Trigger” and have your data push into over 300 web platforms including QuickBase, Salesforce, SQL, Google Business Apps, and more!

Check out a couple of our most popular Zaps below:

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

Check out even more resources

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Release Notes: New Functionality for the App Builder & PDF Designer

Release Notes: New Functionality for the App Builder & PDF Designer

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I’m not even sure where to start with this release! There are a lot of new things along with some enhancements to the user interface in our App Builder and PDF Designer in the spirit of making them easier to use. A number of these changes were done to make the controls inside the App Builder identical to the controls inside the PDF Designer so there is familiarity between the two tools.

I’m sure you’re more interested in the brand new stuff, so let’s start there.

We added a number of new things to help you save even more time using GoCanvas!

Now you can make a barcode field “Read Only”. This might be a misnomer, but what this allows you to do is force your user to use the camera and actually scan a barcode. They are not able to manually type in whatever value they want. Customers have wanted to ensure that their mobile users are actually scanning a barcode and this will do the trick.

Our “Grid” functionality is an alternative way for your mobile user to use a “Loop” or “List” screen. Now you can see what that Grid will look like on mobile inside the App Builder. One thing to note is that you cannot edit when viewing the Grid. It just shows you a preview so you can see how things will look for your mobile user.

***NOTE***: Grid functionality must be enabled for you by our team here at GoCanvas. If you want it turned on, please email us at support@gocanvas.com. We are happy to enable it for your account.

One thing that can be rather painful is not knowing which screens and fields are set to be conditional. We have added some icons so you can easily identify them now. This will save you a lot of time when building and editing your GoCanvas Apps!

Here is how a conditional screen will be identified…

Here is how a conditional field will be identified…

For years and years we have provided the ability to make a field on the mobile device “invisible”. This is used for all kinds of reasons like triggering conditional screens or fields or hiding calculations from mobile users because they don’t need to see them and much more.

The challenge was then knowing which fields were invisible when working inside the App Builder. Problem solved!

We have added a dotted line around a field that is invisible.

The name of this setting was changed to “Mobile Visible”, too. We wanted to clarify that this setting impacted the field on the mobile device only. You can always see it in the App Builder so you can edit it.

We continue to add functionality to our PDF Designer so it is faster to create beautiful PDFs and so you have functionality that makes the PDF more engaging for your audience.

We really want to encourage you to use your customer-facing documents as additional marketing tools. Encourage your customers to connect with you on Facebook, review your services on Angie’s List (Or Google or Yelp), follow you on Twitter and more. I know this might be new to many of you, but you will grow your business doing this.

Outside of that you can link people to your website, of course. Or link them to specific pages on your site to provide additional information outside of what is in the PDF.

  1. New social icons: We added Angie’s List, Google Reviews, Home Advisor, and Yelp.
  2. Alignment: You can now align the social icons just like any other Element.
  3. Vertical Spacing: This control is on other Elements and fields in the PDF Designer, but it allows you to control the spacing around the social icon itself. Play around with it to see how it works.

We made some changes within both tools to make them easier to use and a lot more understandable for newer users.

You’ll notice some new “Tool Tips” placed throughout the App Builder to help folks understand how things work. Sometimes there will be a question mark you hover over and sometimes you’ll just hover over the word or icon associated with the feature. Here is an example for Screen Conditions.

GoCanvas is really powerful, which makes it harder for folks to understand. So we have made changes to the More area under Field Settings.

  1. Mobile Visible: As mentioned above, we changed the name of this feature. Previously it was called “App Visible”. We wanted to more clearly call out that this impacts behavior on the mobile device.
  2. Place value in…: Previously these were all presented as separate choices. We wanted to group these together to help folks understand that the behavior for each is somewhat similar. You are placing the value entered in the field in the areas listed.
  3. PDF & Web Label: Previously this was called “Report Label”. No one really knew what the “report” was, though! The report is the PDF and the label would show up on the web view, too. So we wanted to make this clearer.

The Standard PDF is the default design that all GoCanvas Apps use initially (Although this has started to change, too!). Some of the controls in the App Builder impact behavior on that Standard PDF. Previously this was not clearly communicated to our users. It is even more confusing now that we have the PDF Designer.

So we created a new section under Field Settings called “Standard PDF”. Any controls in that section impact the Standard PDF ONLY. You will find this under any field that has controls that only impact the Standard PDF.

We moved the buttons that were previously on the top left up higher to create more space inside the editing area. The buttons are now on the right and are higher. You’ll also notice a very slight change to the “Add Screen” button.

You will also find some “Tool Tips” throughout the PDF Designer to help folks understand how things function.

We changed the buttons around to match what is now in the App Builder. These buttons are also found at the top right instead of the left.

And we moved the Auto Layout controls to the left side.

Feedback

Phew! That is a lot of stuff! Please tell us what you think! You can send feedback to feedback@gocanvas.com anytime. We love, love, love hearing from you. Tell us what YOU want GoCanvas to do to save you even more time.

About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

Check out even more resources

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