Course description

Copying form answers into a spreadsheet, typing payments into a sheet, sending the same reminder emails and saving the same attachments every week: small admin jobs like these add up. Zapier connects the web apps you already use, such as Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Calendar and Slack, so that work passes from one app to the next by itself. This course shows you how to choose the right jobs, plan them on paper, build them carefully and keep them working, with no code.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each one ends with a short practical exercise. You follow Abosede, who runs a small tutoring business in Stafford, through a year of automating her admin: her first form to spreadsheet Zap, acknowledgement emails, a payments sheet, session reminders that went wrong when the clocks changed, a follow-up after first sessions, a kill switch her assistant can use, and the review that shows what it all saved. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers, a cheat sheet and practical tools, including a Zap design template, sample spreadsheets, a paths planner, a customer journey map, a data protection checklist, a troubleshooting log, a weekly check and a Zap record template.

What you'll learn

• Getting started with automation: what automation is, when it's worth the set-up and upkeep, a one-week task diary to find the right jobs, Zapier's plans and tasks in general terms, and a tour of Zapier.
• Core ideas and your first Zap: triggers, actions and app connections, planning every automation on paper first, and building, mapping and trying a form to spreadsheet Zap.
• Web form to spreadsheet and email: multi-step Zaps, automated emails that sound like you, spreadsheets that Zaps can rely on, careful team notifications, and how to avoid loops and duplicates.
• Filters, paths and Formatter: carrying on only when the data is right, different branches for different cases, tidying text, UK times, dates and money, and find or create to keep one record per customer.
• Money admin: card payments into a bookkeeping sheet, what to leave to your accounting app and bookkeeper, payment reminders and the late payment rules, weekly summary emails and monthly checks.
• Leads, bookings and reminders: a CRM-style sheet, calendar reminders with the right time zone, delays and follow-ups, webhooks in plain terms, and mapping the customer journey.
• Content, files and AI steps: social post hand-offs where a person always posts, saving and naming files, AI steps used with care, and Zapier Tables and Forms in brief.
• Data protection and security: UK GDPR basics for automations, data minimisation, Zapier as a processor and where data goes, two-step verification and least access, rights requests, breaches and complaints.
• Checking, monitoring and fixing Zaps: trial runs with made-up data, reading Zap history, fixing errors and replaying runs, a weekly check, task use and costs, and changing Zaps safely.
• Documentation, handover and final project: one-page Zap records, handing over and planning for absence, and a final project: plan, build, check, document and cost three automations for your own business.

Who it's for

UK sole traders and small businesses who run their admin in Google Workspace and other common web apps and want to automate repeated jobs without writing code. You don't need any previous experience of automation. If your business runs on Microsoft 365, Rootlet's Microsoft Power Automate for Beginners course covers the tool built into it.

What this course is, and isn't

This course teaches you to use Zapier carefully for small business admin. Zapier changes its plans, prices and screens from time to time, so the course describes features by what they do and asks you to check Zapier's own pricing and help pages for current details. It gives general information about data protection and money records, not legal, tax or financial advice. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Zapier or any app it mentions.

What will I learn?

• Decide which admin jobs are worth automating, using a one-week task diary and a simple time-saved sum
• Explain Zaps, triggers, actions, app connections and tasks, and check Zapier's current plans for yourself
• Plan every automation on paper with a Zap design template before you build it
• Build multi-step Zaps that move form answers into a spreadsheet, send an acknowledgement and tell your team
• Use filters, paths, Formatter and search steps with find or create to handle junk entries, different cases, UK dates and duplicate records
• Automate payment records, weekly money summaries, calendar reminders and follow-ups, and know where a person should step in
• Save and name files automatically, hand social posts to a person for approval, and use AI steps only with care
• Apply UK GDPR basics to your Zaps: lawful basis, data minimisation, processors, transfers, rights, breaches and complaints
• Secure your Zapier account with two-step verification, least access and a kill switch someone else can use
• Run trial runs, read Zap history, fix errors, replay runs, monitor task use and document and hand over your automations

Frequently asked questions