Act on a request's outcome
Build a Zap that emails your team when a recipient answers an approval request, with their decision in the subject line, then add a filter so it runs on approvals only.
Last checked
Before you start
You need a Formstep connection in Zapier and requests to act on, sent from a Zap as in Send a request from a Zap or from anywhere else: the dashboard, the API or an agent. To branch on a verdict, the form needs a Decision question.
1. Pick the trigger
Create a Zap, choose Formstep as the trigger app, and search for Request:
| Trigger | Fires when | Carries |
|---|---|---|
| Request Completed | The recipient submits the form. | The request, the outcome and every answer. |
| Request Expired | The request reaches its expiry date unanswered. | The request only. |
| Request Canceled | Someone cancels the request, from the dashboard, the API or a Cancel Request step, or Formstep cancels it because the form was moved to trash. | The request and the cancel reason. |
Pick Request Completed, pick your account, and choose the form. The Zap fires for requests to that form only.
2. Test the trigger
Click Test trigger. As with public link triggers, Zapier loads a sample built from the form’s questions, so you can map fields before any request is completed:
Where a field key reads differently from its question title, the label names the key in parentheses.
Your Decision (decision) is the answer whose field key is decision, and a mapped field shows the same label.
Besides answers and display, a request event carries a request group:
Recipient Email, Recipient Name, Request External ID, Metadata and Context: what you set when you created the request. Use the External ID to find the record the request was about.
Outcome:
approve,declineorchanges, the recipient’s answer to the Decision question. On this form it is the same value as Your Decision (decision), because the Decision question’s key isdecision. Outcome is missing when the form has no Decision question.
Zapier receives the same event as a callback. Developers: every field is in the callback reference.
3. Map the action
Add the action. The example uses Email by Zapier › Send Outbound Email, with the recipient’s name and their decision in the subject and the External ID in the body:
Publish the Zap. When the recipient completes the request, the email arrives with a subject like Ada Lovelace answered: Approve, and the run appears in Zap history.
4. Continue only on approval
To act on one verdict only, add a Filter step between the trigger and the action. Set it to continue only if
Your Decision (decision) exactly matches approve:
The filter reads the field key, not the label. The Decision question’s field key is always decision, so the same filter works
on every form, whatever the question’s title. Outcome holds the same value.
Compare against the value from answers. The label from display changes when you rename the option or the recipient answers in another language, while the value stays the same. To handle each verdict differently, use Paths instead of a filter, one path per value.
For example, approve moves the deal on, decline tells the account owner, and changes sends the
answer to What should change? to the account owner.
Filters and Paths need a paid Zapier plan
A Zap with a Filter or Paths step has more than two steps, and Zapier’s Free plan publishes only two-step Zaps. On Free, keep the trigger and one action, and branch in the app the action writes to.
If the Zap does not start
A test request never starts a Zap, whether it was created with Test Request on or with Try it yourself. Send a real request to check the Zap.
- The trigger listens only to the form you chose in step 1.
The Zap is off, or uses a connection to another workspace. See the checks in the public link guide.