Is there any way to get around requiring an email address to create a client?
We have many clients who either are not able to provide an email address at the time that we have to set up the Client record, or they have no email address at all.
Thanks!
The email shouldn’t be required.
Are you using the web app or the mobile app?
We are using the web app.
We’ve set up integration with Cognito Forms using Zapier. When creating a New Client in Invoice Ninja via the Cognito Zap, and the original Cognito Entry does not have an email, I receive an error that says “Invoice Ninja: Required field “Contact - Email” (email) is missing.”
I tested this by Zapping Entries with and without email addresses. When it has an email address, the Zap is successful, when it does not have an email address, the Zap fails.
Understood. Yes, our Zapier implementation does require an email.
We’ll look into changing this in the future.
Great!
While on the topic of future implementations…
A HUGE development would be if you could deploy a “Find / Create Client” function, instead of just the “Create Client” function. We have had to jump through all kinds of hoops and deploy multiple work-arounds just to get the Zap to work without creating duplicates every single time Cognito updates. It really makes more sense for Zapier to be able to first confirm whether the Client already exists in Ninja, and then create it if it does not already exist. It’s be a few frustrating days with Zapier support trying to figure out how to work around this issue.
That’s how it currently works but we use the email address to look up the client.
Neither myself nor Zapier support saw any indication that it currently searches for an existing record before creating a new one, it just keeps creating duplicates. Perhaps I’m doing something incorrectly and Zapier is not aware of this functionality? Are you able to help us figure this out Hillel?
Are you sending the email address? The zap should search for a matching client with the same email.
Yes, the email is included in the Cognito Fields that are Zapped into Ninja.
Can you explain your setup, are you using a create invoice action?
The trigger is “Cognito Update Entry”, so the Zap is triggered when we update an existing entry in Cognito. We do this so that we have an opportunity to update, adjust and format the data in Cognito before Zapping to any other systems.
Then we have a filter which we had to create to manually block the Zap from occurring repeatedly after the Ninja Client had been created. This is controlled by a toggle switch in the Cognito form that we manually activate and then deactive so the Zap is only triggered once.
Finally, we use the Ninja Create Client action to create the new Client from the Cognito data.
Thanks, understood.
I think the solution would be to support an updateOrCreate command, we’ll keep it in mind for the future.
Exactly. Google Contacts and many other services have such a command. It first Searches Google Contacts based on a chosen field, then if the record does not exist, it creates a new one. If the record does exist, it maps the fields and updates any changes.
I look forward to this update for Ninja, it will make a positive difference in the workflow that we have had to develop to accomodate this issue.
Thanks for your engagement and support Hillel!