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"Find activity in Pipedrive" - by ID, not by Subject

  • 21 May 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 35 views

Hi Team, 

 

So, we use PipeDrive to book demos for our product; after completing the demos, a normal sales process is initiated. Pipedrive is limited in terms of tracking cancellations (i.e. it can’t do it), so the only way to manage cancellations is to delete the demos. 

The alternative is to leave demos open, but that is very error prone and annoying for Sales people, as they get reminders. 

 

So, I created two zaps:

  1. Zap 1 writes into a google sheet whenever a demo is booked; this contains acticvity ID
  2. Zap 2 iterates through the sheet daily and checks the PD entry for updates
    1. Case 1: Activity is still open - do nothing
    2. Case 2: Activity is complete - update the sheet and set the flag to complete
    3. Case 3: Activity is cancelled - the activity is deleted in PD
      → This sets the “active_flag” to false, as PD doesn’t delete, just removes from view
      I use a zap to  enter this formula “=if(7. Active Flag: true=FALSE,"CANCELLED",switch(7. Done: false,FALSE,"BOOKED",TRUE,"DONE"))”

 

So far, so good. However, I need to use “Activity Update”, since “Find an activity in PD” bizarrely only allows to search by Subject - which is not unique, as the sales person may just call the demo “Demo”.

 

 

 

Now, here is my problem: AEs do all sorts of nonsense, so a straightforward “Update” doesn’t work.

  • The AE may change the activity type
  • The AE may postpone the activity 
  • Or other stuff that just happens during a deal

 

So I could really use a way to:

  1. “look up” a demo and 
  2. check a few parameters, such as
    1. Activity type (check for change)
    2. Activity due date (check for change)

Question: Is there a way to find an activity by ID, rather than subject?

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3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @Sven_123 

Some options to try:

  • Custom Action (with the help of AI)
  • API Request

Pipedrive API endpoints for Activities: https://developers.pipedrive.com/docs/api/v1/Activities

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @Sven_123,

It looks like the current “Find Activity” action only allows you to use the “Subject” data. I’d recommend reaching out to our Support Team to create a feature request on your behalf.

In the meantime, you can use the API Request (Beta) action as a workaround. However, the API Request Beta is considered an advanced feature, so our support for it may be more limited. Not because we don't want to help, but because APIs can be tricky to troubleshoot since we can't see what's happening on the other side. Every API that you send a request to is going to have slightly different structures that are required.

This makes it hard for us to know why the request may be receiving errors or not working as expected, beyond taking a general look at what's showing in Zapier.

Here are some helpful resources:

Hopefully, this helps!

 

Userlevel 1

Thanks both!

I’ll have a look at the API requests!