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Best answer

Tasks (simple question on "what is a Task" in Zapier?

  • 25 October 2022
  • 10 replies
  • 1253 views
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New user. Just trying to clarify.

If I have 5 Zaps - where does one set the “Trigger on interval”?

To explain the problem I need to solve involves pulling order data from a small e-commerce web site that only gets about 20 orders for day.

From the looks of it the Tasks are run every 15 minutes (from what I read somewhere).

Now my maths may be totally wrong but 5 Zaps by 4 automatic Tasks per hour x 24 hours per day by (say) 30 calendar days.

Comes to about 14,400 Tasks per day.

Which means I need to be on the Professional Plan $USD 189 per month to get 20k Tasks.

I am probably missing something really simple.

For this particular website I would probably just want to run the Tasks every 1 hour or something purely because it is not a busy site.

Any pointers appreciated.

Thank you

Brynley

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Best answer by Troy Tessalone 26 October 2022, 04:16

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This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

10 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @Brynley 

Good question.

Help article about Tasks: https://zapier.com/help/manage/history/learn-about-tasks-in-zapier

Help article about Zap trigger types: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496244568589-Types-of-triggers-in-Zaps

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
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@Troy Tessalone = thanks for that again Troy.

 

A little clearer until I read that Filters are included or not included if they fail?

Say I have 2 Zaps…

One to bring the Customers from WooCommerce when the Customer is created in WooCommerce and then 2nd step is to create that as a new row to Google Sheets. So that would be 1 Zap but has 2 steps right?

My second situation is bring Order Items from WooCommerce when a new Order is set to “completed” (Status) say and add that as a new row to Google Sheets. So that is 2 steps BUT also has a Filter to only bring across “completed”.

So that is 3 steps and one of those steps is a Filter.

If I wanted to run each of those Zaps once per hour every day (say) for the full calendar month, what would that cost I wonder (meaning, how many Tasks oer month)?

I may have to buy a new Casio as everytime I work this out I almost always get a different answer!

 

  

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BTW I have also contacted support but heard nada which is kind of disappointing? Normally companies are super efficient before you sign but not the case this time… At least the Forums here seem responsive.

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Brynley 

How tasks are counted

The following count as tasks when your Zap runs:

  • Any successful action step.
  • Any filter step that passes.
  • Any time a path's rules pass.
  • For Sub-Zaps, the Call a Sub-Zap action and the Return From a Sub-Zap action each use 1 task.

The following do not count as tasks:

  • Trigger steps.
  • Filter steps that do not pass.
  • Any step that errors or halts.
  • Any path group that did not run because the path's rules were not met.
  • Any step that does not run, either because a previous filter didn't pass or because the Zap errored.
  • For Sub-Zaps, the Start a Sub-Zap trigger uses no tasks.
⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Brynley 

Zapier key concepts: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496181725453-Learn-key-concepts-in-Zapier#zap-editor-0-1

 

Zap

A Zap is an automated workflow that connects your apps and services together.
Each Zap consists of a trigger and one or more actions.
When you turn your Zap on, it will run the action steps every time the trigger event occurs.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Brynley 

Trigger Types

Polling triggers

The majority of triggers are polling triggers.
They check (or poll) the app for information at regular intervals.
The Zap will check if there's new information by comparing the item's unique ID to those it's already received.

The interval it uses to check for data depends on your Zapier plan.
The shorter the interval, the faster new information will come through the Zap.

Instant triggers

Instant triggers work by using webhooks.
Webhooks are automated notifications sent between apps.
Whenever there is new information, the app will notify Zapier as soon as it this information is added to the app.

 

WooCommerce triggers/actions: https://zapier.com/apps/woocommerce/integrations#triggers-and-actions

All WooCommerce triggers are Instant. (see below)

WooCommerce will send data to the Zap trigger whenever the trigger event occurs.

There is no need to poll WooCommerce for new orders every hour, as that would be a waste of resources.

 

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
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@Troy Tessalone - thanks so much for that. But that only covers Zaps and it seems the number of Tasks is what the billing relies on.

And because these Triggers are not “controllable” (lke in Make; where you can elect to only run a Scenario every hour or day etc then if you have a number of Tasks running it could get high?

So if each Task runs every 15 minutes which is 240 Tasks per day for a single Zap?

 

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

@Brynley

EXAMPLE

A Zap on the Starter plan will check for new data every 15 minutes.

A Zap on the Professional plan will check for new data every 2 minutes.

This is only for Scheduled trigger types.

Zap triggers count as 0 Tasks.

If no data is found, then 0 Tasks are used.

The WooCommerce Zap triggers are all instant, so the polling time does not matter here.

 

WooCommerce will only trigger a Zap run when the WooCommerce trigger event has new data.

 

Say you have 1 Zap with 3 steps (1 trigger + 2 actions).

Then each time the Zap runs successfully thru all the steps, it will count as 2 Tasks.

If you only get 10 Orders from WooCommerce in 1 day, then that would trigger 10 Zap Runs.

if each of those Zap Runs complete successfully, each Zap Run will count as 2 Tasks.

So total Tasks for 10 successful Zap Runs would be 20 Tasks.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
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Thanks again @Troy Tessalone

That helps; basically I did not want to hitch all my horses to the same wagon and then find the # of Tasks grew really high and the cost per month goes up and up and up. If that makes sense. My requirements are quite simple and the website I am pulling the data from is not really that active.

My other option is to get a web developer to do something but goodness how long that will take/cost.

Thank you.

Brynley

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@Troy Tessalone 

Now understand! Thank you so much.

 

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