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Accelo Zapier integrationAutomate Accelo with Zapier.

The Accelo Zapier integration gives you 2 triggers, 5 actions and 1 search. Both triggers are instant, so assigned tasks and new requests reach Zapier at once, and the actions create contacts, requests, sales and timers in Accelo, on the free plan too.

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Overview

What the Accelo Zapier integration does

The Accelo Zapier integration connects Accelo, the all-in-one platform professional services firms use for clients, projects, resources and billing, to Zapier, the tool that links your apps. Accelo pushes two events to Zapier the moment they happen, and Zapier can write contacts, requests, sales and timers back.

Three things it does well. Work that nobody misses: Task Assigned fires when work is handed to someone, so the news can reach them wherever they actually read it, and Create Timer and Pause Timers start or pause timers from another tool. A client inbox that feeds Accelo: Create Request turns a form or an email from elsewhere into an Accelo request, and creates the contact too if it does not exist yet. A pipeline fed from the outside: Create Sale logs a new sale the same way, and Create/Update Contact keeps one record per email address.

What Zapier does not do here: there is no trigger on a status change, a new project or an invoice, and no action to close a request or edit a sale. The one search, Lookup Webhook Resource, is a technical helper rather than a way to find a client by name.

Both triggers are instant, so speed is not your concern. Whether Zapier fits the rest of your agency stack is a separate question; the Zapier review and our Make vs Zapier comparison help with that.

Vocabulary

Zapier in eight words

These eight terms come back on every block below. One plain line each.

Zap
Your automation on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger's event happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. With the Zap switched on, Zapier waits for that event.
Action
What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or moves something on your behalf.
Task
The unit Zapier bills you for: one action your Zap completes successfully. Plans are sized in tasks.
Instant vs polling
An instant trigger is reported by the app the moment it happens. A polling trigger is checked by Zapier on a timer.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and halts it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something that already exists in an app, so the following steps can use what it found.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap past one trigger and one action. A filter, a search or a second action makes it one, and it needs a paid plan.
Cost

What an Accelo Zap costs

Accelo is not a premium app, so it works on Zapier's free plan. With both triggers instant, the plan's check interval has no effect on it.

  • Free plan100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps
  • Steps on the free plan2: one trigger, one action
  • Accelo triggers2 instant, no waiting on any plan
  • Accelo on the free planYes, it is not a premium app

The trigger never costs a task. Each action that goes through counts once; an action that fails is not billed. A Zap with three actions uses three times what a single-action Zap does. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, capped at two steps each: one trigger, one action. A filter, a search like Lookup Webhook Resource, or a second action makes the Zap multi-step, which needs a paid plan. The grid below only concerns polling triggers.

Connect

Connect Accelo to Zapier in 3 steps

  1. 01

    Open Apps

    Go to the Apps page of your Zapier account and click + Add connection. The connection is your Accelo account linked once, then reused by every Zap that touches Accelo.

  2. 02

    Choose Accelo

    Type Accelo in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. You need an Accelo account already, as Zapier does not create one.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Sign in to Accelo in the tab that opens and grant Zapier access. For clients, requests or sales owned by colleagues, the account also needs read or write access on them.

First Zap

Your first Accelo Zap: tell the team about each assigned task

GoalWhen a task is assigned in Accelo, fetch the full task record, then post its details in the team chat.

  1. 01

    Build: choose the trigger

    In the editor, under Build, pick Accelo as the trigger app and Task Assigned as the event, then the Accelo connection you just made.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent items of your account, so the mapping is done on a real assigned task, not a placeholder.

  3. 03

    Add the lookup

    Click the plus icon and add Lookup Webhook Resource, mapping the Resource URL that came with the trigger. This search makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.

  4. 04

    Post in the team chat

    Add your team chat as the action app and write a short message from what the lookup found, so everyone sees which task went to whom.

  5. 05

    Test, then Publish

    Test each step once and read what came back. Then click Publish. Tasks assigned before that moment are never picked up.

Triggers

The 2 Accelo triggers

2 events start a Zap when something happens in Accelo, and 2 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

Task Assigned

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a task is assigned.”

This trigger goes off when a task is assigned in Accelo. It marks the moment work is handed to a person, which is usually when tracking, notifying or planning should begin.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
a marketing agency whose consultants live in their team chat and should hear about a new task there, not by opening Accelo.
Watch out
it reports the assignment, not the task's completion, so it cannot stop a timer at the end of the work.
2

New Request

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new request is created.”

Fires as soon as a new request is created in Accelo, the client ask or ticket your team has to handle. Whoever logs it, the Zap hears about it straight away.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
an IT managed services firm that pings the on-call engineer the second a client raises a request.
Watch out
never pair it with Create Request in the same Zap. Every request the Zap creates fires the trigger again.
Actions

The 5 Accelo actions

Accelo gives you 5 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Create/Update Contact

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new contact or updates a contact if it already exists.”

Adds a contact to Accelo, or updates the existing one when a contact already matches. Email is the only required field.

When to use it
a lead form on your site keeps Accelo's client list current, without creating a second record for a returning visitor.
Watch out
Email is required on every run, so map a field that is never empty upstream, or the step fails.
2

Create Request

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new request. If the request's contact does not exist, a new one will be created for you.”

Logs a new request in Accelo. If the contact behind it does not exist yet, Accelo creates that contact for you in the same move.

When to use it
client emails or support forms that should land in Accelo as requests your team can work through.
Watch out
Type, Subject, Body and Email are all required, so every one of them needs a value on each run.
3

Create Sale

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new sale. If the sale's contact does not exist, a new one will be created for you.”

Records a new sale in Accelo and, like Create Request, creates the contact if it is missing.

When to use it
a signed proposal in your quoting tool becomes a sale in Accelo, ready for the project team.
Watch out
Title, Type and Email are required on every run, so map fields that never come through empty.
4

Create Timer

Action

In Zapier“Starts a new timer.”

Starts a new timer in Accelo. Subject is the one field it insists on.

When to use it
a meeting starts in your calendar and a timer with the meeting title as its Subject starts in Accelo.
Watch out
it starts the clock but never stops it; someone, or Pause Timers, has to do that.
5

Pause Timers

Action

In Zapier“Pauses any active timers.”

Pauses any timers that are running, in one action, with no field to fill.

When to use it
a consultant switches to a new task and the old clocks should stop counting before the next one starts.
Watch out
it pauses every active timer, not one you pick, so use it only when stopping them all is what you want.
Searches

The 1 Accelo search

1 search step looks for data that already exists in Accelo, so a later step can use it.

A search step looks up something that already exists and passes it to the steps after it. Searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH, and some action fields offer + Add search step to insert one just before. Whether a search needs an exact value or something close is up to Accelo. Three settings decide what happens next.

1

Lookup Webhook Resource

Search

In Zapier“Lookup a webhook's resource.”

Takes the Resource URL that an Accelo event carried and fetches the record behind it, so later steps can use its details.

When to use it
right after New Request, when the next action needs more about that request than the trigger handed over.
Watch out
Resource URL is required and must come from an Accelo event; it is not a search by name or email.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    On its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap right there, and the steps that relied on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on without a result.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    This box turns a search into a find-or-create. Accelo lists no find-or-create variant for its search, so a missing item needs a separate create step.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Three options when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass every match on at once.
When it breaks

When an Accelo Zap breaks

Zapier links no help article to Accelo. The cases below are the general limits of any Zap, seen from a services firm.

Hardly any of them raises a clear error. The Zap misses items, or runs far more than expected. When a run fails and you cannot tell why, our Zapier troubleshooting page picks up from there.

  • Old requests are not replayed

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after it goes live. Requests and assignments from before never reach it; moving that history is a separate job.

  • New Request feeding Create Request

    A Zap that writes into the place its own trigger watches sets itself off again and again, and uses up your task count fast.

  • A bulk import gets held back

    If a trigger suddenly sends a huge batch, after migrating clients into Accelo for example, Zapier's flood protection can hold it back.

  • A lookup that finds nothing

    On the default setting, a Lookup Webhook Resource that returns nothing stops the Zap, and the steps after it never run.
Need help

Need help automating Accelo with Zapier?

A person reads every message.

FAQ

Accelo Zapier integration: your questions answered

01Is the Accelo Zapier integration free?
Yes. Accelo is not a premium app, so it works on Zapier's free plan, which includes 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps. The limit people miss is the step count: on the free plan, each Zap has one trigger and one action. Add a filter, the Lookup Webhook Resource search or a second action, and the Zap turns multi-step, which needs a paid plan. Triggers never cost a task, so listening to Accelo is free.
02How many tasks does an Accelo Zap use?
One for every action that completes, nothing for the trigger. A Zap that posts a chat message each time a task is assigned uses one task per assignment. A Zap that looks up a request, then creates a sale and sends an email, counts each successful step on its own, so one event can cost several tasks. An action that fails, for example because Subject was blank, is not billed. Avoid loops between New Request and Create Request.
03Does Accelo send events to Zapier in real time?
Yes. Both Accelo triggers, Task Assigned and New Request, are instant: Accelo tells Zapier the moment the event happens, and the Zap starts right away on any plan. The polling grid, 15 minutes on the free plan, does not apply to them. That behavior comes from Accelo's own API and cannot be changed in the editor. A Zap built on an instant trigger shows a lightning bolt there, which is an easy way to check.
04What does it take to connect Accelo to Zapier?
An existing Accelo account, plus read or write access on the clients, requests and sales you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch. The connection takes three moves: open the Apps page in Zapier and click + Add connection, search for Accelo and click Add connection, then sign in to Accelo in the new tab and grant access. Every Accelo Zap reuses that connection afterwards, so you only do it once.
05Will Create Sale or Create Request duplicate contacts?
Not for a contact that is missing: both actions create the contact for you when it does not exist yet, so you do not need a separate contact step first. The required Email is what ties the sale or request to a person, so it has to be accurate. If you also run Create/Update Contact elsewhere, remember that it updates a contact that already exists instead of adding a second one, which keeps the client list clean.
06What if the Accelo operation you need is not available?
Then Zapier cannot do it with Accelo today. The integration offers two triggers on assigned tasks and new requests, five actions for contacts, requests, sales and timers, and one technical lookup. There is no trigger on status changes or invoices and no action to close a request or edit a sale. The realistic choices are to adapt the process to what exists, or to handle that part on another automation platform.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Accelo?
Decide on criteria rather than a ranking. On Zapier, Accelo's two triggers are instant and the app runs on the free plan, which suits simple flows such as a message on each new request. What Zapier exposes is narrow: no trigger on status changes or invoices, no action to close a request or edit a sale, one technical lookup. If those operations cover your process, Zapier is enough. If not, check what the Make or n8n connector for Accelo offers before choosing.
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