Focuster Zapier integrationAutomate Focuster with Zapier.
The Focuster Zapier integration gives you 1 trigger, 1 action and 0 searches. Small catalog, two clear jobs: react when you finish a task in Focuster, or push a new to-do into a Focuster list from another app. Free plan included.
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What the Focuster Zapier integration actually does
It links Focuster, the tool that turns a to-do list into a calendar schedule, to the other apps you use. In one direction, a task you tick off in Focuster can start something elsewhere. In the other, an event somewhere else can drop a new to-do into a Focuster list, with no copy and paste.
Three results people usually build with it. First, a progress feed: each time you complete something, New Completed Action fires and your team sees it in a chat channel, a sheet or a client log. Second, an inbox that fills itself: a starred email, a new card or a form reply becomes a Focuster to-do through Add Action, ready to be scheduled. Third, a done log you can reread at the end of the week, built only from what you really finished.
Now the honest part. Zapier does very little else with Focuster. There is no search, so a Zap cannot look up an existing to-do. There is no update or delete step, so a to-do created by a Zap stays as it was written. And there is a single trigger: nothing fires when a task is created, moved or rescheduled, only when it is completed.
The trigger also works by checking, not by push (more on that in the glossary below). On the free plan, a completed task can wait up to 15 minutes before your Zap reacts. For a team feed, that is fine. For anything that has to happen the very second you tick a box, it is not.
If you are weighing tools, the same app has a page on the other side: the Focuster Make integration. And for the broader question of platform choice, the Make vs Zapier comparison lays out the criteria.
Zapier words you will meet on this page
Seven terms, each in plain words. Once explained here, they are used without a reminder.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time that trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. Once the Zap is on, Zapier sits and waits for that event to happen.
- Action
- What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or moves something in an app on your behalf.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills. One task is one action your Zap completed successfully, and your plan counts those.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked on a timer by Zapier. An instant trigger is reported by the app itself the moment it happens.
- Filter
- A checkpoint step: the finished task goes on to the next step only if it matches the condition you set; anything else stops right there.
- Connection
- Your Focuster account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every step in every Zap that touches Focuster.
What a Focuster Zap costs you
Focuster is not a premium app, so it runs on the free Zapier plan. What you pay depends on actions, not on checks.
- Premium appNo, works on the free plan
- TriggerFree, never counted
- Each successful action1 task
- Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only
The trigger never costs a task, however often Zapier checks for completed work. Each action that succeeds counts once, and a failed one counts nothing. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, but each Zap is capped at two steps: one trigger, one action. Add a filter or a second action and you have a multi-step Zap (anything beyond one trigger and one action), which needs a paid plan.
Connect Focuster to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. You need a Focuster account before you start, plus access to any list you do not own but want the Zap to write into.
- 02
Pick Focuster and add it
Type Focuster in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the Focuster side, where you sign in with the account the Zaps should use.
- 03
Grant access
Allow Zapier to reach your Focuster account. The connection then shows up in your list, and every future Zap step that uses Focuster picks it from a menu instead of asking you to sign in again.
Your first Zap: post finished client work to Slack
GoalAn account manager wants the client channel to hear about tasks closed for that client, and nothing else.
- 01
Create the Zap
Start a new Zap. For the trigger, choose Focuster and the New Completed Action event, then select the connection you added earlier.
- 02
Test the trigger
Complete a task in Focuster first, then run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent items of the account, so pick a real one to build the rest on.
- 03
Add the filter
Click the plus icon, choose Filter, and in its three boxes pick a value you saw in the test sample, a text rule, and the client's name. This step makes the Zap multi-step.
- 04
Add the Slack action
Add Slack with Send Channel Message, pick the client channel, and map the values from the Focuster sample into the message text so it reads naturally.
- 05
Test, then publish
Run each step once and read what came back. When the message lands where you expect, click Publish to switch the Zap on.
The Focuster trigger
1 event starts a Zap when something happens in Focuster. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New Completed Action
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when an action is completed.”
Each time you tick off a to-do in Focuster, this trigger picks it up and starts your Zap with that finished item. It is the only event Focuster exposes to Zapier, so every Zap that reacts to your work begins here.
The Focuster action
Focuster gives you 1 action. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Add Action
ActionIn Zapier“Adds an action to a list.”
This step drops a new to-do into a Focuster list, so Focuster can slot it into your calendar like anything you typed yourself.
When a Focuster Zap breaks
Zapier links no help article to Focuster, and no app-specific limit is documented. What breaks is the general behavior of Zapier itself.
Four cases cover most surprises, and in each the Zap does less, or more, than you expected. If you get stuck on a Zap that refuses to run, the Zapier troubleshooting page walks through the usual checks.
Past work is ignored
A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Tasks completed last week never come through, and moving that backlog is a separate job.A Zap that feeds itself
If a Zap writes back into the place its own trigger watches, it sets itself off again and again and eats your task count fast.A sudden huge batch
When the trigger suddenly returns a large pile at once, after a bulk import for instance, Zapier's flood protection can hold those items back.No duplicates, by design
Zapier remembers which completed tasks it has already seen, so the same one never starts the Zap twice, even across several checks.
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