Navan Zapier integrationAutomate Navan with Zapier.
The Navan Zapier integration is small: 1 trigger, 0 actions and 1 search, all about bookings on the travel and expense platform. Zapier can read new bookings and look up existing ones, but it cannot write anything back into Navan.
Beta app Zapier still marks this integration as beta.
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What the Navan Zapier integration can and cannot do
Navan handles corporate travel and expenses. Zapier connects it to your other tools through a Zap: an automation made of one trigger (the event that starts it) and one or more actions (what it then does for you). With Navan, the only event on offer is a new booking, and Navan itself never appears as an action.
A booking log nobody has to maintain. New Booking starts a Zap for each booking created in Navan, and the next step writes it wherever your team keeps track: a sheet, a database, a shared list. Its official description says it can be narrowed down by booking type or booking status, so one Zap can keep only what matters.
A heads-up when someone books. The same trigger can feed a message in your team chat or an email, so the people who need to know about a trip hear about it without opening Navan.
A lookup inside a bigger Zap. Find Bookings searches existing bookings in Navan. Since a Zap cannot start with a search, it sits after a trigger from another app and hands what it found to the following steps.
What Zapier does not do here: there is no action at all, so a Zap cannot create, change or cancel a booking, and nothing touches expenses. Zapier also flags this integration as beta. The trigger is a polling one, so it is not instant. If Navan on Make is an option, see our Navan Make integration page.
Zapier words, in plain English
Seven words are enough for the rest of this page. One line each, then they are used as they are.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. For Navan, it is New Booking, and Zapier waits for nothing else.
- Action
- What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you, in another app here.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Your plan counts those, not the checks.
- Polling trigger
- A trigger Zapier checks on a timer: it asks the app for new items at a fixed interval and keeps only the ones it has not seen.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap go on only when what arrived meets a condition you set, and stops it otherwise.
- Search step
- A step that looks up something already in an app, so the steps after it can use what it found.
What a Navan Zap costs
Navan is not a premium app: it runs on the free plan. Since it has no action, the tasks you spend are those of the other apps in the Zap.
- Trigger0 tasks
- Each successful action1 task
- Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
- Premium appNo
The trigger never costs a task, and Zapier checking Navan for new bookings costs nothing either, however often it looks. Each action that succeeds counts once; one that fails is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month and Zaps of two steps, which is exactly New Booking plus one action. A filter, a second action or Find Bookings makes the Zap multi-step, which needs a paid plan. How often New Booking is checked depends on the plan, as the grid shows.
Connect Navan to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. A connection is your Navan account linked once, then reused by every step that uses Navan.
- 02
Pick Navan
Type Navan in the search box of the dialog, select it and click Add connection. A new tab opens, and that is where the sign-in of the next step takes place.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
Sign in to Navan in that tab and give Zapier access to the account. You need an account on the app, plus read or write access on anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch.
Your first Navan Zap: a booking log with a heads-up
GoalEach new Navan booking is added to your tracking sheet, then announced in your team chat.
- 01
Set the trigger
Create a Zap, pick Navan and the New Booking event, then your Navan connection. If you only want some bookings, look at the trigger's own options before reaching for a filter.
- 02
Test the trigger
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent bookings of the connected account, so the next steps are mapped on a real one.
- 03
Add the row
Add your spreadsheet as the first action, then map the booking details you care about into its columns. Test the step and read what came back.
- 04
Add the message
Click the plus icon, add your team chat and write the message with the booking details. Two actions make a multi-step Zap, which needs a paid plan.
- 05
Publish
Click Publish to switch the Zap on. Only bookings created from then on will start it. For a guided build on your own account, see our Zapier training.
The Navan trigger
1 event starts a Zap when something happens in Navan. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New Booking
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new booking is created in Navan, optionally filtered by booking type or booking status.”
Each booking created in Navan reaches your Zap, with its details ready for the next step. The official description adds that the trigger can be narrowed by booking type or booking status, so a single Zap can keep only one kind of trip, or only bookings in a given state. It is the only door into Navan that Zapier offers.
The Navan search
1 search step looks for data that already exists in Navan, so a later step can use it.
A search step looks up something that already exists in an app and passes it to the next steps. Searches sit at the bottom of the action list, under SEARCH. Adding one makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.
Find Bookings
SearchIn Zapier“Finds bookings in Navan matching the given filters.”
Looks through existing Navan bookings that match the filters you give it, and hands what it found to the steps that follow.
The three settings every search exposes
- Successful if no search results are found?Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there, and the steps that relied on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
- Create X if it doesn't exist yet?This box turns a search into a find-or-create. Navan has no action to create anything, and Find Bookings offers no such variant.
- If multiple search results are found?Three ways out when several bookings match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass all of them on.
When a Navan Zap breaks
Zapier attaches no help article to Navan and no app-specific limit is published. What can go wrong comes from how Zapier works in general.
Four cases apply to a Navan Zap. If one still misbehaves after you have checked them, see our Zapier troubleshooting guide.
No look back
A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Bookings that already existed are never picked up; moving them is a separate job.The wait between checks
New Booking is a polling trigger: Zapier looks at an interval set by your plan, 15 minutes on the free one, so the Zap never runs the moment a booking is made.A sudden flood
After a bulk import or a migration, a trigger that suddenly returns a huge batch can be held back by Zapier's flood protection.The same booking twice
Zapier keeps track of what it has already seen on a polling trigger, so the same booking does not start the Zap twice.
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