Automate Return to Work Forms with Pabbly Connect and Google Apps

Learn how to automate return to work forms using Pabbly Connect, Google Forms, and Google Docs. A step-by-step tutorial for seamless integration. Learn to create powerful connections between your critical applications without requiring specialized programming knowledge or extensive technical background.

Watch Step By Step Video Tutorial Below

Accessing Pabbly Connect for Automation

To automate return to work forms, first access Pabbly Connect. Begin by visiting the Pabbly Connect website and signing in to your account. If you’re new, you can sign up for free and get 100 free tasks each month, which is perfect for testing.

Once logged in, you will see two main sections: Trigger and Action. These are crucial for setting up your automation. The Trigger indicates when an event occurs, while the Action specifies what should happen as a result. In this case, we will set Google Forms as the trigger application.

Setting Up Google Forms Trigger in Pabbly Connect

In this step, we will configure the trigger in Pabbly Connect to capture responses from Google Forms. Click on the Arrow to choose your trigger application, and select Google Forms. The trigger event will be set to ‘New Response Received’. This ensures that every time a form is submitted, Pabbly Connect captures the data immediately.

After selecting the trigger, Pabbly Connect will provide a unique webhook URL. This URL is essential for connecting Google Forms to Pabbly Connect. Copy this URL, and navigate to your Google Form. Follow these steps to link the form:

• Open your Google Form and go to the ‘Responses’ tab.
• Click on ‘Link to Sheets’ and choose to create a new spreadsheet.
• Once the new spreadsheet is created, navigate to ‘Extensions’ and then ‘Add-ons’ to install the Pabbly Connect Webhooks add-on.

After setting up the add-on, you can configure it to send data to Pabbly Connect by pasting the webhook URL in the add-on’s initial setup.

Submitting a Test Response to Google Forms

Now that the trigger is set up, it’s time to test the integration. In Pabbly Connect, you will see a message indicating it is waiting for a webhook response. To generate this response, submit a test entry using the Google Form you created. Fill in all necessary fields such as employee name, ID, department, and reason for absence.

After completing the form, click on the submit button. You should see a confirmation message that your response has been recorded. Now, check the connected Google Sheet to confirm that the response appears there. This step verifies that Pabbly Connect is successfully capturing the data from Google Forms.

Setting Up Google Docs Action in Pabbly Connect

The next step involves configuring the action in Pabbly Connect to create a document in Google Docs based on the form submission. Select Google Docs as the action application and choose ‘Create Document from Template’ as the action event. This allows you to utilize a pre-existing template for the return to work document.

To connect Google Docs to Pabbly Connect, click on ‘Connect’ and authorize access. After successful authorization, you will be prompted to select the template document you created earlier. This template will serve as the basis for the new document that will be generated upon each form submission.

• Map the employee name from the previous step to the new document’s name.
• Specify the location in Google Drive where the new document should be saved.
• Fill in the required fields using data mapping from the Google Forms response.

After mapping all necessary fields, click on Save and Send Test Request to finalize the action configuration. This will create a new document based on the template with the data from the form submission.

Verifying Document Creation in Google Drive

Finally, check your Google Drive folder to see if the new document has been created successfully. In Pabbly Connect, you should receive a positive response indicating that the document was generated. Navigate to the folder where you specified the document should be saved, and you will find a new document titled with the employee’s name followed by ‘Return to Work Document’.

Open the document to ensure all details from the form submission are correctly populated. This includes employee ID, department, email, phone number, and reasons for absence. If everything appears as expected, you have successfully automated the return to work form process using Pabbly Connect.

Conclusion

This tutorial demonstrated how to use Pabbly Connect to automate return to work forms with Google Forms and Google Docs. By integrating these applications, you can streamline the process and ensure accurate documentation for employee returns.