Zapier tutorial

This topic describes sending extracted data from example documents into an Airtable database using Sensible’s Zapier integration.

Create an example Sensible extraction

To configure Zapier, you’ll use a recent example of a document extraction. Follow the steps in Getting started with out-of-the-box extractions to create a JSON extraction from an example 1040 tax form.

Note Ensure your example extraction contains non-null values for all fields you intend to configure in Zapier.

Create an empty destination database

Before you can integrate Sensible with Airtable, you need to set up a destination in Airtable to hold the extracted data Sensible creates. Take the following steps:

1. Sign in or create an Airtable account.
2. Create a destination Airtable base using the following image as a guide, with extraction id, adjusted gross income, and taxpayer name:

The base contains a field (displayed as a column), for each piece of document data to extract. Zapier adds a record (displayed as a row), for each new document you extract from.

3. (Optional) examine the example extraction you created in the previous section. To add more data from the extraction, create corresponding Airtable fields. For example, create a Total taxes owed field.

Configure Zapier

Take the following steps to connect Sensible to Airtable using Zapier:

1. Sign in or create a Zapier account.
2. Create a new Zap. For your trigger, search for and select Sensible.
3. Take the following steps to connect your Sensible account to Zapier:
   1. Click to expand the Trigger section.
   2. Click to expand the Choose account section, then follow the prompts to connect your Sensible account.
4. In the Set up trigger section, select the tax_forms document type you created in the previous steps, select the Production environment, and select the Complete status.

5. Continue to the Test trigger section and follow the prompts to test. Verify that the recent document extraction you created in previous steps is selected:

6. Continue to the Action section, search for and select Airtable:
   1. For the Event, choose Create records (With Line Item Support)
   2. Follow the prompts to connect your Airtable account to Zapier.
7. In the Set up action section, map Sensible extracted field ids to the corresponding Airtable field names. Zapier displays the data from the recent document extraction as examples. Use the following screenshot to complete the configuration:

8. (Optional) If you created extra fields in the database, map each one.
9. Follow the prompts to test the action. You should see the extracted data from the 1040 example document as a row in Airtable:

10. Follow the prompts to publish your Zap.

(Optional) Test your integration

Congratulations, your integration is now published and running! Take the following steps to continue building a database from example documents:

1. Navigate to the Sensible Extract tab.
2. Upload and run extractions for the following example 1040 documents:
   • 2018 1040 example document
   • 2019 1040 example document
   • 2020 1040 example document
3. Zapier can take up to 15 minutes to pull data from Sensible. To avoid waiting, navigate to the Zaps tab in Zapier, right-click the Zap’s ellipsis (…) icon and click Run.
4. Verify the extractions show up in Airtable:

(Optional) Scale up

You can extract from more documents automatically by building a more complex Zap so that you can trigger Sensible extractions with file actions in Google drive, email, or other supported Zapier apps.
Then send the extraction to the destination of your choice with a Sensible action. For more information, see Advanced Zapier tutorial.

Notes

Limitations

• You can configure single-value field output with the Sensible-Zapier integration. For multi-value output such as tables and sections, you can compile document extractions into a spreadsheet or CSV file using Sensible’s API or SDKs. For more information, see SenseML to Excel reference.
• You can extract from single-document files with Zapier. If you want to extract from portfolio files (files that contain multiple documents, for example, insurance application bundles), use the Sensible API or SDKs.