How to automate sending of quota progress reports: Nfield API + Microsoft Power Automate, no coding required

Automation of routine tasks is a great way to improve efficiency in any line of work. For market research companies conducting Nfield Online and CAPI surveys, this is easily achieved through integration with codeless tools such as Microsoft Power Automate and Zapier.

The beauty of no-code automation tools is they don’t require specialist expertise to set them up. All that’s necessary is an amount of familiarization with the tool and how it integrates with Nfield Manager via Nfield’s API. For the purpose of this demonstration, we’re showing how sending reports to clients can be automated using Microsoft Power Automate. This task is one of the Five ways no-code automation can improve efficiency in market research operations. 

Essential preparation

Here’s what’s necessary for integrating Microsoft Power Automate with Nfield:

• Microsoft Power Automate Premium Subscription: this provides access to advanced features such as HTTP connections.
• Basic understanding of Microsoft Power Automate: see Get started with Power Automate – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn or A Beginner’s Guide to Automation Using Power Automate
• Familiarity with Nfield Manager: in order to understand specific tasks and endpoints involved in the integration process.
• Access to the appropriate Nfield API help manual: refer to the manual for your region
  

A practical example: automated sending of quota progress reports

Our video follows every step of the process of setting up automated sending of quota progress reports from Nfield Manager using Microsoft Power Automate:

1. Log in to Power Automate (0:00 to 0:25)

2. Create a new flow with a schedule trigger* (0:25 to 1:05)

3. Create an HTTP connection for Nfield API authentication (1:05 to 2:54)

4. Extract and store authentication token (2:54 to 4:09)

5. Create another HTTP connection to retrieve the quota table (4:09 to 7:11)

6. Send an email with the quota table (7:11 to 8:12)

_{*In this example, reports are being scheduled to go out daily at 9am.}