This guide is for admins and owners who want to connect external tools and services so documents sync into Simply Asking automatically. If you have not yet uploaded any documents manually, consider starting with the Uploading Your First Documents guide to understand how processing works.
Connect Google Drive, Notion, Trello, Dropbox, and other tools so your documents sync automatically and stay up to date. By the end of this guide, your external content will flow into your knowledge base without manual uploads.
Browse Connected and Available
Use the directory on the left. Connected apps appear first; Available apps are listed below. Select an app to open its workbench on the right.
Click Connect
In the workbench header, click Connect to begin authorization for the selected app.
Authorize Access
You will be redirected to the external service to grant permission. Sign in if prompted, review the permissions requested (Simply Asking requests read-only access), and click Allow or Authorize to grant access.
Select What to Sync
Open the Scope tab in the workbench. Browse and select specific files, folders, databases, boards, or object types to include. For Google Drive, you can pick individual files or entire folders (including Shared Drives).
Start with a focused subset of your most important content. You can always expand the selection later.
Configure Sync Settings
Set how often the integration checks for updates and which file types to include.
Sync frequency: Choose how often to check for new and updated content.
Auto-import: Enable to automatically import new files added to the selected folders.
File type filters: Optionally limit the sync to specific file types (e.g., only PDFs and Docs).
Start the Initial Sync
Click "Sync Now" to start the first sync. Before importing, the system runs a preview scan to detect document families in your files.
Review Document Families (Preview)
If the preview detects groups of related files (like multiple invoices or purchase orders), it shows a confirmation panel. This prevents false duplicate flags.
Review the detected families. Confirm families you recognize (the pattern will be saved for future syncs). Reject any groupings that look wrong.
Click Confirm & Start Sync to begin importing. Future automatic syncs will apply confirmed patterns without asking again.
Verify Documents Appear
Check the Library for imported documents. Synced files no longer show as individual rows on the Uploads tab — they live under their sync run on the Syncs tab of the activity tray. If a run finishes with some files failing, it shows "Completed with issues" instead of "Synced." Expand the run to see a plain-language reason for each failed file, with a Retry button per file or "Retry all failed" for the whole batch.