What you'll build
A Zap that triggers every time a Vinyl meeting ends and posts the summary to the right Slack channel, automatically, based on whether it was a client meeting or an internal one.
Client meetings → posted to your client updates or account management channel
Internal meetings → posted to your team or general channel
Private meetings → nothing sent
This article assumes you already have a Zap that triggers from your Vinyl summary emails (Email by Zapier) and an AI step that classifies each meeting as Client, Internal or Private. The finished structure is shown further down.
What you'll need
A Zapier account (Starter plan or above for multi-step Zaps)
Slack connected to Zapier — go to My Apps in Zapier, search for Slack, and authorise with your workspace
A note on client data
Anything you forward to Zapier, an AI service or Slack leaves Vinyl's sharing and permission controls. The "Private" label in this Zap comes from the AI step's best guess, not from Vinyl's own meeting permissions. It's worth checking your firm's policy before posting client meeting content to shared channels.
Setting up the Client path (Path A)
Inside your Path A — Client branch, add a Slack → Send Channel Message step.
Set Channel to wherever client meeting updates should land — for example
#client-updates,#account-management, or#meetings.Set the Message Text. Here's a format that works well in Slack:
:memo: *Client meeting summary**Meeting:* [Subject field from email][Body Plain field from email]
The email subject reads Vinyl - followed by the meeting title. The Body Plain field from the Vinyl email contains the summary in plain text, with the meeting details and the sections Summary, Key discussion points, Action items and Next steps. It also includes links back to Vinyl, which you may want to strip out before posting. Slack renders line breaks correctly so the message is easy to read without any extra formatting.
Optional: set Bot Name to something like "Vinyl" and add a bot icon to make the messages easy to identify in the channel.
Setting up the Internal path (Path B)
Inside your Path B — Internal branch, add another Slack → Send Channel Message step.
Set Channel to your team channel — for example
#generalor#team.Use the same message format, or a simpler version without the client context header.
Tip: Notify yourself directly after a client meeting
If you'd rather get a private heads-up than post to a shared channel, use Slack → Send Direct Message instead. Set the recipient to your own Slack username and map in the meeting summary. This is useful if you want to review the notes before they're shared with the wider team.
Tip: Route to a client-specific channel
If your firm uses a dedicated Slack channel per client (e.g. #smith-associates), add an AI step before the Slack step to extract the client name, then use Slack → Find Public Channel to look up the matching channel.
1. AI / ChatGPT — Extract client name from meeting summary2. Slack — Find Public Channel (search by client name)3. Filter — Stop if no channel found4. Slack — Send Channel Message (to the matched channel)
This routes each client meeting's notes to the right channel automatically. Note that Find Public Channel only searches public channels — if your client channels are private, you'll need to hardcode the channel name in the Send Channel Message step instead.
Finished Zap structure
1. Email by Zapier — New Inbound Email (trigger)2. AI / ChatGPT — Classify meeting (CLIENT / INTERNAL / PRIVATE)3. Paths by Zapier ├─ Path A: CLIENT │ 4. Slack — Send Channel Message (#client-updates) │ OR: Find Public Channel → Send Channel Message ├─ Path B: INTERNAL │ 4. Slack — Send Channel Message (#team) └─ Path C: PRIVATE (no action)
Troubleshooting
Slack not connecting in Zapier: Make sure you've authorised Zapier with a Slack account that has permission to post to the channels you're targeting. If your workspace has restrictions on third-party apps, a Slack admin may need to approve the Zapier connection first.
Message posts but formatting looks off: Slack uses its own markdown called mrkdwn. Asterisks (
*text*) make text bold, and colons wrap emoji codes (:memo:). If formatting looks wrong, simplify the message to plain text only.Channel not found: Make sure the channel name in Zapier matches exactly, including capitalisation. Zapier accepts the channel name with or without the # symbol.
What's next?
If your firm uses Microsoft Teams, see Post meeting summaries to Microsoft Teams, or Practical Zapier workflows for accounting firms for an overview of everything you can automate.