I figured out how to solve this problem myself. The issue was that when Zapier writes data to Excel cells, it doesn’t automatically trigger the normal worksheet events that VBA relies on.
My workaround involved using the Worksheet_Calculate event instead of just Worksheet_Change. But here’s the important part - you need to force a calculation to actually happen. I did this by creating a helper formula in another cell that references the cell being updated by Zapier.
For example, if Zapier is updating cell B5, I put a formula like =B5&"force calculation" in cell B6. This makes Excel recalculate whenever B5 changes, which then triggers the Worksheet_Calculate event properly.
Without this trick, Zapier updates the cells but Excel doesn’t recognize it as a change that needs to trigger any events. Has anyone else run into this same issue with automated tools updating Excel files?
Yeah, zapier’s a pain for this stuff. I gave up on wksht events and just use a timer macro that runs every 30 secs to check if my target cells changed. Not elegant, but it works every time without helper formulas or workarounds. Sometimes the simple solution wins even if it feels hacky.
Had this exact problem six months ago with Power Automate reports. External data updates don’t trigger VBA events - super annoying when you need calculations or formatting to run afterward. I ended up using Application.EnableEvents with Application.OnTime instead. Set up a procedure that checks the target range every few minutes and manually triggers the code when it detects changes. Not as clean as event-driven programming, but way more reliable than helper formulas. The issue is these automation platforms write directly to Excel’s object model, skipping the UI layer where events normally fire. Microsoft really needs to fix this since automated data updates are everywhere now.
This drove me crazy for weeks when I was building a dashboard with automated updates from different sources. The problem is external apps completely bypass Excel’s normal event handling. I got it working with a hybrid approach - I used the Worksheet_Calculate trigger plus a timestamp check. Skip the helper formulas. I just added a small function that compares the last update time with current system time. When the gap hits my expected interval, it forces a manual recalc. Way better than timed checks since it only runs when things actually change - no wasted processing. Works great with Zapier, IFTTT, and other automation tools.