Airtable · Bases, interfaces and automations

9 Airtable automations for three businesses. Run every one yourself.

Airtable is a database that looks like a spreadsheet. Its tables link to each other, so a pitch knows its speaker and a client knows its fees, and its formulas keep every total up to date. On top sit forms, interfaces for the people who use it, and automations that act when a form is sent, a record changes or a schedule fires.

I built a base and 9 automations for three made-up businesses: a conference team, a film-equipment rental house and a small recruiting firm. Each has a form you can fill in. Everything runs here in your browser, on test events or on your own answers. Need this for your business, or hiring for Airtable? Get in touch.

Try it: fill in a form See the three businesses Get in touch

What one speaker pitch gets

A first-time speaker sends Brightwater Summits’s pitch form at 10:42 AM. Automation 01 · New pitch does the rest:

4.8 s later · email to the speaker
We have your pitch: “Cold-chain routes on half the fuel”Hi Rafael, Thanks for pitching “Cold-chain routes on half the fuel” for Brightwater Summit 2026. Priya and two reviewers read every pitch, and you will hear from us within three weeks either way. …
5.5 s later · Slack #program
To the teamNew pitch for Brightwater Summit 2026: “Cold-chain routes on half the fuel” Talk, Supply chain · Rafael Mendes, Coldline Freight · needs travel Speaker’s pitches so far: 1

A speaker record is created, the pitch linked to it and moved into review, all in about 5.5 s, with no one at Brightwater touching it.

Run it yourself →

How to use this page

Pick a business. New to Airtable? Start with the conference team, and open The base to see how the tables link.
Fill in its form, or pick a test event. Ready-made ones include “the Slack connection has expired” and “an item with no vendor”.
Press Run automation. Watch every step run, with every field it writes, every rollup and formula that changes with it, and every email and Slack message it sends.

Short on time? Each automation opens with The problem and What I built in plain words. The editor, the base and the Build notes are the detail an Airtable builder would check. Words you may not know

Automations you can run: 9
Linked tables behind them: 15
Test events to run them on: 28
Actions and branches, each reached by a test: 68/68

Are these real businesses?

No. Brightwater Summits, Kestrel Grip & Lighting and Larkspur Talent, and everyone who works there, are made up, so every base and automation can be shown end to end with its data and tried by anyone. The bases use Airtable’s real field types, views, interfaces, triggers and actions, and the scripts use Airtable’s scripting API, so each one can be rebuilt in a real base. Nothing on this page sends a message or keeps what you type.

Who built this

I’m Nick Soderstrom, a project and operations lead who builds the systems teams run on. My client automation work so far has been in GoHighLevel and Zapier (see recent contracts), and there are GoHighLevel and n8n versions of this page. These Airtable cases are not client work: I built them to show how I design, test and hand off an Airtable base. This page and its simulator were built by directing AI, like the projects on my AI Projects page.

All case studies · How I work · Get in touch

Airtable words in plain English (22)

Airtable: A database that looks like a spreadsheet. Each table holds one kind of thing, and records in different tables can be linked, so a pitch knows its speaker and a speaker knows all their pitches.
Base: One Airtable database: a set of tables that belong together, with their views, interfaces and automations.
Table, record, field: A table is like a sheet; a record is a row; a field is a column with a type, such as text, date, single select or attachment.
Link to another record: A field that points at records in another table. Airtable keeps both sides: link a pitch to a speaker and the speaker’s record lists the pitch.
Lookup: A field that shows a field from linked records, like the speaker’s email on the pitch.
Rollup: A field that combines a field from linked records with a formula such as SUM(values), MAX(values) or MIN(values).
Count: A field that counts linked records, optionally only those that meet a condition.
Formula: A field computed from the record’s other fields, such as DATEADD({Event date}, -7, 'days').
View: A saved way of looking at a table: Grid, Kanban, Calendar, Gallery, Timeline, List or Form, with its own filters, sorting and grouping.
Form view: A form that creates a record in its table. It can be shared publicly, and a link can prefill or hide fields.
Interface: A simple app built on the base with the Interface Designer: dashboards, record review pages, lists and buttons. People can be invited to an interface only, without access to the rest of the base.
Automation: A trigger and a list of actions that run on their own in Airtable, such as “when a form is submitted, create a record and send an email”.
Trigger: What starts an automation: a form submission, a record that starts to match conditions, a record that is updated, a schedule, and others.
When a record matches conditions: A trigger that fires when a record starts to meet a set of conditions. It does not fire again until the record stops matching and matches again.
Action: One step of an automation: Find records, Create record, Update record, Send email, Run a script, Send a Slack message, and others.
Conditional group: A step with branches: If, Otherwise if, and an optional Otherwise. The first branch whose conditions are met runs its actions. It is always the last step, so actions every branch needs go before it.
Repeating group: A set of steps that runs once for each item in a list, such as each record Find records returned. Like a conditional group, it is the last step of its list; it can sit inside a branch.
Token: A value from an earlier step dropped into an action’s setting, like {Trigger › Speaker email}. Shown here in braces.
Run a script: An action that runs JavaScript with Airtable’s scripting API, for logic the built-in actions do not cover. It takes input variables and sets outputs.
Run history: The list of an automation’s runs, each Successful or Failed, with what every step received and returned.
Synced table: A read-only copy of a view from another base (or another app) that stays up to date on its own.
Interface-only collaborator: Someone invited to an interface but not to the base behind it.

Case study 1 · Conferences and events

Brightwater Summits

Brightwater runs a two-day summit on running greener operations each spring, plus half-day workshops around the region. Around 120 people pitch a talk each year and about 40 get a slot. Pitches used to arrive through a survey tool, land in a spreadsheet, and get answered by hand weeks later; slides were chased in reply-all threads until the night before. Now one Airtable base holds the program: pitches, speakers, events and the tasks that get a session on stage, with three automations doing the follow-up.

Tables: 4
Fields: 48
Automations: 3
Test events: 9
Where: Portland, Oregon; events across the Pacific Northwest

The sample team

Priya Raman Program director
Hannah Lee Speaker coordinator
Dev Castillo Event producer
Marcus Webb Operations (owns the base)

How the base is set up

One base, “Brightwater Program”, on the Team plan. The team edits it directly; outside reviewers see only an interface page with the pitches to score. Slack is connected through the automation’s own Slack action, so nothing else needs to run.

Airtable formAirtable automationsInterfacesScriptingSlackSynced table

Brightwater Summits is a fictional business. The people, sessions, emails and links are samples.

The base
The system
The form
The automations

The base

Brightwater Program: 4 tables, linked

Every table, field and view the automations rely on. Links are what make it a database rather than a spreadsheet: a lookup reads a field through a link, a rollup adds up or picks from linked records, a count counts them, and a formula works from the record’s own fields. The sample records below are computed by the same code as the simulator.

Sessions › Event → Events Sessions › Speaker → Speakers Tasks › Session → Sessions

Sessions23 fields · 4 views · 7 sample records

One record per pitch. The form creates them; the ones accepted become the program.

Fields in Sessions
Field	Type	Set up as
Titleprimary	Single line text	Primary field: the talk’s title, as the speaker wrote it.
Speaker name	Single line text	As typed on the form. The link to Speakers is set by automation 01.
Speaker email	Email
Company	Single line text
Format	Single select	Keynote · Talk · Panel · Workshop
Track	Single select	Operations · Supply chain · Finance · People
Abstract	Long text
Headshot	Attachment
Event	Link to another record	Links to EventsOn the form, limited to the Events view “Open for pitches”, so nobody pitches to a locked program.
Speaker	Link to another record	Links to SpeakersOne speaker record per person, however many times they pitch.
Status	Single select	In review · Accepted · DeclinedSet to In review by automation 01; reviewers move it from the Review queue interface.
Score	Rating	Reviewers’ score, 1 to 5.
Needs travel	Checkbox	Asked on the form. Decides whether a travel task is made.
Event date	Rollup	Rolls up Event › Starts`MIN(values)`A rollup, not a lookup, so formulas get one date instead of a list.
Slides due	Formula	`DATEADD({Event date}, -7, 'days')`
Book travel by	Formula	`DATEADD({Event date}, -30, 'days')`
Slides	Attachment
Slides status	Formula	`IF({Status} != "Accepted", "", IF({Slides}, "Received", IF(IS_BEFORE({Slides due}, TODAY()), "Overdue", "Waiting")))`
Welcome extras	Formula	`IF({Needs travel}, "• Travel: Dev will be in touch to book it by " & DATETIME_FORMAT({Book travel by}, 'MMM D') & ".") & IF(AND({Needs travel}, {Format} = "Workshop"), "\n") & IF({Format} = "Workshop", "• Workshop room: tell Marcus what you need on the tables by " & DATETIME_FORMAT({Slides due}, 'MMM D') & ".")`The lines of the welcome email that depend on the session. An email’s text cannot branch, so a formula writes them.
Welcome sent	Checkbox	Ticked by automation 02 and part of its conditions, so moving Status away and back cannot send the welcome twice.
Status changed	Last modified time	Watches StatusOnly watches Status, so it dates the decision, not the last typo fix.
Submitted	Created time
Tasks	Link to another record	Links to Tasks; the other side of Tasks › Session

Views

GridAll pitchesThe whole pipeline, for Priya.Group: Event, then Status · Sort: Submitted, newest first
KanbanReview boardWhere the team talks through pitches on Tuesdays.Stacked by: Status · Card cover: Headshot · Filter: Status is not Declined
FormCall for speakersThe public pitch form, linked from the website.Event picker limited to the Events view “Open for pitches” · Redirect after submit: the speaker FAQ page · Fields: Title, Speaker name, Speaker email, Company, Format, Track, Abstract, Headshot, Event, Needs travel
GridMissing slides · next 14 daysWhat automation 03 reads every Monday. Also Hannah’s to-do list.Filter: Status is Accepted · Filter: Slides is empty · Filter: Event date is within the next 14 days · Sort: Slides due, earliest first

Sample records (7)

Sample records in Sessions
Title	Speaker name	Speaker email	Company	Format	Track	Event	Speaker	Status	Score	Needs travel	Event date	Slides due	Book travel by	Slides	Slides status	Welcome extras	Welcome sent	Status changed	Submitted	Tasks
Supplier scorecards suppliers actually like	Mara Okafor	mara@tidewell.example	Tidewell Logistics	Talk	Supply chain	Workshop day · Seattle	Mara Okafor	Accepted	★★★★★		3/12/2026	3/5/2026	2/10/2026		Waiting		✓	1/28/2026 10:12am	1/9/2026 8:40am	Slides · Supplier scorecards suppliers actually like
Closing the books in three days	Jun Watanabe	jun@ferncastle.example	Ferncastle Foods	Talk	Finance	Workshop day · Seattle	Jun Watanabe	Accepted	★★★★		3/12/2026	3/5/2026	2/10/2026		Waiting		✓	1/28/2026 10:15am	1/12/2026 3:02pm	Slides · Closing the books in three days
Hiring operations people who stay	Ana Lima	ana.lima@northrow.example	Northrow Apparel	Panel	People	Workshop day · Seattle	Ana Lima	Accepted	★★★★		3/12/2026	3/5/2026	2/10/2026	ops-hiring-panel.pdf	Received		✓	1/28/2026 10:20am	1/14/2026 11:30am	Slides · Hiring operations people who stay
Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on	Tomas Berg	tomas@gridleaf.example	Gridleaf Energy	Workshop	Operations	Workshop day · Seattle	Tomas Berg	Accepted	★★★★★	✓	3/12/2026	3/5/2026	2/10/2026		Waiting	• Travel: Dev will be in touch to book it by Feb 10. • Workshop room: tell Marcus what you need on the tables by Mar 5.	✓	1/29/2026 9:05am	1/15/2026 4:45pm	Travel · Tomas Berg, Room setup · Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on
Packaging returns without the waste	Ana Lima	ana.lima@northrow.example	Northrow Apparel	Talk	Supply chain	Brightwater Summit 2026	Ana Lima	In review	★★★★		5/20/2026	5/13/2026	4/20/2026					2/16/2026 1:00pm	2/16/2026 12:58pm
Running a repair café at work	Jun Watanabe	jun@ferncastle.example	Ferncastle Foods	Workshop	People	Brightwater Summit 2026	Jun Watanabe	In review	★★★★★	✓	5/20/2026	5/13/2026	4/20/2026			• Travel: Dev will be in touch to book it by Apr 20. • Workshop room: tell Marcus what you need on the tables by May 13.		2/20/2026 9:31am	2/20/2026 9:30am
Carbon accounting for small teams	Tomas Berg	tomas@gridleaf.example	Gridleaf Energy	Talk	Finance	Brightwater Summit 2026	Tomas Berg	Declined	★★		5/20/2026	5/13/2026	4/20/2026					2/25/2026 5:40pm	2/11/2026 10:10am

Dates are from the sample week; the simulator moves them to the week you are in.

Speakers8 fields · 2 views · 4 sample records

One record per person. Pitches link here, so a speaker’s history is in one place.

Fields in Speakers
Field	Type	Set up as
Nameprimary	Single line text
Email	Email
Company	Single line text
Headshot	Attachment
Sessions	Link to another record	Links to Sessions; the other side of Sessions › Speaker
Pitches	Count	Counts linked Sessions
Accepted talks	Count	Counts linked Sessions, only where Status is AcceptedA count with a condition: only linked sessions whose Status is Accepted.
Name key	Formula	`LOWER(TRIM({Name}))`For the Duplicates view.

Views

GallerySpeaker wallHeadshots and bios for the website team.Card cover: Headshot · Fields: Company, Accepted talks · Filter: Accepted talks > 0
GridDuplicatesChecked monthly: the same person under two records gets merged by hand.Group: Name key · Sort: Name

Sample records (4)

Sample records in Speakers
Name	Email	Company	Headshot	Sessions	Pitches	Accepted talks	Name key
Mara Okafor	mara@tidewell.example	Tidewell Logistics	mara-okafor.jpg	Supplier scorecards suppliers actually like	1	1	mara okafor
Jun Watanabe	jun@ferncastle.example	Ferncastle Foods	jun-watanabe.jpg	Closing the books in three days, Running a repair café at work	2	1	jun watanabe
Ana Lima	ana.lima@northrow.example	Northrow Apparel	ana-lima.jpg	Hiring operations people who stay, Packaging returns without the waste	2	1	ana lima
Tomas Berg	tomas@gridleaf.example	Gridleaf Energy		Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on, Carbon accounting for small teams	2	1	tomas berg

Dates are from the sample week; the simulator moves them to the week you are in.

Events10 fields · 2 views · 3 sample records

The summit and each workshop. Shared out to the marketing base as a synced table.

Fields in Events
Field	Type	Set up as
Nameprimary	Single line text
Starts	Date
Ends	Date
City	Single select	Portland · Seattle · Boise
Status	Single select	Planning · Open for pitches · Program locked · Done
Producer	User
Sessions	Link to another record	Links to Sessions; the other side of Sessions › Event
Accepted sessions	Count	Counts linked Sessions, only where Status is Accepted
Slides received	Count	Counts linked Sessions, only where Status is Accepted and Slides status is Received
Days to go	Formula	`DATETIME_DIFF({Starts}, TODAY(), 'days')`

Views

TimelineSeasonThe year at a glance; the view the marketing base syncs.Start: Starts · End: Ends · Group: City
GridOpen for pitchesLimits the form’s Event picker.Filter: Status is Open for pitches

Sample records (3)

Sample records in Events
Name	Starts	Ends	City	Status	Producer	Sessions	Accepted sessions	Slides received	Days to go
Workshop day · Seattle	3/12/2026	3/12/2026	Seattle	Program locked	Dev Castillo	Supplier scorecards suppliers actually like, Closing the books in three days, Hiring operations people who stay, Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on	4	1	10
Workshop day · Portland	4/16/2026	4/16/2026	Portland	Open for pitches	Dev Castillo		0	0	45
Brightwater Summit 2026	5/20/2026	5/21/2026	Portland	Open for pitches	Dev Castillo	Packaging returns without the waste, Running a repair café at work, Carbon accounting for small teams	0	0	79

Dates are from the sample week; the simulator moves them to the week you are in.

Tasks7 fields · 2 views · 5 sample records

What has to happen before a session is on stage. Created by automation 02.

Fields in Tasks
Field	Type	Set up as
Taskprimary	Single line text
Session	Link to another record	Links to Sessions
Event	Lookup	Looks up Session › Event
Type	Single select	Slides · Travel · Room setup
Owner	User
Due	Date
Done	Checkbox

Views

GridOpen by ownerThe team’s stand-up list.Filter: Done is unchecked · Group: Owner · Sort: Due, earliest first
CalendarTask calendarDeadlines by day.Date field: Due · Filter: Done is unchecked · Color: Type

Sample records (5)

Sample records in Tasks
Task	Session	Event	Type	Owner	Due	Done
Slides · Supplier scorecards suppliers actually like	Supplier scorecards suppliers actually like	Workshop day · Seattle	Slides	Hannah Lee	3/5/2026
Slides · Closing the books in three days	Closing the books in three days	Workshop day · Seattle	Slides	Hannah Lee	3/5/2026
Slides · Hiring operations people who stay	Hiring operations people who stay	Workshop day · Seattle	Slides	Hannah Lee	3/5/2026	✓
Travel · Tomas Berg	Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on	Workshop day · Seattle	Travel	Dev Castillo	2/10/2026	✓
Room setup · Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on	Heat pumps for warehouses, hands on	Workshop day · Seattle	Room setup	Marcus Webb	3/5/2026

Dates are from the sample week; the simulator moves them to the week you are in.

Interfaces

Program

The team as editors. Two advisory-board reviewers are invited to the interface only, so they see the pitches to score and nothing else in the base.

Review queue Record reviewReviewers read one pitch at a time and score it.Source: Sessions where Status is In review · Fields: Title, Abstract, Format, Track, Event, Headshot · Editable: Score · Buttons: Accept (sets Status to Accepted), Decline (sets Status to Declined)
Event dashboard DashboardDev’s view of each event’s readiness.Filter: Event (picker) · Number: Accepted sessions · Number: Slides received · Bar chart: Sessions by Track · Grid: Missing slides · next 14 days
My tasks ListEach person’s own open tasks.Source: Tasks where Owner is the current user and Done is unchecked · Group: Due · Editable: Done

Sync

Events synced out to Brightwater Marketing. The Season view is shared as a sync source. The marketing base syncs it as a read-only table, so campaign dates follow the event dates without anyone retyping them.

The system

Three automations, one way of working

Each automation does one job. The line with the lightning bolt on each card is its trigger: a form, a record that starts to match, a field that changes, or a schedule. Pick a card to open that automation below.

01New pitchWhen a form is submittedPitch sent → speaker matched, thanked, team told
02Pitch acceptedWhen a record matches conditionsAccepted → tasks for slides, travel and room
03Monday slides chaseAt a scheduled timeEvery Monday → one digest and one nudge per speaker

Live demo

Fill in the base’s form yourself

This is the base’s form view. Fill it in and press Submit. Use any name and a made-up email: nothing is sent or stored. Then press Watch the automation run, which appears once you submit, to see every step automation 01 · New pitch takes on your record, what it writes to the base and what each person would receive.

How the form is set up in Airtable, and the settings that matter.

How it is set up (4 notes for builders)

A form view on SessionsEach answer goes straight into a field of a new Sessions record. Fields the public should not see, like Status and Score, are simply not on the form.
Linked-record picker, limited to a viewEvent is a link field. On the form its picker is limited to the Events view “Open for pitches”, so locked events cannot be chosen.
Required fields and help textRequired fields are set on the form, not the table, so the team can still add a half-finished pitch by hand. Field descriptions show under each question.
Prefilled linksThe website’s “Pitch for Portland” button opens the form with ?prefill_Event=Workshop%20day%20%C2%B7%20Portland, so the event is chosen already.

The automations

Pick an automation, pick a test event, press Run

Each tab below is one automation. Read The problem and What I built for the short version. Then pick a test event and press Run automation: the log lists every step in order, with the time it ran and what it changed in the base, and the editor ticks off each step as it runs.

For Airtable builders: the simulator follows Airtable’s rules. A “matches conditions” trigger fires only when a record starts to match; a conditional group runs the first branch whose conditions are met, or its Otherwise branch; a repeating group runs once per item; either group is the last step, since nothing can follow it in Airtable; computed and synced fields cannot be written; and a failed action stops the run without undoing earlier steps. This case has 26 steps across its automations, triggers included. New to the words? Open the decoder.

01 · Form → matched, thanked, posted

New pitch

Every pitch is tied to one speaker record, answered in a minute, and in front of the team on Slack.

The problem

Pitches came in through a survey tool and sat in a spreadsheet. People who pitched twice showed up as two strangers, nobody knew a pitch had arrived until someone looked, and speakers waited weeks without hearing a word.

What I built

The pitch form is an Airtable form on the Sessions table. When it is sent, the automation looks for the speaker by email. A conditional group then takes one of two branches: for a new speaker it creates the speaker record and links the pitch to it; otherwise it links the pitch to the speaker already there. Either way the pitch moves into review, the speaker is thanked, and the pitch is posted to the team’s #program channel.

Automations /01 · New pitchOn

Trigger: When a form is submitted
Failure emails to: Marcus Webb

The automation as it reads in Airtable’s editor. Each step gets a green tick when the run reaches it; branches that did not run fade. Open a step for its settings.

TriggerWhen a form is submitted
Runs once for each pitch sent through the form. A record typed into the grid by hand does not start it.
Settings
Table
Sessions
Form
Call for speakers
Action · Find recordsIs this speaker already in the base?
Looks in Speakers for a record with the email from the form.
Settings
Table
Speakers
Find records based on
Condition
Condition
Email is Trigger › Speaker email
Conditional group2 branches
Runs the first branch whose conditions are met, or Otherwise. Nothing comes after it.
If · New speakerFind records › Records is empty
1. Action · Create recordAdd the new speaker
  Creates the speaker from the form’s answers, headshot included.
  Settings
  Table
  Speakers
  Name
  Trigger › Speaker name
  Email
  Trigger › Speaker email
  Company
  Trigger › Company
  Headshot
  Trigger › Headshot
2. Action · Update recordLink the pitch to the new speaker
  Links the pitch to its speaker by record ID and moves it into review.
  Settings
  Table
  Sessions
  Record ID
  Trigger › Airtable record ID
  Speaker
  Create record › Airtable record ID
  Status
  In review
3. Action · Send emailThank the speaker
  A plain note from the program team, with a real person to reply to.
  Settings
  To
  Trigger › Speaker email
  From name
  Brightwater Program
  Reply to
  hannah@brightwatersummits.example
  Subject
  We have your pitch: “Trigger › Title”
4. Action · Send a Slack messageTell the team
  Posts the pitch to #program with a link to the record.
  Settings
  Slack account
  Brightwater (connected by Marcus)
  Channel
  #program
  Message
  New pitch for Trigger › Event: “Trigger › Title” · Trigger › Format, Trigger › Track · Trigger › Speaker name, Trigger › Company
5. End of branch
Otherwise · Returning speaker
1. Action · Update recordLink the pitch to the existing speaker
  Links the pitch to its speaker by record ID and moves it into review.
  Settings
  Table
  Sessions
  Record ID
  Trigger › Airtable record ID
  Speaker
  Find records › Records › Airtable record ID
  Status
  In review
2. Action · Send emailThank the speaker
  A plain note from the program team, with a real person to reply to.
  Settings
  To
  Trigger › Speaker email
  From name
  Brightwater Program
  Reply to
  hannah@brightwatersummits.example
  Subject
  We have your pitch: “Trigger › Title”
3. Action · Send a Slack messageTell the team
  Posts the pitch to #program with a link to the record.
  Settings
  Slack account
  Brightwater (connected by Marcus)
  Channel
  #program
  Message
  New pitch for Trigger › Event: “Trigger › Title” · Trigger › Format, Trigger › Track · Trigger › Speaker name, Trigger › Company
4. End of branch

Pick a test event

A first-time speakerRafael has never pitched before: a speaker record is created and linked.A speaker who has pitched beforeMara spoke in Seattle; her new pitch links to her existing record, and her count goes up.The Slack connection has expiredThe pitch is linked and the speaker thanked; only the Slack post fails, and Marcus hears about it.

Tue Mar 3, 10:42:00 AMNot started

Pick a test event above, then press Run automation. Each line is one step, with the time it ran; open Base changes to see every field it wrote, and every lookup, rollup and formula that changed with it. Emails and Slack messages are shown as they would arrive.

Build notes

The detail an Airtable builder would check before trusting this automation. Start with What if… for the unusual cases in plain words. Words you may not know

Two pitches from a new speaker a minute apartRuns can overlap, so both can find no speaker and create two. The Speakers view “Duplicates”, grouped by a LOWER(TRIM(Name)) formula, shows them; Marcus merges them monthly.
A second pitch from a different addressA personal address instead of a work one does not match, so a second speaker record is made. The same Duplicates view catches it by name.
Slack is disconnectedThe run stops at the Slack step and shows as Failed in the run history. The record and the email are not undone. Airtable emails Marcus, who reconnects Slack; the missed post is in the Review queue anyway.
Someone types a pitch into the gridNothing runs, by design: only form submissions start this automation. Pitches taken by phone go through the form too.
A pitch for an event that just closedThe form’s Event picker reads the Events view “Open for pitches”. When Dev sets an event to Program locked, it disappears from the picker for the next visitor.

Fields the automation reads or writes
Table	Field	How it is used
Sessions	`Speaker email`	Matched against Speakers › Email.
Sessions	`Speaker`	Set by record ID, from Create record or Find records.
Sessions	`Status`	Set to In review, which puts the pitch in the Review queue interface.
Speakers	`Name, Email, Company, Headshot`	Filled from the form when the speaker is new.
Speakers	`Pitches`	A count of linked sessions, quoted in the Slack post.

Failure emails go to Marcus Webb, who owns the automation. Each run is kept in the automation’s Run history with what every step received and returned.

Airtable features in this build

Form view
When a form is submitted
Find records
Conditional group with Otherwise
Create record
Update record
Link to another record
Count field
Send email
Send a Slack message

Case study 2 · Equipment rental (film and video)

Kestrel Grip & Lighting

Kestrel rents cameras, lenses, lights and grip to film and TV productions around Atlanta. Every piece of gear has an asset tag, and the warehouse crew of five checks it out and back in. The problems were the expensive kind: a light with a frayed cable went back on the shelf because the note about it was on a whiteboard; the warehouse ran out of gaffer tape mid-week; and twice a year two productions turned up for the same light. The base tracks the assets, bookings, repairs and supplies, with the vendor list synced in from the finance team’s base.

Tables: 6
Fields: 58
Automations: 3
Test events: 9
Where: Atlanta, Georgia

The sample team

Rosa Delgado Owner
Andre Mills Rental desk lead
Kim Tran Warehouse and repairs
Jordan Price Operations (owns the base)

How the base is set up

One base, “Kestrel Inventory”, on the Team plan. The rental desk and the owner edit it; the warehouse crew are interface-only collaborators who count, check in and report damage from a tablet without seeing prices. Vendors come in as a synced table from the finance base, so there is one list of approved vendors and their addresses.

Airtable formAirtable automationsInterfacesScriptingSynced tableSlack

Kestrel Grip & Lighting is a fictional business. The people, productions, gear, prices and links are samples.

The base
The system
The form
The automations

The base

Kestrel Inventory: 6 tables, linked

Assets › Vendor → Vendors Bookings › Assets → Assets Maintenance › Asset → Assets Supplies › Vendor → Vendors Purchase orders › Supply → Supplies

Loading the tables…

Interfaces

Warehouse

The warehouse crew, invited as interface-only collaborators: they count, check in and report damage, and never see prices or client details.

Returns today ListThe check-in bench’s list.Source: Bookings where Return is today and Status is Out · Fields: Booking, Assets · Button: Mark returned (sets Status to Returned)
Count supplies Record reviewMonday and Thursday counts on the tablet.Source: Supplies, sorted by Item · Editable: On hand · Shown: Reorder point
Report damage FormThe same fields as the Damage report form, inside the interface.Creates a Maintenance record · Fields: Asset, Issue, Severity, Details, Photos, Reported by

Owner

Rosa and Jordan.

Repairs and spend DashboardWhere repair money goes.Number: Open repairs (sum) · Bar chart: Repair spend by Category · Grid: Replace, don’t repair · Number: Open POs total

Sync

Vendors synced in from Kestrel Finance. One-way sync of the finance base’s “Approved vendors” view. The finance team owns vendor details; here they are read-only, and links from Assets and Supplies point at the synced records.

The system

Three automations, one way of working

01Damage reportWhen a form is submittedDamage reported → off the shelf, vendor asked, desk warned
02Reorder suppliesWhen a record matches conditionsCount drops → purchase order and vendor email
03Nightly conflict checkAt a scheduled timeEvery night → double bookings flagged

Live demo

Fill in the base’s form yourself

This is the base’s form view. Fill it in and press Submit. Use any name and a made-up email: nothing is sent or stored. Then press Watch the automation run, which appears once you submit, to see every step automation 01 · Damage report takes on your record, what it writes to the base and what each person would receive.

Loading the form…

How the form is set up in Airtable, and the settings that matter.

How it is set up (4 notes for builders)

A form on MaintenanceEach report is a new Maintenance record. Status, Cost and the vendor lookups are not on the form; the automation and the repair board handle those.
Asset picker limited to a viewAsset is a link field. Its picker reads the Assets view “Active assets”, so retired gear cannot be reported, and the asset tag is the primary field, so typing the tag finds it.
Photos as attachmentsThe real form has a Photos attachment field; the crew take pictures on the tablet. This demo leaves it out because nothing you pick here is uploaded.
The same form in an interfaceThe Warehouse interface has a Form page with the same fields, so interface-only crew can report damage without access to the base.

The automations

Pick an automation, pick a test event, press Run

For Airtable builders: the simulator follows Airtable’s rules. A “matches conditions” trigger fires only when a record starts to match; a conditional group runs the first branch whose conditions are met, or its Otherwise branch; a repeating group runs once per item; either group is the last step, since nothing can follow it in Airtable; computed and synced fields cannot be written; and a failed action stops the run without undoing earlier steps. This case has 19 steps across its automations, triggers included. New to the words? Open the decoder.

01 · Report → pulled, quoted, desk warned

Damage report

A damaged light is off the shelf the second it is reported, the repair shop has the details, and the desk knows which jobs it affects.

The problem

Damage was written on a whiteboard at the check-in bench. A light with a frayed cable went out to a set because nobody had changed its status, repair quotes waited until Kim had time to write an email, and the desk learned a booked item was broken when the client came to pick it up.

What I built

The crew report damage on an Airtable form at the bench. The automation sets the asset to In repair straight away, so it cannot be booked. Then one conditional group branches on severity. Unsafe: email the asset’s repair vendor for a quote, and run a short script to find bookings in the next week that include the item and post them to the desk’s Slack channel. Major: just the quote request. Otherwise, for minor damage: onto Kim’s repair board.

Loading the editor, simulator and build notes…

Case study 3 · Recruiting (finance and operations roles)

Larkspur Talent

Larkspur places controllers, FP&A managers and operations leaders with mid-size companies, about 30 placements a year. Its pipeline lived in a spreadsheet per role, so a candidate who applied twice was two strangers, stage emails were typed fresh each time, and the fee for a placement was worked out from a calculator when Leo remembered to invoice. The base links clients, roles, candidates, applications and placements, so a fee is computed the moment someone is placed and rolls up to the client.

Tables: 5
Fields: 61
Automations: 3
Test events: 10
Where: Denver, Colorado; clients across the Mountain West

The sample team

Nadia Hassan Founder and senior recruiter
Owen Fitch Recruiter
Grace Kim Recruiting coordinator
Leo Marsh Operations and billing (owns the base)

How the base is set up

One base, “Larkspur Desk”, on the Team plan. Recruiters work from a Kanban interface page; Leo works from a billing dashboard. The public apply form is an Airtable form opened from each role’s own link, with the role filled in and hidden.

Airtable formAirtable automationsInterfacesScriptingSlack

Larkspur Talent is a fictional business. The people, clients, roles, salaries, fees and links are samples.

The base
The system
The form
The automations

The base

Larkspur Desk: 5 tables, linked

Roles › Client → Clients Applications › Role → Roles Applications › Candidate → Candidates Placements › Application → Applications

Loading the tables…

Interfaces

Desk

The recruiters and Grace, as editors.

Pipeline KanbanWhere stages are moved, which is what starts automation 02.Source: Applications, stacked by Stage · Filter: Role (picker) · Record detail: Resume, Cover note, LinkedIn, Days in stage, Send decline
My roles ListEach recruiter’s own searches.Source: Roles where Recruiter is the current user and Status is Open · Fields: Active candidates, Days open, Apply link

Billing

Leo and Nadia.

Fees DashboardInvoices and cash.Number: Fee, sum, where Invoice status is To invoice · Bar chart: Fees placed by Client · Grid: Invoices over 30 days · Button on each row: Mark paid (sets Invoice status to Paid)

The system

Three automations, one way of working

01New applicationWhen a form is submittedApplies → one candidate record, acknowledged
02Stage changesWhen a record is updatedStage moves → the email that stage needs
03Guarantee check-insAt a scheduled timeEvery morning → check-ins and overdue invoices

Live demo

Fill in the base’s form yourself

This is the base’s form view. Fill it in and press Submit. Use any name and a made-up email: nothing is sent or stored. Then press Watch the automation run, which appears once you submit, to see every step automation 01 · New application takes on your record, what it writes to the base and what each person would receive.

Loading the form…

How the form is set up in Airtable, and the settings that matter.

How it is set up (3 notes for builders)

One form for every roleRole is a link field, filled in and hidden by each role’s Apply link (prefill_Role and hide_Role=true), so one form serves every search.
Resume uploadThe real form has a Resume attachment field. The demo leaves it out because nothing is uploaded here.
The candidate is not on the formForms create one record in one table. The applicant’s details land on the Application; the automation’s script links or creates the Candidate.

The automations

Pick an automation, pick a test event, press Run

For Airtable builders: the simulator follows Airtable’s rules. A “matches conditions” trigger fires only when a record starts to match; a conditional group runs the first branch whose conditions are met, or its Otherwise branch; a repeating group runs once per item; either group is the last step, since nothing can follow it in Airtable; computed and synced fields cannot be written; and a failed action stops the run without undoing earlier steps. This case has 23 steps across its automations, triggers included. New to the words? Open the decoder.

01 · Form → one candidate, thanked

New application

However someone types their email, they end up as one candidate with every application they have made, and they hear back in a minute.

The problem

Each role had its own spreadsheet, so someone who applied for two roles, or came back a year later, was a stranger every time. “Jamie.Ortiz@” and “jamie.ortiz@” were two people. Applicants heard nothing until a recruiter got to them.

What I built

Every role has an Apply link that opens the Airtable form with the role filled in and hidden. When an application arrives, a short script looks the applicant up by email, ignoring capitals and spaces, links the application to the existing candidate or creates one, and reports whether they are returning. The applicant gets an acknowledgement, and a returning applicant is flagged to the desk on Slack.

Loading the editor, simulator and build notes…

Reliability

Built so the team can forget about it

A base that works in a demo is easy. One a team can rely on has to survive records moved back and forth, empty fields, outside connections that expire and people who rename things. These habits are in every case study. In plain words: each event is handled once, the rules are visible, nothing important waits on a fragile step, and nobody is emailed unless they need to act.

The rules live in views and formulas
Find records reads a view, not a copy of its filters, and dates and thresholds are formula fields. The team sees exactly what the automation will act on, and changing a rule is one edit in one place.
See Brightwater Summits 03 · Monday slides chase, Larkspur Talent 03 · Guarantee check-ins, Kestrel Grip & Lighting 02 · Reorder supplies
Every run fires once
“Matches conditions” fires when a record starts to match, so each one carries a guard the automation itself switches off: a Welcome sent box, an Open POs count, a Check-in sent box. Moving a record back and forth cannot repeat the work.
See Brightwater Summits 02 · Pitch accepted, Kestrel Grip & Lighting 02 · Reorder supplies, Larkspur Talent 03 · Guarantee check-ins
Links by record ID, never by name
Automations link records with the IDs that Find records, Create record or a script hand them. Two speakers called Ana, or a tag typed with a space, cannot link the wrong record.
See Brightwater Summits 01 · New pitch, Larkspur Talent 01 · New application, Kestrel Grip & Lighting 01 · Damage report
The important step first, the fragile one last
An action that fails stops the run but does not undo earlier steps. So the step that protects the business goes first (pull the damaged light), and the one that depends on an outside connection (Slack) goes last.
See Kestrel Grip & Lighting 01 · Damage report, Brightwater Summits 01 · New pitch
Quiet when nothing is wrong
Digests and alerts sit in a conditional group branch that needs a non-empty list or a count above zero. A Monday with every slide in, or a night with no double bookings, ends with a successful run and no email.
See Brightwater Summits 03 · Monday slides chase, Kestrel Grip & Lighting 03 · Nightly conflict check, Larkspur Talent 03 · Guarantee check-ins
Scripts only where actions fall short
Comparing every booking with every other, or matching an email whatever its capitals: these are scripts, short and commented, with inputs and outputs the next step reads. Everything a built-in action can do stays a built-in action.
See Kestrel Grip & Lighting 03 · Nightly conflict check, Larkspur Talent 01 · New application, Brightwater Summits 03 · Monday slides chase
One owner per fact
Vendor addresses come from the finance base through a sync, fees come from the client’s agreement through lookups, and nothing is typed twice. When a fact changes in its one home, every email that quotes it changes too.
See Kestrel Grip & Lighting 02 · Reorder supplies, Larkspur Talent 02 · Stage changes
People see what they need
Interface-only collaborators report damage and count stock without seeing prices; reviewers score pitches without seeing the rest of the base. Interfaces are the front door; the grid is for the people who maintain it.
See Kestrel Grip & Lighting 01 · Damage report, Brightwater Summits 01 · New pitch

Troubleshooting

What I check first when I inherit an Airtable base

Most fragile bases fail in the same few ways. This is the order I look in, and what I do about each.

Automations nobody ownsBuilt by someone who left, failing quietly, with failure emails going to an old inbox. I list every automation with its owner, last run and failures, and turn off the ones nobody can explain.
Text where a link should beClient names typed into a text field in five spellings. I add a linked table, match the text to it, and replace the field, so lookups and rollups can work.
Lookups used as numbersA lookup returns a list, so a formula that multiplies it gives odd results or errors. A rollup with SUM, MAX or MIN returns one value and fixes it.
“Record created” on a gridAn automation that fires the moment someone presses + and sends an email with empty fields. Form submissions get the form trigger; everything else gets “matches conditions” with the required fields in the conditions.
Triggers that fire twice“Matches conditions” automations with no guard, so a record moved back and forth sends everything again. I add a checkbox or a count to the conditions that the automation itself switches off.
One giant tableForty columns, half of them empty on any row, because two things were stored as one. I split them into linked tables and keep the old view working while people switch.
Everyone is a creatorField types changed by accident, views filtered for one person and broken for the rest. I narrow permissions, lock the views automations read, and give most people an interface instead.
Attachment links in emailsAirtable’s attachment URLs expire after a few hours, so emailed links break by the next day. The email points people to an interface page or the file is sent another way.

How I work

From a brief to a base the team trusts

Scope
What the base must answer, who uses it and how, which events need a person to hear about them. Written down before a field is made.
Model the data
Tables for things, links for relationships, one owner per fact. Sketched on paper first, with the views each person will live in.
Build on sample records
A dozen realistic records per table, so every lookup, rollup and formula is checked against data that looks like the real thing.
Break it on purpose
A form with half the answers, a record moved back and forth, a vendor with no email, a disconnected Slack: each test event on this page is one I would run before switching an automation on.
Switch on and hand off
Automations turned on one at a time, failure emails pointed at the owner. Then a short recorded walkthrough and a one-page guide: what each automation does, which views it reads, what never to rename.
Watch it
Run history checked daily in the first week, then monthly. Field and view changes go through the owner, because an automation reads them by name.

Naming, so the next person can find things

Tables: Sessions, Speakers: plural nouns for the things they hold
Fields: Slides due, not Date 2: automations and formulas refer to fields by name
Views: Missing slides · next 14 days: says what it shows, and a view an automation reads is never renamed casually
Automations: 02 · Pitch accepted: numbered in the order a record meets them

Hiring for Airtable, or need a base built?

I design, build, fix and document Airtable bases: the data model, the interfaces people work in, the automations around them, and the handoff so a team can run it. If you’re hiring for an operations or systems role or need this for your business, I’d like to hear about it.

Get in touch View resume Email me

9 Airtable automations for three businesses. Run every one yourself.

How to use this page

Are these real businesses?

Who built this

Brightwater Program: 4 tables, linked

Views

Views

Views

Views

Interfaces

Program

Sync

Three automations, one way of working

Fill in the base’s form yourself

Pick an automation, pick a test event, press Run

The problem

What I built

Build notes

The problem

What I built

The problem

What I built

Kestrel Inventory: 6 tables, linked

Interfaces

Warehouse

Owner

Sync

Three automations, one way of working

Fill in the base’s form yourself

Pick an automation, pick a test event, press Run

The problem

What I built

The problem

What I built

The problem

What I built

Larkspur Desk: 5 tables, linked

Interfaces

Desk

Billing

Three automations, one way of working

Fill in the base’s form yourself

Pick an automation, pick a test event, press Run

The problem

What I built

The problem

What I built

The problem

What I built

Built so the team can forget about it

The rules live in views and formulas

Every run fires once

Links by record ID, never by name

The important step first, the fragile one last

Quiet when nothing is wrong

Scripts only where actions fall short

One owner per fact

People see what they need

What I check first when I inherit an Airtable base

From a brief to a base the team trusts

Scope

Model the data

Build on sample records

Break it on purpose

Switch on and hand off

Watch it

Naming, so the next person can find things

Hiring for Airtable, or need a base built?