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Automation help: Update value in overview table from corresponding records in 4 other tables

  • August 11, 2026
  • 6 replies
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I am trying to set up a more complex automation than I’ve done before and something is wrong but I can’t figure out what exactly.

The base has a workflow for tasks to onboard/offboard employees. There’s an overview table and then tables with sections of tasks. So each new hire shows up on all 5 tables. On the task tables, I’ve got a field that totals the completed tasks. I want that number to automatically (when updated) to be updated for the corresponding person on the overview table so that I can do an overarching completion percentage. 

I had the AI tool help me try to fix it, but now the wrong data (sometimes from the wrong record, sometimes from the wrong field) is getting copied over to the overview table.

Best answer by ScottWorld

​@Eleanor_C 

Unfortunately, your base is setup incorrectly. Once you setup your base properly, you won’t need to use any automations at all.

Your records in the overview table are actually not yet corresponding to the records in the other tables until you link them together.

To do this, you will need to use linked record fields to link your employees from the overview table to the other tables.

Then, back in your overview table, you can use lookup fields or rollup fields to automatically display the overview information that you’re looking for.

I have an old Airtable training course from many years ago that explains linked record fields and lookup fields in greater detail. (You can take the course for free by signing up for a 30-day free trial.)

Hope this helps!

If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the world’s best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

    6 replies

    TheTimeSavingCo
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    Hm, could you provide some screenshots of your tables?  Even better, if you could duplicate your base, put some example data in it and share that that’d be great!  That would make it a lot easier to help with troubleshooting
     

    I also do free half hour calls and would be happy to jump on and do a screenshare to get this sorted faster if you’d like, and you can grab a time here!

    Adam, Airtable Consultant - https://thetimesaving.company
    ScottWorld
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    • ScottWorld
    • Genius
    • Answer
    • August 12, 2026

    ​@Eleanor_C 

    Unfortunately, your base is setup incorrectly. Once you setup your base properly, you won’t need to use any automations at all.

    Your records in the overview table are actually not yet corresponding to the records in the other tables until you link them together.

    To do this, you will need to use linked record fields to link your employees from the overview table to the other tables.

    Then, back in your overview table, you can use lookup fields or rollup fields to automatically display the overview information that you’re looking for.

    I have an old Airtable training course from many years ago that explains linked record fields and lookup fields in greater detail. (You can take the course for free by signing up for a 30-day free trial.)

    Hope this helps!

    If you have a budget and you’d like to hire the world’s best Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else that is Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld

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    • Eleanor_C
    • Author
    • New Participant
    • August 12, 2026

    Thank you! Lookup fields seems to do it! I already had linked record fields for other purposes, so this is perfect.

     

    Thanks!

    ScottWorld
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    • ScottWorld
    • Genius
    • August 12, 2026

    You’re welcome! Glad I could help! :)

    - ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

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    • marta
    • New Participant
    • August 15, 2026

    This is a really common pattern, and the good news is there's a cleaner way than trying to keep 5 tables in sync manually.

    Instead of pushing the completion number up to the overview table, try flipping it: linked-record rollups. If the overview record is linked to the employee's task records in the other tables, you can use a Rollup field (or a lookup + formula) on the overview table to SUM the completed-task counts from all of them at once. No automation needed for the numbers themselves, and it eliminates the wrong-record/wrong-field copying you're seeing.

    The AI-tool copying issue you hit usually comes from the automation updating the wrong record because the trigger/find-records step is picking the wrong link. Rollups sidestep that whole class of bug.

    If you want to keep the push approach, the fix is to make sure your 'find records' step keys off the employee link (record ID), not a name or a copied field — otherwise the wrong person's row gets updated. I build these onboarding/offboarding flows fairly often, happy to sketch the linked-table design if useful.

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    • marta
    • New Participant
    • August 16, 2026

    This is a classic rollup aggregation problem, and it sounds like the AI tool left you with a broken copy step. Here is the cleanest way to think about it: instead of copying the completed-task count over with an automation, use a native Rollup field on the Overview table that targets the linked records in each task table (COUNT or SUM of the completed flag). That way the number always reflects the source of truth and you will never get the wrong record or wrong field copied over again.

    If you need a single combined percentage across all 5 task tables, the tidy approach is to add a rollup in each task table and then sum those rollups on the Overview table (rollups of rollups work). If you do keep an automation-based sync instead, make sure the Find Records / Update Record step is keyed strictly off the linked person record, and use the "When a record is updated" trigger scoped to the specific field that changes, otherwise you will keep seeing cross-record bleed.

    Happy to walk through the exact field setup if you share a screenshot of the automation steps and the rollup config. This is very solvable with the right structure.

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