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Hi All.  What’s the best way to set up the automation below—either in Airtable’s native automations or in Make—to reliably populate the linked field with the Trade’s subcontractors (particularly struggling to get the list of record IDs), and avoid reseeding after manual edits?

Base: Dupl Construction Project https://airtable.com/invite/l?inviteId=invh3YFKHVkgkcl8h&inviteToken=ebe29e4b636f906f9bde46e9282074acf77e1634caac54dee00c188723eac427&utm_medium=email&utm_source=product_team&utm_content=transactional-alerts

The goal:  when a record is added/updated in the Subcontractor Review table and Related TRADE is set, auto-populate Selected SUBCONTRACTORS (link to Subcontractors, multiple) with all Subcontractors linked to that Trade. It should seed once (only when empty) and remain editable and continue to be linked to the Subcontractor table records to create quote requests from the selected Subcontractors (which may be different to the initial allocation) later.

What I’ve tried:

  • Airtable Automations (Find records → Update record)
  • Airtable with Script action
  • Make automation
  • Make.com webhook + update

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

The most reliable way to set up this automation is by using an Airtable Scripting automation. Native automations struggle to handle the list of record IDs and prevent reseeding after manual edits. The script, however, can first check if the Selected SUBCONTRACTORS field is empty, ensuring it only runs once. It Milestone Mastercard then finds all the subcontractors linked to the chosen trade, extracts their record IDs, and uses that list to accurately and reliably populate the linked field in a single, seamless step. 

What if you created a new checkbox field that’d log whether you’d run already seeded it?  I’ve set it up here for you to check out.  Thank you very much for providing a test base by the way!

 

The idea is create a checkbox field that get sticked when the automation runs, and as part of the automation's trigger that checkbox has to be unticked, and so the automation will:

  1. Tick the checkbox
  2. Look for all subcontractors linked to the selected Trade
  3. Paste those into the ‘Selected SUBCONTRACTORS’ linked field

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