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Question

Lookup or Automation for Pulling Data Point from Previous Year

  • April 23, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 28 views
A

Good Morning, 

I am working on building a table where my daily sales data is entered, and that data point from this year can be compared to the same day of the week from the previous year. 

I am not a professional developer, so forgive me if my knowledge is at the beginner level. 

Currently, all of the data is populating correctly, but I have to manually enter in the SelfLink value. 
I have tried to create an automation for when a new record is created, however have been unsuccessful so far. 

Here is a screenshot of how the relevant points from the table are set up. 

My question is, do I need an automation, or is there a lookup field that I could enter into get the selflink field to automatically reference the corresponding day from the calendar week number of the previous year?

Any direction on how to correctly format either option is greatly appreciated. 

Thank you

3 replies

Mike_AutomaticN
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Hey ​@Atozier!

I’d highly suggest you look into Deep Match. It automatically links the record for you, based on certain context :D

Feel free to grab a slot using this link, I’d be happy to show you around in a few minutes.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

DisraeliGears01
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You’ll need an automation for this to create the record linkages… I’m presuming the “Self-Links” field is pointed at the same table and not a separate table right?

One thing necessary for what I came up with would be adding a simple formula exposing the recID as part of the record using the formula RECORD_ID(). For quick testing, the way I looked at handling this would be an automation, triggered on When Day/WeekKey is not empty. Then run the Find Records action looking for where Day/WeekKey is Day/WeekKey from trigger record and RecordIDFormula is not RecordIDFormula from trigger record (that way you don’t end up totally self referencing). Finally update the trigger record with the list of record IDs found in the Find Action in your SelfLink field.

In this quick test, Label=Day/WeekKey and Calculation=RecordIDFormula

The only potential issue this doesn’t account for is that it links every years records (so 2024, 2025, and 2026 would get connected). You could always use filters in your lookup/rollups to only display data from the one previous year though.

    TheTimeSavingCo
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    +1 for ​@DisraeliGears01 ‘s solution


    I’m thinking we could also add a formula field to calculate current year - 1 and use it in the ‘Find Record’ step to only grab the previous year maybe

    Adam, Airtable Consultant - thetimesaving.company
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