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Hi!
I'm trying to populate new records based on existing data and I'd prefer not to create a new table. Is this possible via an automation? Here's the use case:

1. We receive letters from prisons across the country. When we have not previously received a letter from that facility, a user submits a form with the new facility and selects a state value from a dropdown menu that matches their facility (ex: AK)

2. Prison policies are the same across states (all prisons in Alaska have the same length restrictions, for example), so I want to avoid the form-submitter from having to do the research again. Instead, I would like to use an automation to populate the fields with the existing data while allowing for the data in the field to be amended in case a facility in a state has slight variations.

In this view, Spring Creek Correctional already existed and I submitted the Test facility for automation via a form. I'd like the filled out information from Spring Creek Correctional to populate in that new record- the locator, length restrictions, etc, and then be able to add information like "Person at <test facility for automation> reports that print outs must be single-sided."

I feel like I should be able to do this using "find records" and using the value from the found record, but I'm having trouble executing.

Thanks!

Hmm, as long as your Find Record step only ever finds a single record, what you mentioned should work just fine.  To make it only ever find one record, you could add a checkbox field called 'Template' or some such and make sure only one record for each state has that checkbox ticked

Your automation would then be:
1. Form submitted
2. Find record action that looks for records from your table that have the same state and have that checkbox ticked
3. Update record action that updates the triggering record with the data from step 2

@PLSN 

A much easier, quicker, and better way of doing this would be to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable, which allows you to use all sorts of advanced Airtable capabilities on your forms.

For example, you can have it autofill text fields with the values of Airtable lookup fields, Airtable rollup fields, and formulas… and then the user can change that data if they need to make a variation to the data.

Once they submit the form, all of that data goes into Airtable exactly like you want.

p.s. If you need to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with this or anything else, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable Consultant — ScottWorld

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