Skip to main content

I'm having an issue I hope someone can help me with.

I have one table that I fill out myself with an applicant's basic contact info, including an ID number and their email address, and that I then use to track the Status of their project (projects can last from six months to multiple years). Once I set the Status of their project to "New," I have an automation set up so the contact receives an email with a link to a form to fill out with more detailed contact info that is used manually populate an invoice (my work uses a separate system for invoicing). I created a different table for the form, since a) the detailed contact info is only needed for the manual process, b) I don't want to clutter up the main table with this detailed contact info, and c) it's easier to create a form with a nice separate table vs. using only certain cells from another table.

The issue that I'm running into now is how to make these two tables talk to each other. When the person submits the form with the detailed contact info, I would like the Status to automatically update in the project tracking table to show that they have submitted the form.

What are some suggestions? I ask them to include their ID number when they're filling out the form, but I haven't figured out a way to sync the ID number in the detailed contact info table with the ID number in the project tracking table.

You could create an automation that searches for their record in the original table based on their email address or ID number, and then update the record that was found in the original table.

However, an even better & easier solution for you may be to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable. Fillout is 100% free and it offers hundreds of advanced features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records from a form, display Airtable lookup fields & Airtable rollup fields & Airtable attachments & formulas on forms, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, and much more.

So in your case, you wouldn’t need to have a separate table for collecting form submissions. You would just need your one applicants table.

Fillout would give you a formula that you add to your table, and that formula gives you a unique form link for every applicant in your base.

You would then send that unique form link to the applicant, and they can update their existing record using a form.

Hope this helps!

— ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant 

Hmm, try creating an automation that triggers when the form's submitted and looks for a Project with that ID.  If it finds one, link it to the new form submission.  If it finds more than one or zero, get it to email you to tell you someone typoed their project ID

Link to base

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement