Automation to create new records only if condition does not exist

[jord8on]

https://videos.pickleball.ist/conversations/31657156-59b7-5196-9007-377d0b5a1ac8

Video until 1:40 shows the context of what we’re trying to accomplish. After 1:40, shows the details of how we tried to set up our automation.

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We already have a “Zap” set up through “Pabbly Connect” where all new orders create a new record in our ORDERS table. We want a Airtable automation that looks at the records in our PLAYERS table and checks to see if the user that created the order, already exists (based on the phone number being the unique identifier).

Consider that phone numbers have been entered in a variety of formats.

Please see the linked video to see exactly how we’ve set up the automation… but we can’t get it to work.

Any suggestions?

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hmm, your automation in the video looks fine to me; I may be missing something though.

Could you create a read-only link and DM me it so I can try to troubleshoot it?

I only need the Players and Orders table, as well as maybe two example phone numbers, so please feel free to delete everything else

[kuovonne]

Did you retest your trigger after you added or changed the formula field? If not, you need to retest the trigger.

Does the formula field give the result you want?

Did you use the same formula field in both the [ORDERS] table and the [PLAYERS] table? And are you doing the matching on the formula fields?

[jord8on · Accepted solution]

I’ve stripped all the content from my original base and created this one that you could take a look at…

Airtable

Automation: Create new record (user), if they don't already exist - Airtable

The intent of this database is to illustrate how you can create a new record in TABLE 1 by first searching a unique identifier (i.e., phone) to see if one already exists, using Airtable Automation tool. If there is not a current record in TABLE 1,...

@kuovonne nailed my problem when she asked…

kuovonne:

Did you retest your trigger after you added or changed the formula field? If not, you need to retest the trigger.

I have since gone back and updated my automation in my real base, and in this example base (linked above, for community reference) and it’s now working.

Before (not working)

After (working)