Create multiple records in one table after adding a new record in another

[Ben_Crouch]

I have a table with services
I have a table with the tasks associated with (linked to) services
I have a table for my sales.
I have a table for my deliverables

When I add a new record in my sales table and I pick the service that was associated with that sale, I also want it to lookup the tasks associated with that service, then create a separate record for each of the tasks that need to be delivered, in my deliverables table.

Any suggestions welcome please!

[Ben_Young1]

Hey @Ben_Crouch!

This should actually be a pretty straightforward solution!
I would recommend that you leverage an automation to accomplish this.

You’ll configure the trigger to fire when a new record is created in your Sales table.
At that point, you’ll want to set a few conditional layers to your automation configuration.

To keep it simple, you’ll want to create a conditional run path for each possible task that can be assigned to a given new service.
Then just map whatever tasks/fields you want to update!

[Hannah_Wiginton]

Hey Ben,

Here’s a start for you on how to do this in automations. You just need to add your lookup/rollup fields in combination with this method.

On2Air | Airtable Apps for Your Business Operations – 8 Sep 20

How to Automatically Add a Set of Tasks to Each New Project Using Airtable...

With Airtable Automations, you can create an automation to add a checklist set of tasks every time you create a new project. This automation will save you time and monotonous manual data entry.

[Ben_Crouch]

Hi Ben - neat suggestion but I don’t think it scales. I have over 100 services and each service has a unique set of tasks associated with it. I have a table which has the service and the tasks linked to it - but I can’t work out how to reference this in automations, especially in a way that creates multiple records each time based on the tasks associated

[Ben_Crouch]

Hi Hannah - I really appreciate the help, however I can’t make the link between the automation steps you’ve outlined and how to leverage those with my table of tasks associated with services, in order that the right new records are created each time a new service is added.

Each service can have multiple tasks associated with it. I’m missing the automation steps which effectively says to Airtable “keep creating new records, one for each task associated until you’re done”

to be clear, each service (I have about 100) has a unique set of tasks associated with completing it

[Hannah_Wiginton]

Hey Ben,

With that many, it would probably be better to use scripting.

Here are some starter scripts you can look at for what you need:

Creating Tasks from a Template Scripting app

Okay so I’ve got a list of pretty standard tasks every time I host an event, so I’d like to automatically add them to my task list for each new event I add to my table. Below I have my template of tasks. [Image 2020-03-10 at 6.43.56 PM] Using the scripting block, I’m able to choose which event I want to apply this template to. [Screen Recording 2020-03-10 at 06.47 PM] Take a peek at the script below (which borrows heavily from the Record Template example), and example base here! Would love…

Creating Projects/Tasks From Templates via Scripting Block Scripting app

A common theme we are seeing with project management bases is the desire to have project and task templates. When you create a new project, it can then generate the corresponding set of tasks, and maintain the basic details about those tasks, including the relationships and dependencies amongst those tasks. This is similar to Creating Tasks from a Template with a few differences. When creating projects, we often find we create a new record in our projects table, and then want to link it to a …

[Andrew_MacNeill]

Hannah, can I jump in to ask the follow up on this?

I have a record in one table which links to a series of tasks (that would specific to that record) and I want to add them all in. So this is similar to the above. The samples provided in the app are really simply linking the tasks themselves to the project but not really tracking the “completion” of the individual tasks.

With Automations, I can’t really have it add a bunch of new records from a View based on a standard list and link it to the new record. If I wanted to use Automations, I would have to do each record individually.

As a result, it would be better to use scripting.

Do I have that right? I was hoping to use Automation but got stuck.

[ScottWorld]

@Andrew_MacNeill No, you can use automations to link a found set of records all at once to a new record. I discuss doing that (in the context of email sending) in this video podcast:

[Andrew_MacNeill]

I understand I can link them to existing records but the scenario here is:

I have a table with a list of “standard” tasks. (Call it Task Types)
I have a table for Projects and Tasks. Tasks links to both Projects and Task Types but includes start/end dates.
I start a new project.
I want to create a new set of Tasks based on my standard tasks.

Is this the same scenario you cover?

The only way it seems I can do it in Automation would be to add a bunch of unlinked records into the Tasks table and THEN link those unlinked records to my new project.

[ScottWorld]

You are correct. Since you want to create duplicate tasks across different projects, that’s the only way to do it. Otherwise, the same task would be attached to multiple projects.

You could still use my approach in the video to get what you’re looking for, but it is a workaround and adds extra clutter to your base.

If you want no additional clutter, you would want to turn to scripting, or you could use a no-code tool that doesn’t require any scripting like Make.com.