Create Tasks in Separate Tab Issue

[Kristina_Beever]

I have a weird issue I’m not sure how to solve. I can’t seem to wrap my head around it. I have a base with three separate tabs. The first tab is for all project information, the second tab is for “due diligence” tasks, and the third tab is for billing. I’m using Zapier and linked fields to try to do the following:
When a new project is created, I want to trigger the creation of a list of tasks in the due diligence tab, and then a list of billing breakdowns in the billing tab. The list of tasks and billing breakdowns is the same for each project. I’ve set it up in Zapier and I’m running into a problem. I’ve tried it two different ways.

1. When the new record is created, I update the record so the linked field in the project tab is populated with all of the tasks. When I do this for more than one record though, it doesn’t create new records on the linked task, but instead keeps the same records, just linked to more than one project. I have it set up to group by project and then by task category on the due diligence tab, but it doesn’t matter because it is lumping all projects in the same column.
2. When the new record is created, I create a new record in the due diligence tab and link it back to the project. The problem I have here is that it creates a long list of tasks, separated by commas rather than separate rows.

I know there has to be a better/easier way to do this and I’m just completely missing it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! The only way I can figure is to create an individual zap for each task/billing item and have it create 37 new records.

[Justin_Barrett]

I’m not familiar enough with Zapier to offer any guidance on how to pull this off that way, but I know this can be done using Airtable’s built-in automation features. If you’re interested in exploring that option (and your base is in a Pro-plan workspace or higher), let us know. Otherwise I’ll let the Zapier-savvy folks speak to that side of things.

[Kristina_Beever]

This can be done without Zapier!? I would love to learn how to do that. The base is pro.

[Justin_Barrett · Accepted solution]

Absolutely! Here’s the core info on Airtable’s automation features.

Airtable - Support

Automations (Pro and Enterprise plans only)

Overview Automations allow you to configure custom trigger-action workflows directly within your Airtable base. This will allow you and your team to save time by automating repetitive tasks, increa...

Note the details at the bottom about automation limits. In your case, I’d pay special attention to the limit on automation actions, which is currently at 25. You mentioned adding 37 records, so you’ll need to use more than one automation (maybe one for due diligence, another for billing?).

In general, what you could do is trigger the automation when a new record is created. For the action steps, you could add one “Create record” action per record you want to add, and fill as many fields as you wish with default info. The last action in the automation would be an “Update record” action that links the new records from the previous steps to the triggering record.

[Kristina_Beever]

Thank you so much! I can’t believe I didn’t know this was an option. You will be saving me time and my client money.
There are 37 tasks, but each there are 10 categories for the tasks, so I think I can probably split them up into multiple automations. For the billing tab, there’s only 7 right now. So this should be pretty doable.
Thanks again!

[Justin_Barrett]

My pleasure! I’m glad that this could help you. Airtable’s own automation features are still not very widely known, mainly (guessing) because of its limitation to bases in Pro-plan workspaces, and because it’s still technically in active beta. However, I’ve been using it pretty heavily since it was first introduced, and it’s been immensely useful for lots of situations.

[Kristina_Beever]

It is amazing! This doesn’t entirely replace Zapier, but for what I need to do within Airtable, it certainly does. Thank you for telling me about it. This is just another reason I love Airtable, the wonderfully supportive community, and the user-driven developments. :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: